In their creative work “Location: San Francisco” (Reclaiming San Francisco, p. 151), Marina McDougall and Hope Mitnick write about people searching to penetrate the façade of a city and experience what it truly is to be in part of the city life. They ask a provocative question: “What happens to this quest when the façade is indistinguishable from the real thing?”
This question is somewhat new to me since I don’t have much of a personal involvement with San Francisco’s culture. I admit that I was always of those people who associates the Transamerica Pyramid, Golden Gate Bridge, and lots of homeless people with San Francisco, and not much else. Only in recent years have I even considered something beyond those images. This is proof that the façade of the city is often conflated with its true identity.
The true consequences of this phenomenon are far-reaching. A wealth of forgotten history and lessons, as well as the lives of countless contributors, is forgotten when a city’s identity is lost. This is a chronic problem in America. We romanticize our own heritage until we forget what really happened. This is true of gold mining, meeting with Native Americans, writing and ratifying the Constitution, and hundreds of other events; we mythologize them for social or economic benefit until any true life is forgotten. It paints a nice, comfortable picture of America for schoolchildren, but the collective population cannot forget the truth.
Losing a city’s identity is just as important as remembering the realities of historical events. Cities are living, breathing organisms with all types of people living in them. San Francisco has drawn significant attention to its artists and tradesmen in the past, helping to keep its culture alive. There are also people who lived San Francisco’s social life and remember it for us. We must make sure that its façade never replaces its true identity, or we will lose priceless culture and history. We have to refrain from mythologizing San Francisco out of existence.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I also found the article on San Francisco’s “theme-park thinking” (154) an interesting way to address an issue that happens with many historic cities and landmarks all across the world. While it is frustrating to think that the true stories and culture are being lost beneath these inaccurate, is it even avoidable? As soon as the people that have lived in an era are lost to time, the existance of that history naturally becomes a story. Is it really possible for these legacies to be anything other than mythologies? The information we have about the ancient Greeks, or even more recently, the Gold Rush naturally becomes little presents of stories and facts all tied up in bows. Without living through that time it is inpossible to ever be able to distinguish between the stories we tell now and the truth.
Another thing to consider is the ever changing nature of the world. Cities do not remain the same, and when a beautiful building or landmark is erected, it is not necessarily a bastardization and corruption of that city. Buildings are built, and they crumble, and they are built again. I would imagine that even the residents of San Francisco think that monuments like the Golden Gate and the Mission Dolores to be beautiful. Such things were not built for tourists alone.
Post a Comment