“Experiencing” culture is what tourists do. Nobody “experiences” culture or collects cultural experiences for Instagram posts where they live. America is the best place to live culture and produce culture. I’ve spent all day today reading Chirbes, taking notes, walking around and thinking about what I read, looking up the references that the writer gives in his book. I’m paid to do pretty much only this until January.
To live and create culture, you need material conditions and a certain way of life. I live in a small American college town. Everything closes by 10 p.m. There is nothing to distract me from culture.
Clarissa's Blog 
““Experiencing” culture is what tourists do”
I think the poster has a point. Some years ago a lot of Polish students did summer work in the US and part of the deal was a couple of free weeks at the end. Most wanted to see lots of places and some asked my advice. I always said: “Forget about trying to see a bunch of tourists spots, you’ll spend days on a bus (or too much on flights) and most of the place will not be interesting. Really focus on the area you’re on and see what’s going on, you’ll learn a lot more about American life and maybe be surprised at what you find.” Almost none of them did that…
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People seem to think that culture means buildings. I love buildings but most of the human culture is word-based, image-based, and sound-based. In America, you are never far away from good music, paintings and books.
It’s true that there’s no architecture from before 1700s. But there’s a ton of everything else.
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Europe has a grander cultural history, which makes sense because they have been around longer. But that says very little in terms of current cultural production. Ethiopia has a rich history as well, where are they now?
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There was definitely nothing here before the English settlers came: a few mounds, a few arrowheads, but nothing anybody would refer to as culture. It’s true. We know that it’s true. I have no idea why one would find it interesting to keep harping on this extremely well-known fact. What is fascinating is not that there was no culture without the English but how amazingly fast they managed to create a really outstanding culture where there used to be nothing.
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Europeans like to harp on this extremely well known fact because if they don’t, they have no particular basis on which to claim superiority to Americans and it hurts their ego.
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People seem to think capitalism is 19th century British manufacturing, when in reality it was created in 17th century Holland.
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This is my *favorite* way to travel. Why exhaust yourself trying to see all the things in the tour books? It can’t compare to settling in for a while, talking to the neighbors, figuring out how to use the bus system, buying foods in banana leaves just to open them and find out what they are, going to the post office and to church, becoming a regular at the cafe around the corner. Third class train tickets are the BEST train tickets. In first class, everybody minds their own business. In third class, everyone wants to talk to you and you end up eating a picnic lunch with ten people you just met.
Do tourist things when your friends insist on dragging you there: letting yourself be dragged around to what other people think is worth seeing is itself enjoyable. The very best tour guide I ever had was a six-year-old girl in VN, some cousin or niece of our hosts, who appointed herself to the job. She had a fake pearl necklace and sequined handbag and an air of authority. She took my camera and disappeared with it for an hour. When she returned, it had pictures of her new baby sister. We printed them and mailed them to her when we got home. She dragged me all around town and out into the rice paddies. We visited all her aunties, all the best roadside fruit trees, and all the shrines she felt were notable, often with two or three of her young cousins in tow (older than she was, but she was clearly in charge), and a red parasol she considered indispensable. She didn’t speak a word of English, and I’m not sure she ever understood any of my halting Viet. And this was SO MUCH FUN. Better than a hundred Eiffel towers.
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