Misc. from Jamie
Round thoughts:
In relation to our discussion of Turner’s concept of liminality, I have been thinking about the shape of the tour. Up until now I have always envisioned the process of transformation from one point to another as being linear, in that the journey one takes across the threshold into the liminal state to arrive at the end point somehow transformed would be more of a straight or winding path from point A to point B. After reading MacCannell and Chia-fen’s posting about the starting and end point of the tourist being “home”, I now see the liminal journey as having a circular trajectory. The round shape of travel and tourism begins and ends at point A, but upon returning to the point from which the tour began the traveler is transformed by the voyage.
Research possibility:
One other idea I had, which I mentioned to BKG and wanted to share with the rest of the class as a possible research topic, was the idea of “viral tourism”. In one of my classes last semester we explored the topic of “viral marketing”, which encompasses everything from Gap’s new “red” campaign to fight AIDS in Africa to the selling of pink merchandise in order to raise breast cancer awareness. So, I was curious if any of this might play in to how people travel. BKG mentioned that there are specific travel destinations where people go to seek remedies for their ailments, which made me think of the mystic healing powers of rainforests, and also of Eastern medicine. Anyway, I thought I would put it out there, as it seems this might be a interesting vein of study.