It ain't my thing, but to more than a few people it's about acknowledging "history." It becomes real or legitimate when there's a picture of you at that place where that thing happened a long time ago. But it's shallow tourism for me, inserting yourself into the story in a way that you don't belong. Desecration is too strong a word for it, but it's a kissing cousin.WestwayKid wrote: ↑28 Feb 2024, 10:53amI've walked past the Dakota several times and every time I've seen people posing for photos in the infamous entrance where Lennon was gunned down. Am I being too touchy, or does that feel weird to anyone else?Dr. Medulla wrote: ↑01 Feb 2024, 8:20pmWatched that semi-recent documentary series about Lennon's murder over the last couple days. Informative to the degree that I really knew very little about the murder beyond the basics. My Beatles love never took me to that level of inquiry. That said, it was a bit flat in terms of impact. I came away feeling some empathy towards Chapman, a guy with an abusive childhood, and because of his guilty plea he was denied psychiatric treatment in prison. Plus he's spent most of his incarceration in isolation, largely to protect him from other prisoners.
Weird factoid: John Hinckley also had a copy of Catcher in the Rye when he shot Reagan. Huh.
(That said, I super highly recommend a book by the wonderful Sarah Vowell called Assassination Vacation, which is part history, part travelogue as she, her twin sister, and nephew visit the sites of Lincoln's, Garfield's, and McKinley's assassinations. The audio version is better because it has Stephen King as Lincoln, Jon Stewart as Garfield. Funny and insightful history.)
edit: A passage from AV that I love, discussing Garfield's assassin Charles Guiteau and his membership in a kind of pre-hippie Christian commune called the Oneida Community.
Mutual Criticism required a member of the group to stand up in front of everybody and listen to the enumeration of his or her faults. The bright side of being that night's subject for criticism was the rare treat at Oneida of being the center of attention. The downside was that everyone you knew and loved was allowed, even encouraged, to look into your eyes and ask, "You know what your problem is?"