You Can't Go Home Again
“We are always acting on what has just finished happening. It happened at least 1/30th of a second ago. We think we're in the present, but we aren't. The present we know is only a movie of the past.” --- Thomas Wolfe
The historic Thomas Wolfe Memorial, The Old Kentucky Home boarding house in Asheville, NC, stands in the shadow of the modern twelve story Renaissance Hotel. The 218 rooms of the Renaissance are equipped with conveniences like high speed internet access and satellite TV. When Julia Wolfe sent young Tom to the train station to distribute business cards to drum up borders for The Old Kentucky Home, it wasn’t the newly installed electricity she advertised or the indoor plumbing; it was the “large lawns” and the “new furnishings.” Both structures represent a culture, an age, a mindset.
Steve Hill, Historic Site Manager of The Thomas Wolfe Memorial since 1977, recognizes the contrast. “I have a foot in both worlds here.” He doesn’t hesitate to admit, though, his own distaste for technology, particularly computers. “They have become a modern day excuse for people not to do what’s supposed to be done.” He sees technology as cold and impersonal, creating “a barrier that we can hide behind.” “ I think it’s why I majored in history,” says Hill. “I enjoy looking back more than looking forward.”
Hill appreciates the “old technologies,” the ones that Thomas Wolfe would have known when the Wolfe boarding house was in its prime. “I always wish I could have been around to see that technology in place, when things that were being built improved everybody’s existence. I can’t say that with the stuff that we have today; it’s impersonal.”
Hill also laments how quickly new technologies become outdated. “I am always amazed at how fast things develop, become mature and obsolete.” A technology purchase today is no longer current by the time we get it home. Hill finds that disconcerting. While new technologies were being developed at the turn of the century, “it wasn’t coming at you in such a barrage.”
Thomas Wolfe’s Asheville had its innovations. It was, in fact, the 2nd city in the nation to have an electric street car system. By just some twenty years after the end of the Civil War, the residents of Asheville had a water and sewer system. Electricity was available to them. "I always wish I could have been around to see that technology in place,” Hill says. “ It had a beauty along with it, not just the cold stare of a computer.” “These things were meant to be servants, but we are being commanded by these things.”
When the Wolfe home was tragically damaged by an arsonist in 1997, Hill turned to traditional local craftsmen and modern technology to chart an extensive restoration. “A lot of what we were able to accomplish with the restoration has come through technology.” The precision of high-tech tools and modern synthetic materials allowed restorers to save more of the original structure, blending the additions almost seamlessly. While the home is now guarded by infrared laser motion detectors, protected by a modern sprinkler system and climate-controlled by a computer-driven heating and cooling system, it remains hard to notice. The modern additions have been added unobtrusively with the bulk of the new technology relegated to the attic and basement. The restored house opened to the public again a few weeks ago in a special dedication ceremony.
Hill admits to the usefulness of technology, but abides by his reluctance to become too dependent on it. He recognizes that the younger members of his staff embrace technology in ways that he doesn’t. He anticipates a retirement when he can leave behind some of the technologies that are essential to his managerial position. “I’ll let others deal with technology. They enjoy it. There are people here who enjoy this technology more than I do, I’m going to let them deal with the technology part of it.” Hill would like to spend more dealing with the home’s history and with people. “I’m afraid we are moving away from what made us strong people able to develop all these things. We don’t rely on ourselves; we rely on things.”
“Technology is here,” Hill admits, “and we’ve got to contend with it. There’s no escaping it.” Like Wolfe who reminded us that we can’t go home again, Hill knows that as enticing as it might be, we can’t go back to that time in history before technology was such a large part of our lives.
5 Comments:
Hill has it right; we have to "contend with it." That expression probably puts some of us in the classification of dinosaurs, since we begrudgingly acknowledge the existence of technology in our lives but that does not mean we have forgotten another time when interchange was more face to face, more personal, and probably more sporadic. Today, when I sit doww at my desk, one of my first acts is to check my email because people are prone to send me messages at any time about anything--including the weather. What this does is to inject a whole different rhythm to my work day and routine. It is not that I dislike the contact so much as it is the lack of the personal contact. Before email, a person with something to say would walk into my office and say it; today, more often than not, they email it--not always as carefully crafted as it might be in a face to face situation:-) On the other hand, certain kinds of work have been greatly enhanced, especially in professional work with colleagues across the country. We do get our work done in a more timely and efficient way.
Still, I love to get mail, real mail; I love to have conversations, real talk; so, like Hill, I contend with technology but like him, I would rather sit down and talk with my visitors. Keep on truckin', Jim. Charlie
Hi Jim, DJ Wanchick here - I am a recent graduate of the Educational Media Masters Program @ ASU and Steve Bronack turned me on to your trip and idea. I am really enjoying your journey and your posts.
I think the sentiment you latched onto in this post, at least for me, is at the crux of the technological divide within our society. I think you would find far fewer people in their early 20's and younger that would share the feelings that technology reduces meaningful communication. It no doubt changes communication but many have found it to allow them to connect with people in ways that more traditional methods of communication don't.
The sentiments shared by those outside of recent technological advancements (i.e. a longing for the old days, feeling as if they have lost control) are strikingly similar to reactions to past technologies. However, the rate of advancement is faster now and the ability to fall behind of relevant technology is greater.
To me, technology is a tool and we have to keep in mind what we are ultimately attempting to achieve in whatever it is we are doing. Our goals and purpose change at a much slower pace then the tools we fashion to help us. But as the bells and whistles become more shiny and loud it is easy to loose track of our purpose.
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