Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
dentistbackinNewJerseyortalktomydaughteraboutherweekatschool.Andallthisfrom
a region where exiles in former times used to disappear, never to be heard from again.
A favorite word for the technological fishbowl effect is
transparency
. Anything you do in
far places, and anything that exists out there, can, in principle, be seen.
Transparency
is one
of those words whose real meaning is its opposite, the way that countries with ministries of
culture haven't any. Of course, all the technology known or yet to be known won't see even
a part of everything or stop people from making things up. It's just that the realm of color-
ful prevarication has moved inside, where the heart does its sneaking. Most of the gods and
demonsandfairiesandwindigoswhousedtoinhabittheirownparticularoutdoorplacesdied
off long ago, and modern technology has zapped the survivors. If you want to spin a yarn, it
will be about something inward and private, like whether you took steroids.
During the days when the Argyle Monster still seemed a possibility in my mind, one of
the topics I liked to read told about the life of a German hunter and sportsman named Baron
Münchausen. This baron lived in the Black Forest in some former time—the stories date to
the 1700s—and journeyed through the fastnesses of the forest having adventures. A typic-
al one was his encounter with a young stag he surprised one day in a dark glen. Grabbing
his rifle, the baron found he was out of bullets, but he happened to be eating a cherry at the
time, so he spat out the cherry pit, loaded the rifle with it, and fired, hitting the stag squarely
between the eyes. The stag fell down but then quickly leaped up and ran away. Years later,
the baron was again in that part of the woods. All at once, to his astonishment, he came face-
to-face with a huge stag that had a small but healthy cherry tree growing between its antlers.
AsaboyIdidnotbelievethathadreallyhappened,butIkindofsuspendedfinaljudgment,
because maybe it could, youknow?Because it wascool, Ididn'taltogether rule it out.Today
the baron would be a video game. Progress has cleared the outdoors of its tall stories and
imaginary beings and redeposited them on screens. Cyberspace is full of invented monsters,
and movies seem to be about nothing but winged horses and multiheaded dragons and rivers
of snakes. In the first Harry Potter movie, a “full-grown mountain troll” appears in a Hog-
wartsbathroomandtriestosmashHarrywithitshugeclubbeforeHarrymanagestokillitby
sticking his wand up its nose. Not too long ago, many people believed there really were such
things as trolls in the mountains. I mourn the loss; the mountains are poorer without their
trolls. As far as I'm concerned, not every last troll has left, and a stag with a tree growing
between its antlers is an unlikely sight, but not out of the question completely.
The point is, wonders are out there still. If you don't on some level believe that, you're
goingtostayhomewiththeTV,and“remote”willbewhat'slostbetweenthecushions.Tech-
nology or no, I expect to see miracles and portents any time I leave the pavement. A while
ago, I was fishing for snook in the Florida Everglades. My guide and I had made our way
far back in a gin-clear avenue between stands of mangroves when two manatees swam right
beneath the boat. I had never seen a manatee before. They went past faster than Usain Bolt
