In the conclusion to her study on Bodie, Califorina, Dydia DeLyser writes, “Authenticity is not the end result of a visit to Bodie. Rather, it is a vehicle through which the narratives of the mythic West, of progress, and American virtues, are made tangible and believable to visitors.”
What do you think DeLyser means here? Based on her observations, what forms of authenticity do the tourists and the staff members experience in this ghost town? How does she as a researcher measure these authentic experiences? As you reflect on her conclusion, cite at least one concrete example from her observations that supports or illustrates your response.
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DeLyser is saying that authenticity is what people take out of a visit to Bodie. As a ghost town, it doesn't have the luxury of having volunteer "townspeople" milling around to tell the story of the town. Rather, it must speak for itself to the tourists, and by doing so it becomes more authentic.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me think of Old Salem, a tourist trap in Winston Salem, NC that's supposed to offer real history. But the "town" is in pristene condition, there's no real sense that such a place ever existed or even COULD exist.
Contrast that with Bodie's feeling of being frozen in time, and one can begin to understand what DeLyser was getting at. The true experience of authenticity comes from a sense of stepping into a PRESERVED piece of history, rather than a RESTORED piece.
With her quote DeLyser means that people don't and shouldn't go to Bodie because it is authentic, instead the authenticity of the town is important because it gives more meaning to the stories of the people who lived their and in other towns like Bodie, as well as their beliefs. The authenticity also gives more meaning to the stories and beliefs told in Bodie. Based on DeLyser's observations, the tourists and staff members experience authenticity through the actual buildings and artifacts left behind in Bodie. They also encounter a landscape that has not changed since the boomtown era in Bodie. As a researcher DeLyser measures the authenticity of the experiences by relating them to how they actually were at the time and how they might change the perceptions of visitors to the park. However, in some cases it is difficult to persuade visitors of the parks authenticity or lack of it. She sites things such as the restoration of buildings and the display of artifacts that people interpret to be just how they were left as people abandoned the town.
ReplyDeleteIn her conclusion of her study on Bodie, DeLyser describes that authenticity is not the reason why people visit Bodie, but it is rather the essence revealing the mythic West and American virtues through "weather-beaten buildings, tarnished artifacts, and lack of commercialism." It is these aspects of Bodie that visitors and staff to call Bodie a "ghost town" which is very the authenticity lies because if it is viewed as a "ghost town" by those that have experienced it, it is therefore authentic.
ReplyDeleteAs a researcher DeLyser measures authenticity through the landscape and artifacts of the Park. She explains that because of Bodie's authenticity the visitors are able to "experience the past as they imagine it." It is through Bodie's authentic aspects that the people may feel they are in a ghost town. For example, DeLyser points out that visitors are aware that they are not "walking down the streets of the 1880s, but they feel that by gazing at the ruins, by looking upon the tarnished remains of the past." Because nothing in Bodie was reproduced or renovated or rebuilt, it gives it that authenticity that makes one feel like they are experiencing the past, although consciously he/she knows that's not the case. She also explains that visitors are not attracted to Bodie because of its authenticity per se but rather are drawn to it because its authentic values serve as a "window of the past" and help them realize more about the future.
DeLyser's study on authenticity in ghost towns is a very interesting one. In her conclusion she states that "Authenticity is not the end result of a visit to Bodie. Rather, it is a vehicle through which the narratives of the mythic West, of progress, and American virtues, are made tangible and believable to visitor." By this, I believe she means that authenticity is a tool through which history can be told rather than the end all be all of an experience. Throughout her study, it almost seems as if authenticity has to be achieved before a story can be told. As if a threshold of authenticity must be crossed before people can relive history. She states that a lot of visitors to Bodie discounted places like Calico and Virginia City as inauthentic because they were too commercial. They could not relive history or learn much about it because of the lack of authenticity they felt. For them, Bodie was a more authentic experience that helped them relive history.
ReplyDeleteBased on her observations, the tourists and the staff members experience authenticity through the rugged look of the town, the lack of commercialization, and the aging artifacts that are strewn about.
As a researcher, she measures those authentic experiences through interviews and observations. For example, several visitors to Bodie complained about another ghost town called Virginia City. DeLyser states that these visitors, "disqualified the authenticity of any ghost town they perceived as artifical or commercial as many of my informants did with Virgina City or Calico" (DeLyser, 21).
The most interesting the about DeLyser's study, was that the test of authenticity was based on each individual's experience and what each person viewed as authentic, not whether or not it acutally was historically accurate or not.
In DeLyser’s quote, she is basically saying that authenticity is something that fits the general view of what is authentic based on opinions or beliefs that people hold. In this case, the town of Bodie, California is set up less like a traditional ghost town and more like what people perceive a ghost town in the old Wild West to be like. The town is now run to show a version of Bodie’s past that is more like the stereotypical idea of an old Western town rather than what its history actually is. Even early in the paper DeLyser says that Bodie’s authenticity is used “to engage with the mythic West, a romanticized version of the Anglo-American past.” This is to say that the town of Bodie, California is set up to match what people would imagine the West to be like, even if the setup is “romanticized” or exaggerated to be different or more intense than it really was. She later states that authenticity should be seen “as a socially constructed concept… that has different meanings in different contexts, in different places, to different people” (11). Once again, authenticity is set up to reflect an individual opinion or belief, and in Bodie, authenticity is something made by both the employees and the tourists that visit.
ReplyDeleteI think that DeLyser expresses that this “Ghost Town” does not simply invoke a sense of realism to visitors due to its age and the various characteristics that make this place astonishing, but that its true value is morphed by the perceptions of the American West as conceived by each and every individual that steps through this park. There are various forms she outlined throughout her study. For example, some visitors value the authentic look of the dilapidated state of the remains in this 19th century mining town, basically they do not look for luxury as other commercialized ghost town, and they look for the original town that was abandoned more than a century ago. Looking at such dreadful state the remains instill to them a sense of logic into believing that this place in is fact over 100 years old. Also DeLyser notes that people want to believe such ghost towns are really authentic as the objects and the infrastructure gives Americans a imaginative insight of their particular picture of the Old West. Basically the setting evokes in visitors a sense of relatedness to people from the past as Americans, this lead to imagination and people tend to make their own impression of what the mining town of Bodie might have actually look like, or how did its inhabitants lived during this time.
ReplyDeleteDeLyser seems like she suggests that authenticity is a gateway into the events and history or a place. In her example of Bodie, California, the town has had much history. Even though now not a soul lives in Bodie, the fact that it did exist and the buildings and marks left behind provide a level of authenticity. Tourists and staff members see the authenticity of events that took place in this town. Its authenticity is defined through artifacts making up the landscape.
ReplyDeleteDeLyser measures these authentic experiences by interviews and a comparison to the actual historical background of the place. This allows both what the tourist felt and what actually happened to be observed.
The authenticity of Bodie allows for a tourist or staff member to engage with the history of this place. She states that authenticity allows the place to call to them and the people are then allowed to almost feel what the place was like. This an interesting idea because it meant that the history could be real or not
DeLysers’s profound conclusion to her study on Bodie California delineates the true meaning of authenticity and disregards the transient misconceptions surrounding the idea. I believe she is attempting to portray the true essence of authenticity and all of its unique facets, which when portrayed correctly, can truly give the audience (or in this case a tourist) an authentic sense of the subject. Essentially she claims that authenticity goes beyond merely observing ghost towns or seemingly desolate locations, instead a true sense of authenticity is achieved when the stories, ideas, beliefs and values associated with these locations are unveiled. A point I found interesting within the text revolves around the ways in which these tourists attempted to garner a sense of authenticity. One way tourists went about gaining a genuine feeling about the ghost towns was to ask questions. Asking questions revealed knowledge that they thought would further illuminate their perceptions regarding the surrounding environment. Ultimately, DeLyser’s insinuates that the Bodie environment is real only to those who want it to be real. Fundamentally, Bodie is not a complete historically accurate portrayal of the time period, but offers enough of a sense authenticity to those who want to be immersed in western history.
ReplyDeleteDeLyser, I think, is trying to say that the broken down buildings and aged artifacts allow the visitors and staff to except the legends and myths of the old west and this ghost town. Without the tangible evidence, visitors cannot believe a place to be authentic and without the perfectly placed artifacts and worn down buildings, they would not be able to call the town of Bodie a true ghost town. The stabilized but not restored buildings and the many artifacts arranged in specific ways, allow for evidence to authenticity. DeLyser spent ten summers in Bodie, interviewing staff members and tourists, interpreting the geography of Bodie and experiencing the ghost town for herself.
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