Change of Clothes

Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed. ~Irene Peter

Here on the left is a gentleman pretending he is from the 18th century (an actor?), or perhaps he is merely dressing up for our benefit and he is still being himself (a mannequin?), or perhaps he really feels more comfortable in an 18th century ambiance, (a transvestite?), or perhaps he is truly frustrated in this era and craves the means to live as an 18th century man, a trans-epochal you might call him. 80 families apparently live here in Colonial Williamsburg, and they probably all feel differently about it. We didn’t ask them.

Levy accuses Americans of collection without discernment, the museumification ofthe banal and a preference for modern simulation over historic artifact. “Defeat of the archive. Triumph of kitsch” (Levy, p29). Williamsburg would not dissuade him.

I see it more benevolently as the triumph of theater over dry facts, a movie culture rejecting 8th grade history class in favor of a little more drama. Who can blame them, these mythical average Americans? They didn’t have the benefit of Mr. Winslow Smith as an American History teacher, and for them it never really came alive. I read Mr. Smith’s obituary last year, and immediately his dry and dramatic manner came right back to me, 30 years now since I graduated from Junior High. For Mr. Smith, history was drama, and for one short school year I feel privileged to have heard and felt his point of view.

Mia

Mia wanted to see Williamsburg because of the American Girl dolls collection, a collection of hideously expensive popettes I fruitlessly swore we would never buy her, each evoking an epoch of American history. “Felicity” peeked her interest very early in her life, lending this visit the overtones of a pilgrimage. Mia’s satisfaction at trying on straw hats and visiting the millenary and trying her hand at calligraphy with a quill pen was our reward. She left exceedingly satisfied with the visit.

Mia

Williamsburg, United States