What a very curious experience! Over the week-end we had a very agreeable time with family members at a holiday centre near Penrith. Especially welcome was the chance to play with and get to know better our 18 month old grandson. (It was amazing how quickly he took to the swimming pool.) The accommodation was good and we enjoyed the occasion when we ate out. An unexpected bonus was the amount of wild-life we saw, including red squirrels. At one level there was nothing to be faulted.*
Talking with my wife, however, we agreed that it had been a rather strange experience in one respect. It all felt just a bit like science fiction. I believe that the thing that set me thinking was the extremely clever device they use for personal ID. You wear a wrist-band rather like a watch. When pressed against appropriate receivers it can open a locker for you in the swimming pool, bill your account for an activity, and let you into your accommodation. Suddenly, however, it began to feel a bit like the tags they put on criminals, and I started to wonder whether I could be tracked using this bit of kit. (In fact, I think probably not.)
We decided that the experience resembled H. G. Wells’ story The Time Machine. In this he travels into the future and encounters a world that appears to be perfect …. the people are healthy, well-fed, contented, and engaged in all kinds of pleasurable pursuits. Their existence, however, appears to be pointless as they engage in no productive activity at all. After spending some time in this world, Wells’ traveller discovers that the whole thing rests on a dreadful secret. This population of sybarites (the Eloi) is actually supported by a subterranean race (the Morlocks) whose lot is far from enviable, and who actually do all the work. Worst of all, however, they are dangerously predatory and a permanent threat the Eloi. We began to wonder this morning whether there wasn’t something relevant in this vision of duality as we packed to leave, and bus-loads of workers began to arrive in order to clean, tidy and refurbish the place ready for the next arrivals. (The resort must be a huge local employer, with hundreds of service, maintenance and forestry staff, as well as instructors in all the activities available to holiday-makers.)
Of course the experience is intended to be, at one level, “unreal” in that the holiday is supposed to be as complete a break as possible from the hum-drum round of everyday life. After a week-end, however, I did feel that this “perfect” setting, isolated from the world of routine, was just a little bit too separated, enclosing, and somehow without character. This struck me most of all when I took my drawing things out into the woods to see if I could do a little sketching. What I came to realise was that even what appeared to be “woodland” (a little bit of real nature) was very carefully organised, and not in any sense “natural”. We did have a good time: but I have to say that I am glad to be back.
* Except, that is, for the lack of a wifi connection!