Post #65647 by cybertiki on Fri, Dec 19, 2003 12:21 PM

On the whole I agree with you Swanky; it really looks like they were tourists on an extended vacation. In fact, their jobs as writers made them passive observers rather than active participants in the life of the island. I would think that if you really want to learn about the people you'd work as a teacher or a nurse or something ...

As far as the kids, it was probably not the wisest choice (aside from pulling the girl out of her own social network) since it doesn't sound like they thought thru the problems associated with tropical living. If you're going to obsess over bugs, fungi, and dirty animals you probably shouldn't take kids. How the kids view the situation, however, is to my own experience quite different. I suspect that given a real opportunity to interact, that the kids would be more adaptable than the adults.

Still, I suppose you can just blame it on the Tiki. A lot of artists and writers actively seek new experiences and inspirations - Melville, Gauguin, Twain, and Hemingway spring immediatly to mind. And it seems that they DID have an adventure of sorts, so the experience isn't lost.

I found this particulary interesting because I've been thinking about this "rejection of society" lately, and trying to figure out where the origins of the problem lie. I wrote a bit about it just a few days ago if anyone is interested:

http://www.cybertiki.com/blog1203.html#121703
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