(no subject)

[stonebender]

Last Thursday wild_irises treated me to a Titanic experience! At the Metreon we sat and talked to rmjwell before the show for awhile. Swapped book recommendations, gossip, politics. We solved the world's problems. Now if we could just get people to listen to us. :-) Then rmjwell went off on his date while and I went to the exhibition.


I'm a bit embarrassed to admit the story of the Titanic is a fascination of mine. I was interested before the movie (although I loved the movie too). I think the story gets me because the ship itself was such a microcosm of the world at that time. Full of the very rich whose dreams had been full-filled and the very poor who were coming to the United States to fulfill thiers. With just about every sort of person between and they all hit an iceberg. Some survive and many died. Just like always.

They did a great job on the show. As you enter, everyone is given a card with the name and a short biography of a passenger. Towards the end of the exhibit you find no whether you're passenger survived. Mine did. Against long odds since he was a third class passenger. Not many from third class survived because many were locked below decks. My maternal grandfather came to the United States in steerage around the same time as the Titanic sinking.

Along with the various artifacts from the ship, they built to scale several areas of the ship. So that we could get a feel for being on the ship. A first-class hallway, the grand staircase, an example of both a first and third class room. I was surprised at how many artifacts made with paper or cloth survived. I was also surprised at how many people had not originally intended to ride on the Titanic. Lots of passengers were supposed to be on other ships and were transferred to Titanic.

I had a great time.

Comments

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Yay, sounds great.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

That is so cool! I had not heard they were doing something like this.

Have you read Connie Willis' Passage (http://archive.salon.com/books/review/2001/05/21/willis/)?

[stonebender.livejournal.com]

Have you read Connie Willis' Passage?

Not yet, although it does reside in my bookshelf. I'm a Willis fan (her writing, not necessarily her politics.)

[tracytreefrog.livejournal.com]

Way Cool!

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

I had a great time too!