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This is technology world. This town and this room. And I beg a few phrases from Patty Griffin's throat and strings to put me at ease in this Internet cafe. I rock my big seat back, "find a comfy spot and wait it out," and imagine myself on a wooden porch, rocking and watching the corn grow and the sky widen. I listen to Patty in this room and realize that I'm just a country mouse in this loud, neon, smokey city. I can tilt my seat and my head just enough and watch a Korean boy lose himself in his screen. He's oblivious to anything around him. An impersonal, de-personal intimacy in these rooms that frightens me. What a direction we're moving in. We've forgotten our real environments and have found a mental resting place inside our computer screens. An alternate reality. The futuristic movies are playing themselves out for me here in Korea. The city is crowded and tired and dirty and busy and ugly. And no one seems to mind. Their minds are elsewhere. And when our minds aren't on that city street outside, it goes to hell. We improve the technology, but the land and the air suffer. It amazes me. I feel like I'm in a 3rd world country until I step into a PC lab or something. "Oh," I think. "This is where they're putting their resources and their efforts." Land, it makes me sad to watch. I've never seen anything quite like it, and I've never been able to put words on it--till now--though I've been watching it with wonder for 3 weeks. My students play computer games and watch TV all the time. "What did you do this weekend?" Same answer. "What are you doing tonight?" Same answer. "What's your favorite thing to do?" Same answer. Inside or outside, they play their games. So I play Patty Griffin clips here, nice and loud, to break up the Korean techno beat. A nice guitar and a real female voice. Not much else. And I continue to hope that those quiet roads still exist somewhere, that quiet fresh air still entices young bodies and minds, and that human imagination will still find itself exploring like children the outdoors as well as the flat, dead screen. Rocking Chair, ck [2002-11-07]
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