Ambivalence and an eReader...Krystal Sweitzer

                First off, I had a great time navigating through Levine’s highly persuasive, argumentative, and informative “Folklore of Industrial Society” and the various conversations with his article.  There is so much material to discuss and I am excited to dive into these topics in class!  However, for this blog I was inspired to reread Jane Becker’s article “Revealing Traditions: The Politics of Culture and Community in America, 1888-1988” because she addresses so eloquently many of the knottier issues presented in the articles from the American Historical Review.  One of my strongest reactions to the text was from her discussion on ambivalence and the specific motivations for taking a retrospective look and recapturing those “essential” American roots in order to handle a rapidly changing world: “Passion for the preservation of antiquities went hand in hand with pride in the scientific and technological advances of the day, revealing the ambivalence that late-19^th century Americans felt toward their changing world” (24).  It seems so interesting that with so much forward motion, we would also be compelled to look backwards to understand our heritage, however romanticized it may be.  It makes sense that with the advent of new technology, we would need some strength to support the validity of something “American made” in an international context: the technology would need to support of our identity in order to stand the test of a larger market.

                This ambivalence, the simultaneous love and hate toward a changing world happens today all the time!  As someone who loves the touch, feel, smell, and look of a paperback in my hands, the advent of eReader’s had me holding my ground and refusing to purchase one.  But the convenience! Instead of lugging a suitcase full of books across the country, I could slide my whole collection into my purse with ease.  Yet, I still felt strongly that holding a book in my hands was so ME!  I am always on the airplane with a book, or at the gym reading literature, how could I ever give in to the sleek, metallic, and unfeeling computerized version?  You may be wondering what eReader’s possibly have to do with Becker’s article, but after reading it again, I realized I was interpreting a social movement which reflected my sense of personality, and the “Krystal-ness” that makes me who I am.  I experienced ambivalence toward the creation of new technology that left me clutching my paperbacks for dear life!  The ways in which we negotiate through changes make us who we are, and establish that constantly morphing folk circle that we prescribe to.  The irony of all of this is that I was forced to read this week’s assigned articles on my fiancé’s Kindle (because ink and paper were starting to become a scarce commodity), and lo and behold, I am still Krystal, and able to read and interpret the material despite the change in medium.

                To bring together my ramblings into some form of an intelligible conclusion, I would just like to note that in reading (and reading again) the articles already presented for our Folklore class, I am learning that this question of HOW an audience (populace, society, group, etc) interprets a change in culture speaks volumes as to WHO they are.  What we romanticize (cowboys, for example) speaks to what we were hoping to escape from, and what part of our life we were hoping to transform.  I wonder, then, if this active creation of our authentic selves is the essential “human-ness” (human condition) that we are trying to understand through studying folklore?