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Plus ça change
Feb. 15th, 2018 04:21 pmIn January, I went to New Zealand to be able to place my imagination authentically in locations important to the Terra Nova.
Today, I was reading a description by Pennell, commander of the Terra Nova, of his travels from New York to Vancouver via Quebec City, in 1905. These are all places I have been, and could have pictured in my head well before even knowing he existed. Yesterday I was reading the end of Worst Journey for the first time being able to picture Pennell landing at Oamaru from personal experience; today I got to picture Pennell crossing the prairies and walking around Stanley Park, which was quite a lot weirder.
Growing up in western North America, one is always aware of how much has changed in the last hundred years (especially in Vancouver, which has changed a lot in the last ten). But it was funny to see how little had changed in some respects – Americans’ “win or die” attitude to sports; the tendency of Americans and Canadians to keep their buildings hot and airless, compared to Britain; Brits’ disdain for people claiming Britishness who aren’t British; a Quebec court case in which the defending counsel questioned the court’s jurisdiction over the matter at hand, and the Government side, overpaid, pontificating on the broader issues without much concern for the specific case.
Here's a video of Vancouver in 1907, about 18 months after Pennell came through. The grand 'castle' at the beginning was the old Waterfront Station; it would only be around for another few years before being replaced with the brick one we know and love now.
Today, I was reading a description by Pennell, commander of the Terra Nova, of his travels from New York to Vancouver via Quebec City, in 1905. These are all places I have been, and could have pictured in my head well before even knowing he existed. Yesterday I was reading the end of Worst Journey for the first time being able to picture Pennell landing at Oamaru from personal experience; today I got to picture Pennell crossing the prairies and walking around Stanley Park, which was quite a lot weirder.
Growing up in western North America, one is always aware of how much has changed in the last hundred years (especially in Vancouver, which has changed a lot in the last ten). But it was funny to see how little had changed in some respects – Americans’ “win or die” attitude to sports; the tendency of Americans and Canadians to keep their buildings hot and airless, compared to Britain; Brits’ disdain for people claiming Britishness who aren’t British; a Quebec court case in which the defending counsel questioned the court’s jurisdiction over the matter at hand, and the Government side, overpaid, pontificating on the broader issues without much concern for the specific case.
Here's a video of Vancouver in 1907, about 18 months after Pennell came through. The grand 'castle' at the beginning was the old Waterfront Station; it would only be around for another few years before being replaced with the brick one we know and love now.
