Switzerland has a few defining stories that are widely known throughout the world. Wilhem Tell and Heidi are among these. When arriving into Zurich, international travelers deplane in one of the 'E' gates. To move from these gates to immigration and then onto the luggage carousels, and finally to the streets of Zurich, one must take a brief tram ride. About 30 seconds into the ride you begin to hear choruses of Swiss sounds - cow bells and gentle yodels. Outside the window to your left, you also get to see the video below -- the Swiss version of the flower lais that greet visitors to Hawaii, I suppose. None the less, I find the brief clip enchanting.
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4 comments:
Hmmm...I wonder why you (or any other hetero male) would find this clip enchanting..?!
And so it is in Switzerland, but that's for another post.
I was wondering the same thing! Then I realized that we already have evidence of Brian's enchantment with cowbells! He probably never noticed the girl.
We miss you guys!
Suzanne
I showed this video to my 240 (Intro Econ/Social Geog) class. It's a great example of what geographers call "Production of space" - i.e., that "space" is made up of both a location, and the relationships of people within that location.
In this case, the "space" is Switzerland, because the video along with the cow bells and yodeling is meant to say to int'l visitors, "Welcome to Switzerland!" and give a "sense of place" moment to them. Well, the subtext here is "Welcome to Switzerland....[if you're a heterosexual adult male]". So, it "produces" the space of Switzerland where the "Norm" is heterosexual, adult male, and the "Other" is the non-male, non-heterosexual, non-adult... So, it produces space, and it also reproduces difference (norm vs. other) in implicitly saying who they're explicitly welcoming to Switzerland (and thus, who is not explicitly welcomed by Heidi's kiss).
Suzanne and Darla -- Great wit and wisdom. Brian is a bit befuddled by it all, which is unusual for him.
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