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“You must show them the fountain”
“You must show them the fountain”
To a mere passive observer, this statement, made by the main character Gabriella, would appear to contain no particularly significance to the general theme of travel. But it is important to note, however, that this class has helped craft me into someone who thinks critically about travel and its themes. As a result, the significance of author Shirley Hazzard’s use of a fountain in the opening sentence, and their general reoccurrence throughout the story, did not escape me. Because while fountains may seem like little more than fancy displays of water, there are a number of reasons why they are a very important part of travel.
For one, fountains are everywhere. They exist in the public squares and gardens of likely every country in the world, yet it is nearly impossible to trace the origin of fountains. Wikipedia.com suggests that there is no consensus as to whether they were first created in India, or in Persia, or in Rome. Yet despite the lack of one true point of origin, fountains have still completely assimilated our cities worldwide. This presents an example of something rarely seen in travel: a combination of eastern, middle-eastern, and western design that still manages to be present universally. Normally in our discussions of travel, we refer to western influences on global culture, or vice-versa. In other words, what makes fountains notable to travel is that you can see them in nearly any part of the world you are visiting, and in doing so you are experiencing on of the few examples of a truly global cultural item.
Whether Hazzard was thinking about this in drafting her opening page, I cannot say. But she surely is away of the draw that many fountains have upon tourists. This is notably the case in Italy, where the story takes place, as fountains such as the Fontana de Trevi, the Fountain of Four Rivers, and the fountains at Villa d’Este are considered among of the most important cultural landmarks in the entire country. But by including a fountain in the opening sentence, Hazzard is (whether it is intentional or not) bringing light upon a truly unique and important part of travel, the fountain.
The old fountain
It's really strange to think about fountains and travel when right now going on in Washington Sq, we are re-doing ours...
I was wondering though, the first line, is about a private fountain, starting the entire book on the image of an inanimate object that (like we talked about in class) has to carry the emotional weight of the story. It's also interesting that this is the fountain which causes Tancredi to fall in love with Sophie. Also, having a fountain in one's private residence, immediately lets the reader know which class of people they are dealing with. Only the rich have a fountain in their homes.
It's an artifact, a treasure, and old thing that one comes to appreciate, like love.
It's really interesting that you managed to pick this out. I would never have given the fountain a second thought! But you're right! It's important.
more fountains
Yes, fountains are indeed everywhere. It seems as though there is some sort of universal pleasure in their tranquility, at every level of elaborateness. With this, too, probably brings forth a sense of security in a person, making them more susceptable to romance.
Fountains
Yes, it seems as though Fountains reoccur often in Italy and in Italian stories. The concept of the fountain may be murky, like mexican drinking water, but the metaphors associated with water bubbling from stone often find common ancestors in a family of myths that closely associate the idea of a "spring" with youth, king arthur, rejuvination, and other healing properties. Think the Bethesda fountain or the fountain of youth. Fountains also imply a degree of folkiness or splendor, community with public reguard, to visitors in a land that is, like the water, very much alive.
Backyard fountains also seems to imply something: we keep cultivating our own personal gardens, the old to elderly to venture down, like human failings to prevent our own physical deaths or the deaths of our relationships. The falseness that we can truly create something or have an ingenious idea that was completely our own is refuted by this illustration, but as i society to some degree we still need the romantic illusion.