Longing in Las Vegas
I found this excellent essay on Las Vegas on Three Quarks Daily.
It's vivid and sad and poignant and I agree because I thoroughly dislike Las Vegas. It used to be a moralistic sort of disgust - I don't approve of gambling or wasting hard-earned money you coulf be saving for your family to do something with in the hope of winning a pot of money. Because that's essentially what it is - a random permutation/combination win whose worth is less than the amount that's gone in. Of course, it's thrilling to have a mini-flood of a quarters flow from your slot machine, but disillusioning to discover that your hope and greed have led you to have less than what you actually began with. Of course, the people with luck/skill in the card games will beg to differ but I'm against gambling in general (which seems to imply that I'm against gambling in business or in relationships - let's just say I'm a gambler with things I cannot see or hold!)
Las Vegas is discomfiting because everything it projects is so obviously not real or lasting. The only thing I was fascinated by was the Tutankhamun boat ride in Luxor. It's like Mona Lisa when she's grown old, wrinkled memories of fame and a man called Leonardo Da Vinci who once painted her in a frozen smile that became famous - she has no idea why people come to see her and none of it means anything anymore. That's a confused simile but that's how I feel about Las Vegas. It's a mirage that people think is an anchor, they let go, come back, let go, being washed by some compulsion. It's fascinating, sure, because there's invariably something new, but it's all manufactured and it makes it blatantly obvious.
My first impression 2 years ago was the hot desert air blowing in my face, after large empty walls and passages and dimness filled with pictures of Las Vegas's origins, a ride in a limousine with tired coloured lights on a bleak ceiling, like a jaded has-been. The crowds and lines for check-in at the hotel, the lavishness of the room, the feeling that you're in a hot oven as you leave the hotel, the crowds, the lines for taxis, the lines for clubs. Hot women and men, old people, the gamblers given 5-star treatment... the glaring shops, displays, lights. Driving past the desert, nondescript houses holding on to the hope of the city to survive from the encroachment of the desert threatening to conquer with it's desolation the one beacon that provides escape to hundreds of thousands of people the world over.
Honestly, to each his own, and while not being a self-righteous prick, I really think Las Vegas is a shrine to the six sins of Hinduism: desire, anger, greed, delusion, pride and envy. Or the seven deadly sins of Christianity... Anger, pride, greed, sloth, lust, envy, gluttony. It makes me immensely sad. Also because I can't sleep there. Probably due to the oxygen they pump to keep you awake so you'll gamble more.
It's vivid and sad and poignant and I agree because I thoroughly dislike Las Vegas. It used to be a moralistic sort of disgust - I don't approve of gambling or wasting hard-earned money you coulf be saving for your family to do something with in the hope of winning a pot of money. Because that's essentially what it is - a random permutation/combination win whose worth is less than the amount that's gone in. Of course, it's thrilling to have a mini-flood of a quarters flow from your slot machine, but disillusioning to discover that your hope and greed have led you to have less than what you actually began with. Of course, the people with luck/skill in the card games will beg to differ but I'm against gambling in general (which seems to imply that I'm against gambling in business or in relationships - let's just say I'm a gambler with things I cannot see or hold!)
Las Vegas is discomfiting because everything it projects is so obviously not real or lasting. The only thing I was fascinated by was the Tutankhamun boat ride in Luxor. It's like Mona Lisa when she's grown old, wrinkled memories of fame and a man called Leonardo Da Vinci who once painted her in a frozen smile that became famous - she has no idea why people come to see her and none of it means anything anymore. That's a confused simile but that's how I feel about Las Vegas. It's a mirage that people think is an anchor, they let go, come back, let go, being washed by some compulsion. It's fascinating, sure, because there's invariably something new, but it's all manufactured and it makes it blatantly obvious.
My first impression 2 years ago was the hot desert air blowing in my face, after large empty walls and passages and dimness filled with pictures of Las Vegas's origins, a ride in a limousine with tired coloured lights on a bleak ceiling, like a jaded has-been. The crowds and lines for check-in at the hotel, the lavishness of the room, the feeling that you're in a hot oven as you leave the hotel, the crowds, the lines for taxis, the lines for clubs. Hot women and men, old people, the gamblers given 5-star treatment... the glaring shops, displays, lights. Driving past the desert, nondescript houses holding on to the hope of the city to survive from the encroachment of the desert threatening to conquer with it's desolation the one beacon that provides escape to hundreds of thousands of people the world over.
Honestly, to each his own, and while not being a self-righteous prick, I really think Las Vegas is a shrine to the six sins of Hinduism: desire, anger, greed, delusion, pride and envy. Or the seven deadly sins of Christianity... Anger, pride, greed, sloth, lust, envy, gluttony. It makes me immensely sad. Also because I can't sleep there. Probably due to the oxygen they pump to keep you awake so you'll gamble more.
posted by Princess Joya | 3:23 am
5 Comments:
Also because I can't sleep there. Probably due to the oxygen they pump to keep you awake so you'll gamble more.
Is that true? Or did u just write that??
I dont know never been there, but seen it on tv and discovery shows, I really wonder what is the pleasure that people get gambling thier money off!! Nothing can make me gamble the money, Id rather blow it off in some video games parlour all day and nite or in some theme park!!
Well but I have never gambled, so can never say if I would like it, if u come to think of it!! I probably would gamble if it wasnt my very hard earned money...Or if probably I owned some country...One thing id like to try out is the jackpot machine, the one that phoebe tries out in friends!
cheers
If you look at Las Vegas as a place of sojourn, I guess, you would have a different view.
Brad, I am thinking of it as a place of sojourn!! I cannot imagine anything more bizarre than moving there. I wonder what it's like for people who have been born and raised there. Probably normal... they probably find other cities utterly drab-looking. Maybe it's just not my kind of place. What do you think?
Having stayed in metropolitan cities, native towns, cosmopolitan cities, I would have to say, a lot depends on the mentality of a person at that stage of his/her life. If he/she is a peace loving person, then he would love the country side of Mississippi, if she were a wild party animal sorts, then she would love New York. The point is, if a person is born & brought up in Las Vegas, he would like it or dislike it, depending on how his personality moulds! Nei?
Hehe. True. But i just wonder what an insider's opinion is about that... just cant imagine children there. Though I guess they probably have a normal childhood! And one's personality would be somewhat moulded by the surroundings as well na.
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