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| Book Reports Click here to return to the Main Menu BOOK REPORT: WHITEOUT: Lost in Aspen by Ted Conover My wife, Kay, discovered Ted Conover, a journalist who specializes in book-length reports on places and experiences such a being a prison guard or a hobo. In Whiteout he spends over a year getting to know Aspen by living and working there, first as a cab driver and later as a reporter for a local newspaper. He makes no secret about what he is doing , particularly after his fellow cab-drivers suspect he�s a narc. He�s accepted nonetheless, and sees Aspen up close: the celebrities, the super-rich, John Denver, New Age cult wannabes and many others who make up the diverse, the deliberately diverse, population of Aspen. (For another look at many of these trends, check out my review of Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks and then read the book, it�s full of insights and humor about the new elites.) Conover also raises the issue of how much is too much, whether it be square-footage of part-time vacation houses-55,000? How about 70,000? Excesses of all kinds are indulged in Aspen, largely on the principle of if you can do it, do. Here in Florida we have seen much the same tug-of-war between the newcomers and the old-timers (frequently not so lately arrived themselves), the rich vs. the super rich as well as the-not-quite-rich and the downright poor, as they all struggle to enjoy/preserve their dream of what this place was like �before� you pick the date or event. Conover begins with the lines from the Odyssey about the Lotus-Eaters and the image is very apt, not only as it applies to many of those in Aspen, but as to Conover himself. Even after deciding that Aspen has become hollow and artificial and that he has to leave, he acknowledges that the Lotus-Eaters would go back if Ulysses would only let them, that even if you reject a place, it can still have a powerful attraction for you. |
| Date of Review: June 2001 |
| Jack Latona established the Center for Creating the Future, Inc., in 2001 as a think tank to further explore concepts about the future he had developed for a university course on The Millennium. In addition to their theoretical interest, these concepts have significant practical applications for businesses and other organizations. As a result, The Center�s web site now has two sections, one to continue theoretical discussion of the future, the other to provide information on how The Center can assist organizations to begin to create their futures now. Please CLICK HERE to go to the Center�s new web site at www.creatingthefuture.org. |