[HN Gopher] Inventing the Beach: The unnatural history of a natu...
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Inventing the Beach: The unnatural history of a natural place
(2016)
Author : softwaredoug
Score : 35 points
Date : 2020-07-23 06:11 UTC (16 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
| OldHand2018 wrote:
| > From antiquity up through the 18th century, the beach stirred
| fear and anxiety in the popular imagination. The coastal
| landscape was synonymous with dangerous wilderness; it was where
| shipwrecks and natural disasters occurred.
|
| It's still actually a very dangerous place [1]. Keep in mind that
| very few people knew how to swim back then.
|
| [1] https://glsrp.org/statistics/
| simonebrunozzi wrote:
| In short: In the 18th and 19th century the British Elite, the
| most powerful back then, started to use beaches as a place to
| restore and rejuvenate. Then extended this to the Mediterranean
| and Baltic seas.
|
| The article fails to mention that the main reason for the elite
| to seek solace in coastal shores was health-related: iodized
| fresh air on the beach helped (or at least was considered of
| help) with several diseases that were common back then.
| EamonnMR wrote:
| It's kind of striking how much faith they used to put in the
| power of climate to affect health. Histories of the period very
| frequently include people moving specifically because they are
| told the climate will improve their health. I wonder if there
| was anything to it or if it was the equivalent of a fad diet.
| variaga wrote:
| Probably a mix; for respiratory conditions, the _abysmal_ air
| quality in London (look up the "Great Stink" of 1858) and
| other industrial(izing) cities meant a move to somewhere the
| air was cleaner would have a rapid, measurable effect on
| health. (The Victorian understanding of the word "climate"
| would have included "air quality" as a factor.)
|
| Other medical conditions (Cholera) that were exacerbated by
| poor sanitation would also show lower prevalence in the
| countryside, but the "climate" would be correlation, instead
| of causation.
|
| And some of it was undoubtedly just a way of showing off in
| an "I spend 4 months a year on the French Riviera for the
| climate, on advice of my Doctor. PS I am wealthy enough to
| summer in France and have a personal Doctor." sort of way.
| flukus wrote:
| > but the "climate" would be correlation, instead of
| causation.
|
| Two I've heard in the modern era are asthma and allergies.
| I'm not sure if it helps with asthma but different climates
| definitely affect allergies, particular the prevalence of
| more evergreen trees means there's a reduced/missing
| allergy season.
| darkerside wrote:
| There's probably a conflation of "mindfulness" in there.
| Since it wasn't a word at the time (I would presume), the
| meaning of it was probably mixed into other concepts, like
| climate.
| Sniffnoy wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory
| wittyusername wrote:
| I live on the beach. Like actually I wake up and there it is
| staring at me in bed, my porch is covered in corrosion and salt
| air persists everywhere.
|
| It may be an invention but a few years into living here damned if
| it isn't one of the few things that resists hedonic adaptation. I
| feel way more relaxed here, granted I was coming from a major
| metro but I sometimes things that get hyped up actually are
| great!
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(page generated 2020-07-23 23:00 UTC)