Discussion about this post

User's avatar
David Roberts's avatar

The car was huge in changing the perception of distance and time. Enjoy this essay very much.

Expand full comment
Zack Grafman's avatar

I’ve spent my whole life fascinated by the Pre-War War Post-War periods, and often wondered this exact thing. I think Wouk is able to capture the otherness of that era well and translate it somehow to us, since he was a contemporary of that era and ours. The 30s-50s always shocks me as strangely modern when you time travel back in fiction or primary sources. You expect this totally foreign past, and then something from a photo leaps out at you as almost anachronistic. Look, their taxis are almost like ours! Look at that factory floor or that hotel lobby! They are just like me, for real!

Not doing a good job of conveying my meaning here, but endlessly fascinated with how simultaneously hard and easy it is to Go Back.

Expand full comment
3 more comments...

No posts