enjoyed reading this so much! the desire to prove your authenticity as a native of a place is such a resonant feeling — for me, i relate through my experiences living in the LA area. people love to argue over if someone’s **really** from LA, but honestly i’ve found that there is no one authentic experience of a place because a single place is inherently so multifaceted.
would honestly love to read your essay, if you end up writing it, about your personal experience with authenticity as you pursue the citywalk. to me, that’s authentic as an experience as the food influencer’s
ah the LA one i hear a lot — it is very true & i do intellectually understand the “no one authentic experience”, but i do wonder at where do we draw the line? when it comes to travel, when people don’t natively reside in a place, there’s such a desire for “authenticity”… the underground restaurants that only the locals know etc
love this. i associate the idea of authenticity with authority. arbitrating what's authentic in discourse is typically a means to carve out an individual niche, i.e., in this conversation, i am the authority on what is authentic to new york, or stanford, or china.
it's flawed, of course -- your notion of authenticity is colored by your experience, background, etc. -- but i do see its social function.
enjoyed reading this so much! the desire to prove your authenticity as a native of a place is such a resonant feeling — for me, i relate through my experiences living in the LA area. people love to argue over if someone’s **really** from LA, but honestly i’ve found that there is no one authentic experience of a place because a single place is inherently so multifaceted.
would honestly love to read your essay, if you end up writing it, about your personal experience with authenticity as you pursue the citywalk. to me, that’s authentic as an experience as the food influencer’s
ah the LA one i hear a lot — it is very true & i do intellectually understand the “no one authentic experience”, but i do wonder at where do we draw the line? when it comes to travel, when people don’t natively reside in a place, there’s such a desire for “authenticity”… the underground restaurants that only the locals know etc
love this. i associate the idea of authenticity with authority. arbitrating what's authentic in discourse is typically a means to carve out an individual niche, i.e., in this conversation, i am the authority on what is authentic to new york, or stanford, or china.
it's flawed, of course -- your notion of authenticity is colored by your experience, background, etc. -- but i do see its social function.