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Las Vegas is well known for its casinos, for its gambling, for The Strip. It remains one of the premier travel destinations in the world. Visitors come to experience the transitory gratification of the wager, the opportunity to “win.” Gambling is the primary attraction, a reason for coming to the desert. But gambling is no longer the sole purpose for visiting Las Vegas, for the casinos now offer high-tech and richly decorated simulacra, destinations of “place” that present “genuine” substitutions for Venice, Paris, New York. Visitors experience a variety of visual stimulants that are more than real, that are other than what the senses perceive at first glance as authentic. The casinos seek to capture the essence of a “place” in ways normally associated with Disneyland, where, according to Michael Sorkin, “one is constantly poised in a condition of becoming, always someplace that is ‘like’ someplace else. The simulation’s referent is ever elsewhere; the ‘authenticity’ of the substitution always depends on the knowledge, however faded, of some absent genuine” (“Disneyland” 216). Within this realm of the simulacra, visitors are constantly tempted by what might be, by dreams of the possible (the quick score, the jackpot). At the same time, Las Vegas is a city growing at the rate of 8,000 new residents per month, home to a burgeoning population who live and work in the shadow of the simulacra that dominate the city. New residents travel to the desert seeking the myriad opportunities for employment in the gaming and service industries, and current residents travel from job to job, always in search of the ever more lucrative position. Thus, Las Vegas becomes an “other” kind of “destination.” 97 CHAPTER SIX Simulated Destinations in the Desert The Southern Nevada Writing Project Ed Nagelhout and Marilyn McKinney In this chapter, based on the above description of Las Vegas, we analyze writing as a core urban experience at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), using the Southern Nevada Writing Project (SNWP) as a primary point of reference. Grounding our analysis in travel theories inspired by Michael Sorkin’s work, we examine underlying assumptions that SNWP participants make about writing instruction, as well as the environments to which they return after the Summer Institute is completed, in order to better understand local configurations of writing instruction at the K-12 level. We are particularly interested in exploring how both simulacra and travel work to sustain reductive models for teaching writing in the Las Vegas valley and the ways in which writing and writing instruction become “simulated destinations” within the larger educational system. TRAVELING AND ARRIVING Las Vegas is a place where travel is ubiquitous for visitors and residents alike, yet it remains only a “simulated destination” for most people. This concept of the simulated destination is not only effective for explaining Las Vegas as an urban place; it is also effective for examining the underlying features of writing programs and pedagogies. More specifically, the concept of simulated destinations helps us focus on ways that the Southern Nevada Writing Project must contend with exigencies unique to Las Vegas, and it assists us in developing strategies to address our particular needs. An understanding of simulated destinations begins with an understanding of movement. In general, movement underscores relationships between parts and wholes, and examinations of movement can be done on macro- and micro-levels. For example, spatial theorists such as Sorkin argue that automobile -dependent cities “seek to create a consistent culture of the particle, in which ostensibly egalitarian relationships of property are matched with appropriate circulation” (Traffic 24). In this respect, patterns of movement within a particular context such as Las Vegas, can define how various elements interact with each other as part of a larger whole. Of course, in order to track movement analysts must begin with certain points of reference, what might be called start points and end points. While these points are usually arbitrary, they serve the function of highlighting spaces where movement occurs: they specify a context for analysis. We concur with Nigel J. Thrift’s definition of context: “By ‘context’ I most decidedly do not mean an impassive backdrop to situated human activity. Rather, I take context to be a necessary constitutive element of interaction, something active, differentially extensive and able to problematize and work on the bounds of subjectivity” (3). Context is not passive, for context has a definite impact on 98 ED NAGELHOUT AND MARILYN McKINNEY [3.144.187.103] Project MUSE (2024-04-19...

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