Читать книгу Anglo-American Cultural Studies - Jody Skinner - Страница 15

wonders of technology?The answer in two words: amazingly well. The explanation for how and why Americans have managed to live with climatic extremes is a bit more complicated. Perhaps part of the American character involves the kind of resilience that can be seen in all the building and rebuilding of homes or buying new mobile homes until the next tornado blows them away: this ability to continually start afresh and start anew seems very American. Technological advances like central heating and air conditioning, the use of snow plows, the development of weather forecasting with special networks devoted to nothing else than descriptions of the next storm have enabled millions of Americans to spread across a continent which in amazingly large parts isn’t fit for comfortable human habitation. Of course you could also wonder why electrical wires aren’t run underground so that hurricanes, tornadoes, and ice storms wouldn’t interrupt electricity as often. Maybe politicians are to blame? Speaking of politics…