When I saw Titanic years ago, I cried. Before you start to scoff, let me state that I was only 12 years old, and due to receive my first period within a couple months. Also, those the old people curling up on the bed are adorably sad, and if that doesn't at least tug at your heart strings then you are clearly a robot/android/jerk-face.
I managed to avoid seeing the 3-D re-release of the film, but I couldn't pass up Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition (currently showing at the San Diego Natural History Museum).
The exhibition features objects raised from the sea floor, set among recreations of cabins and period dressed actors for effect. There's even an iceberg. It's very cold.
While I liked the exhibit, it left me with mixed feelings. The Titanic itself is very much a grave site, which is now essentially being plundered for profit. Yet, how many other exhibits have I attended are also filled with plundered loot from the graves of the deceased? Do I feel differently because only 100 years has passed since the Titanic's sinking? Or maybe it's because these are rich white folks?*
Maybe I'm just over-thinking things, as I'm prone to do. The exhibit is educational, and really well done. The bulk of artifacts are personal possessions, making it easy to relate to individual passengers. And maybe that's the point of the whole thing: to remind us that we are not infallible. Our lives are random, and could cease at any moment.
*I haven't seen the movie since the early 2000s, but apparently third class was not as squalid as it appeared on the big screen. You had to be pretty well off to afford even the cheapest cabins. Their menus didn't seem to shabby either.
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