Victoria, B.C. | March 2011
In the past I have understood travel writing to be commercial travel guides or the helpful snippets of user reviews on TripAdvisor. I have recently started taking a class on the history, rhetoric, and purpose of Travel Writing, and it turns out I have much to learn! In the past I have taken Anthropology classes and read accounts of interactions with unknown tribes in remote parts of the world. (I highly recommend White Man Will Eat You!) I have also read many memoirs, many of which include experiences of traveling away from home. I just never thought of Travel Writing as a literary or academic genre of its own.
This week I read a piece by Catherine Watson entitled “Where the Roads Diverged” from The Best American Travel Writing 2008. (Yes, that’s a thing!) To me it felt like reading any other memoir or personal essay, but with themes of travel and culture, rather than many other types of things memoirists write about. It was a touching account of her experience of Easter Island many years ago. The people that changed her and the reasons she can never go back.
Charles Darwin (1832) Rio de Janeiro brazilwonders.tumblr.com
I also read Charles Darwin’s Journal of Researches, Chapter II. I was surprised to find his writing very easy to read and enlightening about the people, animals, and surroundings he passed through in Brazil, 1832. He writes, “For the few last miles the road was intricate, and it passed through a desert waste of marshes and lagoons. The scene by the dimmed light of the moon was most desolate. A few fireflies flitted by us; and the solitary snipe, as it rose, uttered its plaintive cry. The distant and sullen roar of the sea scarcely broke the stillness of the night.”
So now that I have been introduced to real travel writing, I’m hooked. No more scanning the reviews on TripAdvisor to hear about someone’s good or bad experiences, or recommendations around a city. With all the travel writing out there, both published and on blogs, I can never go back. Heading to South America? Check out Runaway Jane’s blog post: 10 Things You Should Know if You’re Coming to South America. Planning a trip to Sweden? Read Michelle’s post about Stockholm at the Diachronic Paradigm blog: Of if you are interested in reading about what Brazil looked like in 1832… Darwin can tell you!!
Reykjavík, Iceland September 2010
In this modern age, anything worth reading about travel: best restaurants, cultural studies, tips for traveling with kids, it’s out there, and someone is blogging about it. I’m excited to start discovering other travel blogs, books, and articles written by people around the world and throughout history. As for this blog, I will be sharing my stories from encounters I’ve had with people and places that I never would have had without traveling to get there.
Hi Jamie! I’m Kelly and I’ve been assigned as your “in-depth response colleague” and I’d like to start off by telling you that I am in awe of your blog site. I literally gasped out loud when I clicked on the link that took me to Catherine Watson’s blog. I’m so impressed by your skills and like a child, I clicked on every single link to see where it would take me, then I went back and read the blog entry!! Holding my envy in check, I found your post to be polished and refined. Your summaries of both the Watson and Darwin articles gave the reader the perfect glimpse into what you gleaned from your readings this week. In addition, your style invites your reader to become a part of your experience. Kelly
Thank you Kelly!
Hi Jamie.
I agree with Kelly. Your blog has a lightness, and you make nice use of white space and text. Those links add a bit of color, like Christmas lights. It’s pretty! I aspire to add more links, after reading your blog.
I would like to know a bit more about how you related to our readings on the blog. I find that the hardest part of writing these; how to make them narrative and academic. I know you leave bounties of great comments on our Blackboard Learn, so you know what you’re talking about.
When I was in India, and some other out-of-the-way places, I noticed how well-received travelers going with small children are. Many cultures of the world really respect children and go out of their way to accommodate them. Your toddler is a lucky little one to be born into a traveling family.
Rhea
Rhea,
That would be wonderful to be well received with our little one! He has some serious surfer hair going on right now, which seems to be a big hit with Asian tourists in Hawaii. They ask to take pictures with him :) Apparently blonde hair is part of the sight-seeing adventure that is America!
Jamie