Wednesday 25 June 2014

Is travel writing simply piddling in the wind?

Most travel writing - and I include my own in this - might look at first sight to be nothing more than fairly trivial recollections on one's journeys. The ups and downs of getting around in unfamiliar countries, of coping with unexpected food or different ways of doing things.

But we write at a time when, or so it seems to me, the world is becoming increasingly divided. Some newspapers would have us believe that there can be no dialogue between Christian and Muslim, between the democrat and the demagogue, between the greedy and the needy.

What travel writers do is ask questions about these differences - often very trivial questions - that explore everything that we have in common. We all need to eat and have shelter from the weather. We love and are loved. We nurture our young and grieve for our dying. The rhythms of our rituals may be different; the way we organise our families and our trade and our means of production may be different, but our fundamental needs and feelings are the same.

Travel writers understand our sameness and explore our differences without making judgement about them.

And in our divided, conflicting world it seems to me that it is needed more than ever.

Are we piddling in the wind? Possibly. One little stream will make no difference. But two little streams is better than one. Three can become a rivulet. Four ... you get my drift.

I cannot accept a world in which we settle our differences with guns. Travel writers might be nothing more than an entertainment for you to curl up with on a wet day. But collectively we can suggest that words are the only way to understand those differences and the only way to find a more peaceful way of living together.

Am I saying travel writers can change the world? Of course not. But I am suggesting that we feed curiosity, and that can never be a bad thing.

9 comments:

  1. A lovely post, Jo. I wish we could spread your words so far that there would be no need for settling differences but for celebrating them instead. Very very well said.

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    1. Not just mine - there are many of us celebrating difference rather than seeing as something to be suspicious of.

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  2. Well said, or rather, written. I have a big thing going for travel writers, I think it's the combination of observing/reporting and trying to understand our place on this planet that touches a nerve. I started with Dervla Murphy - am a huge fan and follower, even stood outside her cottage in Lismore once like a befuddled groupie (she was not in) - and many more authors have followed, incl. you, we recently had to add more shelving for our travel books section at home.

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    1. How wonderful it must be in your house, with whole shelves of travel writing!!

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  3. Well, we all have to do what we can. That's the only way to approach it - as far as I can see.

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    1. It's the only way to do it - stand up and be counted for the things we believe in, rather than hoping someone with a louder voice does it for us.

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  4. "Words are the only way to understand those differences and the only way to find a more peaceful way of living together." Very true. What a pity we speak different languages!

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    1. I don't have a problem with us speaking different languages - only when we use that different to promote conflict and make no effort at all to understand each other. (I had fun getting myself understood in Cuba!!)

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  5. It's not just the division our modern world seems to be suffering from, but the shrinking of borders. We live in a borderless world now, courtesey of the world wide web. So, travel writers have it twice as tough now in that many accounts can be written first-hand and uploaded instantly. What do I look for in a travel writer? (and I know a few). Honesty, experience, knowledge, humbleness (especially when travelling to countries whose cultures split opinions down the middle), tact and humanity.

    This was a very beautiful reflection. Loved it.

    Greetings from London.

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