annotated source 02.10

Iyer, Pico. "The Nine Commandments of Travel Writing." Conde Nast Traveler: the Truth in Travel. Sept 2007. Web. 9 Feb 2012.

This is a neat little article about travel writing--apparently Pico Iyer is a pretty big deal, so I'm glad I found another of his articles. He also has several books which I might check out at some point. Anyway, this article starts out with a quote that I really love: "for 20 years I've been writing books which appear on the travel shelves, but none of them, deep down, have anything to do with travel. Yet the first thing any traveler learns is that every rule is made to be broken." This quote exemplifies a lot of advice that Iyer gives in his article. He states that travel books are more about the authors than about travel, and that every good travel book is a quest or a question that's never answered. I was pleased to find a couple of his "commandments" stating that travel writing is more about writing than it is about traveling; also, that you don't have to venture far to travel. These are good things to keep into account because as I'm writing in London, the city will most likely be the context for many of my essays, but it won't be the focus. The focus, rather, is good writing and introspection. Also, his statement that you don't have to venture far to travel is fun because even though I'll be in London writing, I won't have to seek daring and dangerous adventures in order to find good material. Although there is always a place for daring and dangerous.

For example: this time around, I am DEFINITELY going on the Jack the Ripper tour of London. Who's in?

annotated source 02.06

Iyer, Pico. "Why We Travel." Worldhum. 27 April 2009. Web. 3 Feb 2012. 


Okay, so I acknowledge that it's about time to branch out and expand my vision as I'm looking at sources, although I will probably add a few more essayists to my course of study at some point. This essay is a great find; although it talks about traveling in general, it can easily apply to travel writing (obviously, because it's an essay written about travel). The first few sentences of this essay perfectly outline what it talks about: 


"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again--to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more."


I hope this quote doesn't get taken the wrong way. It does say "we travel to bring what little we can...to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed," which could indicate the American arrogance that field study so despises, but I think it's different than that. Throughout the article it very humbly explains that travelers travel to learn from the world--but it's impossible to think that we don't bring something to the parts of the world we visit. The traveler probably learns infinitely more, but we can still bring something to the people we visit. 


And that is, essentially, what this essay communicates. And much more: this is a beautiful essay.