Sometimes a moment contains so much of itself it begins to multiply. A beetle lands on an entomology book, then scuttles towards The White Album. At any moment there are at least twelve assholes reading On the Road on the road and some lovers talk about fucking while they fuck. Remember that time we drank…
1) On the psychic necessity of distant places We need the possibility of escape as surely as we need hope; without it the life of the cities would drive all men into crime or drugs or psychoanalysis. 2) On the simple pleasures of the present moment For my own part, I am pleased enough with…
By Rolf Potts (excerpted from Forever Nomad) Years ago, while I was trying to finish writing a book about the philosophy of long-term travel, I ran into a problem while outlining the final chapter. My intention in this chapter had been to speak to the importance of — and difficulties inherent in — returning home…
Not many people know it but Adam and Eve had a dog. Its name was Kelev Reeshon, which means, first dog. Some scholars say it had green fur and ate only plants and grasses, and that is why some dogs still like to eat grass. Others say it was hairless like the Chihuahua. Some say…
(an excerpt) In the fifties I learned to drive a car. I was frequently in love. I had more friends than now. When Khrushchev denounced Stalin my roommate shit blood, turned yellow, and lost most of his hair. I attended the lectures of the excellent E.B. Burgum until Senator McCarthy ended his tenure. I imagined…
By Ryszard Kapuscinski (An excerpt) Herodotus — who lived 2,500 years ago and left us his “History” — was the first reporter. He is the father, master and forerunner of a genre –reportage. Where does reportage come from? It has three sources, of which travel is the first. Not in the sense of a tourist…
1) On the way photos have turned us into image junkies Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted. Industrial societies turn their citizens into image-junkies; it is the most irresistible form of mental pollution. Poignant longings for beauty, for an end to…
1) All good stories use some kind of formula Everyone knows that pop genres like horror, mystery, musical comedy and adventure, use formulas, of course — that’s what ”genre” means. The highbrow ideal says that art should be original and (usually) true to life; those are supposedly the hallmarks of quality. But we now live…
For an hour or two the evening has no limits Or so it seems to you as you walk the pavements Of this, your adoptive city. Before you the sun At play lights the windows of the office buildings In the vault of the avenue, conveying odd images Like the faces seen in the flames…
From Paul Fussell’s Abroad (1980) As I have said, it is hard to be a snob and a tourist at the same time. A way to combine both roles is to become an anti-tourist. Despite the suffering he undergoes, the anti-tourist is not to be confused with the traveler: his motive is not inquiry but…
(An excerpt) Once a young woman walked every afternoon along a stretch of beach. She was tall, with a slender tanned body, and her bathing suit was very short and tight and of a soft gay green yarn. Every afternoon as she crossed the warm sand to the steps up the cliff, she passed close…
