Travel writing has a way of being perishable

“Travel writing is perishable. I find that when I’m reading a book of bygone travels I become irritated with curiosity about what the place is like today — can you still swim in the river, as the writer did? Can you still eat the fish? Are the houses still roofed with thatch? This problem has to do not only with travel writing but all nonfiction. If you look in the Classics or Literature section of any bookstore you’ll see mainly works of fiction. Nonfiction is about the physical world, and over time the physical world tends to disappear.”
–Ian Frazier, in They Went: The Art and Craft of Travel Writing (1991)

Posted by | Comments Off on Travel writing has a way of being perishable  | July 14, 2014
Category: Travel Quote of the Day

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