William T. Vollmann on using travel to better understand the world
“In these times, any one of you who feels inclined to risk a little and learn a lot should travel to an Islamic country to make friends and to learn, not to teach. . . . You should get to know them well enough to understand why what they believe is plausible to them, and you should explain their views to other Americans as sympathetically and as accurately as you can.”
–William T. Vollmann, from “Some Thoughts on the Value of Writing During Wartime,” a lecture given in November 2002
January 11th, 2006 at 7:31 pm
I always liked this Vollman quote from The Atlas:
“Which is worse, to be too often protected, and thereby forget the suffering of others, or to suffer them oneself? There is, perhaps, a middle course: to be out in the world enough to be toughened, but to have a shelter sufficient to stave off callousness and wretchedness.”
January 15th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
I recommend going to Turkey–it’s a good middle ground for discovering the overlap between the West and the Muslim world.
May 18th, 2011 at 4:24 am
In December I spent a week or so in Kuala Lumpur and I didn’t realise how prejudiced against Muslims I had been… when everyone around you has no direct experience with a group, and neither do you, you really don’t realise how many misconceptions you passively absorb… now I follow the news on Muslim issues in Aus and abroad with an awakened curiosity.