Dimiter Kenarov’s article, “Bombing Sarajevo”, and Sam Anderson’s article “The Pippiest Place on Earth", can both be considered travel writing in their unique way. In “Bombing Sarajevo” Kenarov describes his time spent in the city of Sarajevo with young snowboarders. Sarajevo recently underwent a civil war and is still dealing with the hardships of the aftermath. The snowboarders of the city are focused on the future and disinterested in dwelling about the past. In “The Pippiest Place on Earth” Anderson visits Dickens’ World in London. While the theme park had several well executed concepts, it was ultimately disappointing. Anderson finds that he is able to connect with Dickens the most by visiting Rochester, a town which several details of Dickens’ stories were inspired by. Ultimately, both of these travel writings are historically informative and visually descriptive.
Both of these essays are examples of “history travel”. In “Bombing Sarajevo” we learn about the city’s past and its lasting effects on the current day. The title “Bombing Sarajevo” is literary in the sense that it has a dual meaning. During the civil war in Sarajevo, landmines were placed on Bjelasnica mountain. This is where the snowboarders frequently practice, even though active mines
…show more content…
still remain. In its other meaning “Bombing Sarajevo” means all of the snowboarders collective efforts to improve the ski industry and, in turn, Sarajevo. Kenarov skillfully includes significant details about Sarajevo’s current state that point back to Sarajevo’s history. In “The Pippiest Place on Earth”, Anderson travels back in time by visiting a place made to resemble London in the 1850’s: Dicken’s World.
When first reading this article I was uncertain about how it fit into the category of travel writing. After all, Anderson is chiefly describing an attraction made to represent an older world—the whole affair was fabricated. Soon, it was apparent that this article was a perfect embodiment of historical travel writing. Dicken’s world is described in rich detail by Anderson. We learn quickly what type of place London was in the 1850’s—depressing, unsanitary, and riddled by disease. From Anderson’s descriptions it is easier to understand why Dicken’s work was so
tragic. Kenarov includes a plethora of details to make us feel like we are hanging out in Sarajevo with a group of lively snowboarders ourselves. Near the end of his article, Kenarov writes, “Vilic and Krneta had suggested the idea: If we can’t have a Europa Cup, let’s bring a truckload of snow to the skate park in Sarajevo and have our own jib session. Sublime is blasting from Krneta’s parked Audi, the four doors wide-open, the hatchback full of beer”. In this passage I can picture myself as “one of the boys”. You are transported into their carefree, happy, and playful atmosphere – despite the all the trials the city had to face in the past. Specifically, the Sublime detail is what personally drew me into their world, as I’ve had many of my own lackadaisical days accompanied with Sublime music bumping. Anderson’s work is extremely visually descriptive, which really pushes the reader to picture themselves in a completely different time and place. Anderson says, “We drove a tiny rented Hyundai between curving hedgerows into Cooling, a country village that feels more like the absence of a village, a negative space defined by birdsong and horizon and wind”. This passage captures the true essence of Dicken’s real world. Solitary and eerie. His description continues by describing the 800 year old church and the 13 tiny markers in place for children who died from malaria. Even by explaining the construction of the inauthentic theme park Anderson is able to provide insight about what London was like in the past. He says, “The laborers had been hired to do basically the opposite of a typical construction job. They were building squalor — making new things look old, clean things look filthy, dry things look wet, solid things look rotten”. These details educate us on what the typical conditions were in the past: filthy, wet, and rotten.
In His short story "A White Horse", author Thom Jones introduces his main characters, Ad Magic's, hunger for mad adventure. This peripatetic-"American Dream" looking character who appears in a few of Thom Jone's short stories seems like the perfect traveling companion. After "abandoning his seizure meds" in Los Angeles, he suddenly finds himself lost in Bombay,-trying to remember who, where and how?- on a bus loaded with tourists,where he almost died during the car accident,but ironical not from the impact of a matter, but of suffocation. This spontaneous, out-of-control odyssey leads Ad to a filthy beach where he comes to the aid of a diseased and dying horse. A good man with a kind heart--not to mention the best name ever created for someone who works in advertising.
... of Scenery: Travel Writing from Southern Appalachia, 1840-1900. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 2004. Print.
With time, tragedies become statistics. The lives lost culminate to numbers, percentages, and paragraphs in textbooks,and though a recognition of its occurrence becomes universal, an understanding of its severity dies with those who lived it. “Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941” is a literary medium by which the nature of tragedy is transmitted. Set in the post-battle Leningrad, the poem encapsulates the desolation not of war and its aftermath. Paramount in this translation is figurative language. Olds’ use of simile and metaphor in “Leningrad Cemetery, Winter of 1941” allows the reader to understand the incomprehensible horrors of war and, through contrast, the value of life.
The setting is London in 1854, which is very different to anything we know today. Johnson’s description of this time and place makes it seem like a whole other world from the here and now....
passengersâ€like a city in a nightmare. The street shone out in contrast to its dingy neighbourhood, like a fire in a forest and with its freshly painted shutters, well polished. brass and general cleanliness and gaiety of noteâ€'. The diversity between these two quotes shows how the higher and lower classes differed which reflect the Victorian way of life. However, if you look at the story in more depth, the reader begins to see a deeper meaning hidden in the words of the novella.
The poem “The action in the ghetto of Rohatyn, March 1942” by Alexander Kimel is an amazing literary work which makes the reader understand the time period of the Holocaust providing vivid details. Kimel lived in an “unclean” area called the ghetto, where people were kept away from German civilians. The poet describes and questions himself using repetition and rhetorical questions. He uses literary devices such as repetition, comparisons, similes and metaphors to illustrate the traumatizing atmosphere he was living in March 1942.
Of the lessons of this course, the distinction made between story and situation will be the most important legacy in my writing. I learned a great travel essay cannot be merely its situation: its place, time, and action. It requires a story, the reader’s internal “journey of discovery.” While the importance of establishing home, of balancing summary and scene, and other lessons impacted my writing, this assertion at least in my estimation the core argument of the course.
Dickens used his great talent by describing the city London were he mostly spent his time. By doing this Dickens permits readers to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the aged city, London. This ability to show the readers how it was then, how ...
When telling their story, the narrators clearly express their aspirations of living an adventurous life. They both view international travel as a vessel for self-discovery and meaningful memories. For example, in Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa, David Sedaris expresses his desires for life-long memories and international travel when he writes, “They weren’t rich, but what Hugh and his family lacked financially they more than made up for with the sort of exoticism that works wonders at cocktail parties, leading always to the remark, ‘that sounds fascinating’.” According to this passage, Sedaris seems to believe that money is less important than experiences and memories themselves. One is able to infer that he yearns for a life that is filled with adventures. He wants to have the ability to tell interesti...
The setting for this novel was a constantly shifting one. Taking place during what seems to be the Late Industrial Revolution and the high of the British Empire, the era is portrayed amongst influential Englishmen, the value of the pound, the presence of steamers, railroads, ferries, and a European globe.
Dickens, Charles. The Uncommercial Traveler and Reprinted Pieces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. Nearly 40 essays by Dickens originally collected in 1861 and subsequently expanded.
Throughout his lifetime, Dickens appeared to have acquired a fondness for "the bleak, the sordid, and the austere."5 Most of Oliver Twist, for example, takes place in London's worst slums.6 The city is described as a maze which involves a "mystery of darkness, anonymity, and peril."7 Many of the settings, such as the pickpocket's hideout, the surrounding streets, and the bars, are also described as dark, gloomy, and bland.8
For us today, travel is a matter of hopping on to an express bus or an aeroplane, depending on the distances involved. London is only a few hours away and the moon is not unreachable. In the days of my parents’ youth, travel was a great event. Most people never moved more than fifty miles from their place of birth all their lives. So only a few adventurous people bother to travel at all. Even for these few, elaborate preparations were needed for the months of
Many of the classical travel narratives of the past are presented with a main character, with the story revolving around their journey and experience in foreign places. Examples of the traditional way of travel writing are classics like Love and War in the Apennines by Eric Newby, which is about the writers’ journey to Italy and how he met different people, including his wife, throughout the trip (Dalrymple & Theroux, 2011). There are also recent books like Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert which talks about a middle-aged woman’s travel experience as well as her self-discovery during her trip to India. It is a traditional way of travel writing to be a personal narrative and focus on a hero or heroine. In this essay, I will talk about a piece of writing conforming to this idea and another that does not, they are, namely Triumph on Mount Everest by Stacy Allison and Why We Travel by Pico Lyer.
... executed in order to set off into the world alone. The influence that independent travel has on an individual is a splendor upon riches because it does so much for a person, and provides humans with a sense of the world. How a person can makes new friends and learn about new cultures and accept other people’s way of living. With its educational purposes traveling alone can bring, offers an endless amount of living data that tops any history book or internet page. Traveling is concrete history that is continuing around everyone. It can provide people to look through different lenses and experience aspects of life that they know they will never experience again in their lifetimes. Traveling alone provides an endless journey and an empty page in the minds scrapbook that is waiting to be filled with new memories and the endless amount of true belonging and bliss.