Comments on: Has Travel Writing Become Nothing More Than A Self-Help Genre?

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 20:36:25 +0000

Best travel writers in history: Hunter S. Thompson and P.J. O'Rourke.

Gilbert pales. Fully agree with your post. Let's change the trend.

By: jon

jon — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:04:52 +0000

Thanks for the comment. And I actually feel that you've taken the first step of surpassing the superficial modern travel writer by inquiring — so that's awesome. I guess what I was trying to say in the post is that the people travel with a 'wine and cheese prejudice' in mind and they need to shed their dreamy notions of destinations and travel to seek the true place. In other words, Julia Roberts (we'll use her since she's simply the actress, not the author, eh?) went to Italy to seek out (among others things that would take much more space to discuss) wine and pizza, and that's the kind of learning about the place she underwent. I'm not saying that's bad, but one expell these images, should develop a yearning true sense of place, history, etc., and develop some insight that transcends wine and cheese surface, as well as this me me me "I'm a travel writer to heal me." In the end, I actually sat through the movie and enjoyed it… which is more than I can say about 27 Dresses.

Hope this helps! Enjoy your travels!

By: grashina

grashina — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:42:14 +0000

i think this article is really interesting especially since i am just starting out as a travel writer myself (hopefully i will be one of the talented ones you mentioned) in the last paragraph you say : "….there will still be those works that strike at the heart of what the genre is all about."

not to be annoying (just interested because i really enjoyed reading this) what is it that you think the genre is all about?