<\/p>\n

In a show of why he’s one of the bets in the biz right, Rolf Potts is chronicling his recent “Star Trek”-themed Caribbean cruise in a five-part series over at World Hum this week.<\/a><\/p>\n

And why, might you ask, would a travel writer extraordinaire waste his time partaking on one of the most hated forms of “travel” that exists, and <\/em>do so amongst a tribe of die-hard sci-fi fans? Perhaps to “explor[e] imaginative landscapes in the context of physical landscapes . . . [and] how the travel sensibilities of Trekkies can hold a mirror up to American ideals, just as the travel sensibilities of Herodotus held a mirror up to Greek ideals.”<\/p>\n

Or, in one of the great justifications any traveler has for lighting out to somewhere new and unknown to experience what surely few others have, in his own words: “I was dying to know what it\u2019s like to experience a sea voyage to Bermuda when your travel companions would rather be making a space voyage to Romulus.”<\/p>\n

Some commenters to his piece have taken offense to the whole cruise-travel concept, arguing that it “doesn\u2019t involve any real journey or exploration.” I think they’re missing the point here. As most travelers know, it’s not the destination but the journey. What better way to look back on a lifetime of travel and exploration than to view it through the prism of a mundane, prosaic cruise? Yes, David Foster Wallace did it in his own way, and Rolf is doing it his.<\/p>\n

Sure there are plenty of articles and ideas out there about the next off-the-beaten-path destination, but there exists the danger of losing that thrill of discovering those places and cultures. Perhaps a cruise is needed every once in a while to remind us all of that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a show of why he’s one of the bets in the biz right, Rolf Potts is chronicling his recent “Star Trek”-themed Caribbean cruise in a five-part series over at World Hum this week. And why, might you ask, would a travel writer extraordinaire waste his time partaking on one of the most hated forms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[999,325],"yoast_head":"\n