Travel Readings

Last night, I went to The Half King for a book reading. Rolf Potts was reading from his new collection of travel stories called Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer. I've posted about Potts before and how inspiring his book, Vagabonding, is to me. Of course I bought his new book and had it signed by him. I always go to book readings thinking I won't buy the book and then I almost always do. I'm so susceptible to marketing. Oh well, it's nice having a signed copy, I guess.

In person, Potts speaks very much like he writes, with a very straightforward, clean, and balanced prose. He has this extremely practical and refreshing way of thinking and writing about travel. He encourages travelers to slow down and take the time to really get to know a place, not just whisk through it on a whirlwind. Too often, I feel like this is what I, and many others, do when traveling. You schedule visits to three cities in one week and do a perfunctory tour of each place. It's only when you stop and really experience a place, that you allow it to sink into your skin and have the most memorable time. He also cautions against pre-conceived ideas of a culture or place, and even one's own judgments of what's right or proper or valuable. You have to be fluid, adaptable, and sensitive to what's around you. But you also have to strike a balance between that and your own honest feelings. You shouldn't sensor them or worry too much about being politically correct. If something genuinely offends you, let it offend you, but be open to seeing things you'd never have expected seeing in that particular place in time.

Like any good writer, Potts has a bit of a self-deprecating, goofy, and vulgar side. He is a self-proclaimed "travel geek." At one point, he presented a slide show of his own photos. One was a high school yearbook photo of himself sporting a mullet and Cosby sweater; another was a picture of the place he spends most of his time: a bare writing desk with an old laptop next to a bed. His point: travel writing isn't as sexy as one would think. He seemed to really want to demystify the lifestyle of travel writers and show how unglamorous it really is. He mentioned that he lives very simply, never beyond his means, and, instead of settling in an exciting place like New York, he owns a farm in Kansas near his family. Also, after ten years of writing professionally, his income is only now starting to be commensurate with his experience.

There was a bit of discussion about Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat, Pray, Love spurred by a fellow travel writer in the audience who was "envious...of her numbers." I thought that was a pretty funny comment, especially since the guy had just gone on a tirade about how he liked that the book explored the "neuroses of New Yorkers." Potts calls the book "travel porn for women," which struck me as a little misogynistic, if not hilariously true. I actually really liked the book, but not as a piece of travel nonfiction; I never thought to classify Gilbert's book as such. It's more of a self-help book peppered with some foreign locales. It's not really an account of her experiences in a particular place. Her experiences could have happened anywhere. Potts' criticism comes from her living in an insular world of expats, not really exploring where she travels to. She reflects inwardly rather than onto her environment, which is precisely why I say it's a self-help book, not a travel piece. In any case, Potts' intriguing review of the book imagines a man in Gilbert's place, and summarizes the story to an amusing effect.


*On a somewhat unrelated note, there was a pretty cool photo exhibit on display at The Half King. The artist apparently followed Barack Obama on the campaign trail and some of the photos were really moving. One is a shot of Obama from behind waving to an audience that's blacked out, due presumably to a bright spotlight. It kind of shows his isolation, how he can't even see his audience. But his energy still comes through the photo. My favorite picture, though, is of him sitting on a pool table, taking a shot with the cue wrapped behind his back and through his arms. There are all these people standing back and watching him, which gives off more of the same feeling of isolation. But what really gets me is this very real, laid back, cool demeanor he possesses.*