Setting Out
(Turkistan, Kazakhstan, 2018)
Giving a talk in Hong Kong to a group of students, after And the Monkey Learned Nothing and Drinking Mare’s Milk were published, I was asked a stumper: "Why," a young woman who wanted to become a travel writer asked, "did you want to put these stories in a book?"
Well, it's what I do, I had to say, I write books, but I didn't really get what she was after, and asked her to explain. "I love travel writing," she said. "But I would never think to go to a book for it. All the great travel writing is online."
My guess is that Bruce Chatwin and Pico Iyer might beg to differ, but it made me wonder—why am I so obsessed with publishing in book form? Is it just because I get rewarded for it as a professor? Is it so firmly embedded as the opposite of perishing that I can't think past it?
I also wonder about publishing in the literary journals. Shouldn't I just get out of the way now? I'm nearing retirement, I don't need to add anything to my CV, I don't need the recognition—shouldn't I just let someone who needs it have any available slot? Besides, the musings of old, cis-male, white boomers are not in great demand, and I hate rejection.....
In any case, I've decided, during this, my first and only year-long sabbatical, that I would blog. Maybe some of it will end up in a book, maybe not. I'm 20-something years late to the blogosphere, but I'm going to be on the road for the year, and tired of Facebook, never developed a real Instagram or Twitter habit, and so this seems like a reasonable way to let friends and family know what I'm up to in my far-flung lands.
(Photo from Urumqi, China, 2007)
We arrived in Paris after 11 hours in the air and one on the ground in New York. We have an Airbnb in the Marais for 10 days before renting a car and hitting the road. We took a cab from the airport, had a coffee and pastry, slept forever, then went to a superb Parisian dinner, then slept forever, and wandered down to the Bastille market and bought a few things. Looking at the beautiful Parisians, Laurie said it's interesting how when you are young, you look fabulous on the outside, and feel completely discombobulated on the inside. I just wish the converse felt a bit more accurate...