Different Writing Styles, Same Travel Writing Genre

In another English class that I am taking, we write blog responses to readings much like we do in this class. The very first response was about genres; looking at the creation of genres, what they are, and the significance of them in writing. The prompt for this week calls us to look at three readings, Metthiessen, Cahill, and Dalrymple and evaluate the difference styles that each have adopted, while staying within the boundaries of the travel writing genre.  

The Cloud Forest, written by Matthiessen, is done in the diary style. Each day is recorded and the ability to significantly analyze what he is going through it lost because of this. Although, he does have a keen ability to describe to the reader what he sees, hears, and experiences, so that they too can feel as if they are present with him. The quote we discussed in class is the perfect example of this. “There came a sudden avalanche of tropical rain, crashing to earth, and immediately, in a small stream, small fish like sun-fish leaped and whirled.” His imagery is what brings the reader along.

In Xandu, written by Dalrymple, is done by intertwining historical accounts with his own. I am not sure if this would count as a writing style, but for me it does. Dalrymple, who is following Marco Polo’s journey to Asia, compares Polo’s experiences to his own. At the beginning of the reading he talks about his experience at the Holy Sepluchre. He described the tension and awkwardness between the Greeks, Armenians, and other groups that worship there. He then goes on to explain how Marco Polo, who also visited the Holy Sepluchre in 1217, would have felt that same awkwardness since Jerusalem had been taken over by Islam just thirty years before. This mix of contemporary and historical writing helps to put both experiences into perspective.

Pecked to Death by Ducks, written by Cahill, I think, was the most interesting style out of these three. I would say that Cahill’s style seemed to be a serious-humor. He didn’t travel out of the country to a faraway place, he was within American borders experiencing and observing a barrio on the west coast. He was taking a serious issue, mainly drugs, and writing about the people that live their life under that influence. Although it is serious, like I said, he takes an almost humorous tone with his descriptions. “I saw it all in my mind's eye: thousands of chronic PCP users stumbling and lurching through the parking lot, all of them sweating and drooling, growling and barking, attacking anything that moved in their delirium, stumbling after their prey with glazed, marble eyes. And you couldn't hurt them, these zombie assassins. They'd just keep coming for you, like creatures out of the Night of the Living Dead.”

These three styles of writing are completely different and as we found out in class discussion, some people gravitate towards specific styles. This might have been predictable but I would say that I enjoyed Dalrymple’s In Xandu the most, both in writing style and in content. Matthiessen’s style, for me, is too much. It’s too descriptive and I think that takes away from the content. There has to be a balance. As for Cahill’s piece, I enjoy a good laugh and I would say it came in a close second for me, but there’s a time and a place for humor. Not everything can be funny. Even though I didn’t enjoy every piece we read, it is cool to think that such different styles fit into the same genre.

What Borders Will I Cross?

While I was thinking about the borders that I may encounter while on my trip to Belize, I couldn’t really pinpoint any that meant something to me. I know that sounds bad, so I decided to look deeper at some of the readings that really pushed the border issue to give myself a little push in the right direction. The three readings that I chose, Dalrymple, Matthiessen, and Kapuscinski, to me, show the most about crossing borders and how those borders can affect the people crossing them.

In Xandu, written by William Dalrymple, pushed two borders; ethnic and cultural. Dalrymple, who is from England, decides to follow the path of Marco Polo into Asia. During his journey he travels through culturally and ethnically diverse areas that are much different than his own. As he made his way from Israel to Asia, Dalrymple wrote of the different people that he came into contact with and the various ethnicities and cultures that he experienced. For him, as a person just passing through, these borders seemed more important to understand rather than to cross.

The Cloud Forest, written by Peter Matthiessen, pushed the environmental border that he crossed on his travels in South America. Begin from New York City; Matthiessen was way out of his element traveling to the jungles of South America. The Amazon rainforest is a very unique environment, different than any other place on earth. Matthiessen described it in this way; “[…] the forest is truly beautiful; it is difficult to conceive of a lovelier place in the world.”

In a previous post I talked about what I called the “foreigner border” in Ryszard Kapuscinski’s Travels With Herodotus.  Ron seemed interested yet disappointed that I didn’t take it further. So, I will take it further. To me, the foreigner border is the hardest and the easiest to cross. I said that this border was more of a personal problem, feeling like an outsider in an unfamiliar place. When you feel comfortable in a new environment and not like an outsider, you’ve crossed the border. That’s the easy part. The hard part comes with the native people actually accepting you, making you feel welcome, and treating you like one of them. That’s the hardest part, getting others to view you as their equal in their country, society, city, or town. Being a foreigner doesn’t mean you have to travel half way around the world, it means that you are in a place that you are unfamiliar; a place that people can spot someone different. The best example is a tourist from Akron going to New York City. They can tell you’re not from around there, so they might treat you differently. For the sake of my readers I won't take it too much further, but there is another element to this border; time. How long does it take for someone to consider themselves not to be a foriegner, or for natives to accept an outsider as one of thier own?

After taking some time to look at the borders that others have crossed I think that I will absorb them as one’s the I see myself crossing in my future travels. Going to Central America there will definitely be ethnic and cultural borders that I am eager to cross. Environmental borders can make people uneasy … not knowing what poisonous thing could bite you in the jungle, yet I am still excited to cross from the concrete jungle to an actual jungle. The last one, the foreigner border, I think holds the most weight for me. I throw myself into the places that I travel, immersing myself into every aspect of a culture. This is probably one reason why I don’t see myself as a foreigner when I travel, however I think this will be hardest for me because I won’t be accepted as an equal. I will be a tourist; someone to eat, drink, and buy products. It saddens me, but as I prepare for my travels it’s a reality that I have to face.