Books and Travel

Inspiration, Quests and Transformation

Jennifer Laing, Warwick Frost

• Publisher: Channel View Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781845413507
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Hostelería, viajes y turismo

The books that we read, whether travel-focused or not, may influence the way in which we understand the process or experience of travel. This multidisciplinary work provides a critical analysis of the inspirational and transformational role that books play in travel imaginings. Does reading a book encourage us to think of travel as exotic, adventurous, transformative, dangerous or educative? Do different genres of books influence a reader's view of travel in multifarious ways? These questions are explored through a literary analysis of an eclectic selection of books spanning the period from the eighteenth century to the present day. Genres covered include historical fiction, children's books, westerns, science-fiction and crime fiction.

1 Introduction: Extraordinary Journeys

‘The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page’

St Augustine

The world is a book, and a book opens the way to a whole world. St Augustine, born in 4th century Roman Africa, was a teacher in Carthage, Rome and Milan, until his conversion to Christianity in his early thirties. He was an inveterate reader as well as experienced traveller throughout the ancient Roman world, and wrote several texts, including his Confessions. Augustine’s metaphor works two ways. Not travelling and staying in one place is like trying to understand a book by reading only one page. While the world might be understood metaphorically as a book, conversely books can both inspire travelling and dreams about travel.

Readers may seek places and adventures specifically featured in a story, or destinations connected with an author. Such literary tourism has been the subject of much analysis, including its roots in the 19th century (Watson, 2009), tourists’ motivations for visiting literary-related sites (Herbert, 2001; Smith, 2003), and the role of authenticity and social and cultural meanings attached to their experiences (Fawcett & Cormack, 2001; Squire, 1994). Various tourist attractions have been developed to meet the needs of this segment, such as writer’s birthplaces and homes, theme parks based on literary themes and places associated with books or authors (Robinson & Andersen, 2002). Though an important influence, this is only one way in which books influence tourists.

Writers and philosophers have long recognised the appeal of armchair travel and dreaming about destinations (Dann, 2002; de Botton, 2002; Taylor, 1994). We acknowledge this body of work, but go further, by arguing that most travellers are culturally acclimatised to aspects of travel, before they even set foot outside their front door, through what they have read. The shaping of our ideas about travel through books might be subtle, but it can have deep and nuanced effects on the traveller. We might understand, to some degree, how we are supposed to behave when we travel and what the ingredients of a future travel experience might be. We may learn about the hardships and the ‘hellish’ side of travel, as well as experiencing the sublime, and observe that travel can change us, not necessarily in the ways we might foresee or desire. Reading books may transmit a form of cultural heritage. This might help us to anticipate contact with the other and the nuances of culture and tradition we might encounter through a journey, as well understanding our own culture more deeply. The tourist experience may seem more real to us because it is framed by what we have read. We might also be disappointed in experiences that do not resemble those we have read about. Thus books might predispose us towards a particular view of authenticity, which could be connected to the tangible and some form of objective reality, or alternatively a more existential form concerned with the authentic self (Wang, 2000).

Our research supports that of sociologist John Urry on the way the tourist gaze is constructed. Urry (2002: 3) observes that the tourist chooses places ‘because there is anticipation, especially through day-dreaming and fantasy, of intense pleasures, either on a different scale or involving different senses from those customarily encountered’. This gaze can be ‘constructed and sustained’ through various mechanisms, including film, television and magazines, but also literature. These act as signs in constructing the tourist gaze (Urry, 2002), and thus might help to construct ideas about travel and frame the travel experience. We also acknowledge Reijnders’ work on the influence of the media on ‘places of the imagination’; locations or landscapes, which are the focal point or a ‘symbolic anchor for the collective imagination of a society’ (Reijnders, 2011: 8). He discusses the influence of texts such as Dracula and the Inspector Morse and Wallander crime fiction series on the way place is constructed by visitors, rather than in relation to the process or phenomenon of travel itself.

It has been argued that there is a reciprocal and symbiotic relationship between culture and tourism, with tourism ‘an expression and experience of culture’, which may also assist in ‘generating nuanced forms of culture as well as new cultural forms’ (Robinson & Smith, 2006: 1). Through considering how books as a cultural phenomenon affect our conceptualisation of travel, our research illustrates the interplay between these two concepts, as well as the continuing power of the printed word over other forms of media in shaping and framing the way in which we perceive the world.

Extraordinary Journeys

Books often make a promise to the reader that, if they travel, they too will have adventures and explore the world. Many fictional works and travel stories focus on journeys. These may inspire their readers to travel and seek out transformative experiences. In addition to their role in prompting visits to specific places, we need to examine and understand the ways in which books transport a reader to a world of their imagination and influence the general desires to travel and explore.

This process starts young. Many children’s books have common themes of escape through travel. Children in routine and dull existences are transformed through their journeys. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Peter Pan and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe are all examples of books where children escape the everyday by travelling to magical worlds. As we get older, we turn to a wider range of genres that may inspire travel. Adventure, historical romances, science fiction and fantasy all commonly feature journeys and quests that transform the lives of the key characters.

These transformations are not just confined to fictional books. Real-life adventurers recount their treks to the North Pole, camel journeys across the Outback, romances in Tuscany and marriages to tribal leaders. These books can take a reader out of themselves and shape and frame their dreams of travel. We reflect in this book on the growing popularity and inspiration afforded by travel books, written by, about and for travellers. In some cases, the line between fact and fiction is blurred, which may perpetuate or add to a fantasy and contribute to our perceptions and attitudes about travel and our image of a destination.

This book complements other studies on the links between film and music and travel behaviour. However, our argument is that, while these areas overlap, books, by their very immersive nature, work differently to other media, in encouraging ideas of escape, quests, exploration and personal transformation. In reading books, we use our imagination to visualise the action, characters and setting. The imagined experience is different from reader to reader. Often a private and solitary activity, the reader is deeply absorbed, even ‘lost’, in the story. Specific genres or a series of books written by one author encourage the reader’s engagement and immersion. This may have a deeper impact on the reader than a cinematic or televised treatment of the narrative. In this era of computer games, social media and ‘connectivity’, books still retain a powerful role in many people’s lives, and the growth of book clubs, level of sales of new and back titles and popular interest in authors and literary events around the world are testaments to this. The launch of each new Harry Potter book became increasingly frenetic and attracted saturation coverage across the globe. Media convergence also means that there is an increasingly blurred boundary between new and old forms of media (Jenkins, 2001; Månsson, 2011; Månsson, forthcoming), providing new audiences for electronic versions of books through technology, such as e-readers and mobile phones. Merchandise associated with films of a book, such as Mary Poppins or The Lord of the Rings, including revamped or commemorative editions of the text, may also shine a spotlight on the original source of the story.

In this book, we aim to examine this social and cultural phenomenon, using a diverse and eclectic series of texts to illuminate and build on the central themes. While our common research interests as academics are largely in the tourism and events sphere, we do not feel constrained by these boundaries. We therefore draw upon theoretical perspectives from sociology, anthropology, literary and cultural studies, folklore, history and geography. In this chapter, we introduce some of the more important perspectives, with examples that we will expand upon throughout this book.

A Lexicon of Movement

According to Vogel (1974: 185), all fictional stories involve some form of movement, yet ‘we know that not all journeys have precisely the same symbolic intentions’. He has identified six basic types of movement in fictional narrative. This typology is loosely applied, in that some books can span several types of movement, and there may be disputes over the subjective categorisation.

(1) The journey. A character travels from one place to another, but there is no particular goal in mind, nor is any kind of meaning derived from the travel. These movements are essentially purposeless meanderings and tend to be found in the picaresque genre. Examples are Little Big Man, Gulliver’s Travels and The Sun Also Rises.

(2) Wandering. While this travel appears to lack purpose, there is a hidden mission underlying it that the reader eventually begins to understand, even if the central character is unaware of it. An example is The Prisoner of Zenda.

(3) The quest. This travel is accompanied by a sense of mission, both on the part of the character and as understood by the author and reader. While the ultimate goal may not be clear, the sense of purpose (or destiny) is present from the very beginning of the narrative. Examples include the Harry Potter series and Ivanhoe.

(4) The pilgrimage. This travel is purposeful, but aimed at a clear (spiritual) goal. An example is The Lord of the Rings series.

(5) The odyssey. This travel is underpinned by a purpose or goal, but no spiritual or moral mission is involved. Examples are Sherlock Holmes and Around the World in Eighty Days.

(6) The going-forth. The character starts travelling with a vague notion that their movement has some kind of purpose, mission or meaning, but they (along with the reader) only discover its precise nature at a later stage in the narrative. Examples are The Lost World and the His Dark Materials trilogy.

We have added two more types of movement in fictional narratives to Vogel’s lexicon, drawing on the work of Adams (1983).

(7) Flight/pursuit. The character is forced from home or is running away from an unpalatable or dangerous situation (i.e. punishment, prison, marriage to the wrong person or the curtailing of freedom). The runaway may be followed and must evade capture. The tale may be told either from the viewpoint of the fugitive or the pursuer. Examples include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and True Grit .

(8) The search. The hero searches for someone or something that is lost, or wishes to clarify or solve a mystery. Others may be trying to mislead them, to prevent this from occurring. Examples are King Solomon’s Mines, The Searchers and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

A Typology of the Quest

Many narratives have a quest embedded in them. Adams (1983) has identified seven types of quest and argues for a crossover that often exists between quests, odysseys and pilgrimages. The tendency of travellers to take on various roles has also been observed by Cunningham (1994: 228): ‘The traveller [in most traditional novels] may be variously pilgrim, soldier, picaro, agent or imperialist expansion, detective’. Nevertheless, we feel that these typologies are helpful in the analysis of travel within texts, as well as contributing to a deeper understanding of the implications of different texts for travel behaviour. They can be applied to both fictional and non-fictional travel narratives. Given that they are meant to be true, the latter may have a particularly strong impact upon readers. The seven types of quests are listed here.

(1) Religious. Otherwise known as the pilgrimage – the search for a religious or holy object, place or person. An example is I’m Off Then.

(2) A battle. The travel involves searching out an enemy or going to war. Examples are The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe from the Narnia series and The Three Musketeers.

(3) Utopias. The search is for a utopian land or existence. Examples include Lost Horizon and The Beach.

(4) Exploration. A character looks for a new land or uncharted territory. Examples include Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Little House on the Prairie and The Kon-Tiki Expedition.

(5) A fortune. This involves travel for monetary gain. Examples are Treasure Island and King Solomon’s Mines.

(6) A person. The character wants to find a missing person, perhaps a loved one. Examples are The Searchers and How I Found Livingstone.

(7) Knowledge or wisdom. The search is to know oneself better or to understand the world better. Examples are Mediterranean Food, Harry Potter and Tan ami.

Two more quests can be added to this list. They are the quest for love and the quest for healing. Both are exemplified by the book Eat, Pray, Love. Many narratives based on one or both of these forms of quest involve women, often in exotic settings that e...