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Blog 1 (8/23)

This is the first of 15 or so blogs that will be posted throughout this semester. This week we covered various travelogues from Geoff, Quinn, and Thompson. These travelogues are more modern and contain elements of a modern day visit rather than a voyage across America made because of the “Manifest Destiny” movement. When first introduced to travel writings, I was examining literature from just after 1665 when expansion was occurring around the world. I just assumed the medium died out once the world had become as connected as it is. However, it appears the medium evolved to create stories instead of just plainly stating observations and analyzing them. For instance, in Lauren Groff’s Daughters of the Springs, she writes in a way that gives the travel writing a narrative and message. She writes “Here is what I learned: Karri is a crabber on her off-days and has a one-year-old daughter. Stayce, who was playing the sea witch, is a bartender at Applebee’s. Tara, who was managing the safety of the mermaids from the tube, is a chipper, very beautiful mother with the kind of wavy blond hair you think mermaids should have. One by one, they put on facemasks to see their way through’the tube, which they’d take off before the performance” (Groff 121). Taking the time to meet and learn about the performers in Groff’s visit gives the travelogue more life, and the added backgrounds allows the reader to make a connection with someone other than the writer. Though they are not personally explored further, the actresses are more than just subjects of observation for Groff to comment upon. Another observation I made can be found in Quinn’s Mr. Nehm’s Genocide Camera. I forgot I was even reading a travelogue. Quinn’s style of writing fully immersed me into his story. The extensive dialogue found gives the reader a sense like they are listening in on the conversation live instead of being recounted what was learned while traveling. Overall, I believe these were strong travelogues that brought more to the table contextually than earlier travelogues have.

Blog 2 (8/30)

What I took away from the first 88 pages of Heat Moon’s Blue Highways is his tone and delivery. He doesn’t come across as this scholarly traveler that is scientifically documenting their findings while traversing the country he or she is visiting. Instead, Heat-Moon reads like an older man who is knowledgeable enough to describe the destinations, purpose, and benefits of the highways he drives through. For example, in the beginning of chapter 7 he sets the scene of the road he is currently riding through while also giving some more hidden purpose of the now less travelled highway. Heat-Moon writes “U.S. 60, running from Norfolk, Virginia, to Los Angeles, used to be a major east-west route. But Interstate 64 now has taken up the heavy traffic and left 60 to farm pickups and kids on horses. For the blue highway traveler, freeing roads like this one is the purpose of the interstates.” U.S. 60, running from Norfolk, Virginia, to Los Angeles, used to be a major east-west route. But Interstate 64 now as taken up the heavy traffic and left 60 to farm pickups and kids on horses. For the blue highway traveler, freeing roads like this one is the purpose of the interstates” (Heat-Moon 22). This introduction is only two sentences, but we learn a plethora of things about the highway’s route, destination, the lifestyle you can find traveling it, and the effect of their highways have on it. A majority of this information is something a foreign traveler from outside the U.S. would not be able to learn through traveling the road by itself. Heat-Moon brings an extra layer of expertise by being partially connected to the culture by growing up in the same country. This connects to a point Carl Thompson makes in his book Travel Writing. He argues that the writer has to stay convincing without escalating an otherwise notable town into something sublime. Thompson writes “Rooted as it is in personal experience, the traveller’s account will often contain details that cannot be confirmed by any other witness, and that cannot receive external verification” (Thompson 65). Though Heat-Moon has little physical evidence to back up his claim of the purpose of the interstate, he details the usefulness of the road so that it is more believable for the reader. Overall, I really enjoy the way Heat-Moon details his travels, and uses his knowledge to lay out his routes purposes while still connecting with the individual communities along the way.

Blog 3 (9/5)

This stretch of reading was something more familiar to me based off location alone. Heat-Moon’s travel through the south, a place I’ve spent my entire life growing up and calling my home, didn’t feel like the home I know and love. There were plenty of interactions throughout this region of the country that Heat-Moon documented, but the two that stuck out the most to me were the Sunburnt man in Alexander City and James Walker and Charles Davis in Selma. I commend Heat-Moon for taking his time to explore the issues of racism and how it has impacted the smaller communities of the South. The initial conversation in the tavern gave Heat-Moon an idea about the attitudes and thoughts in white people’s heads, showing it was a more complex thing than just “I hate him because he looks different”. After talking with the sunburnt man, Heat-Moon talks with another man who says “You talk about change, and I say to you “Go to hell” “ (Heat-Moon 143). Though it is just one man’s opinion, that rang like a bell in my head as I was reading on. The conversation with Davis and Walker was less about “How do you feel about white people” and more “How do you feel about the circumstances yo find yourself in”. While Walker and Davis do their best to illustrate what their life is like on a daily basis, Heat-Moon finds out on his own when the police start paying extra attention to him. The sudden shaking of his van and the tailing officers was something I never would have imagined happen to someone as harmless as him. Though the South had the appearance of a “reformation”, the pressure the police put on Heat-Moon just because he was talking to the black men in the area was stunning to me. The conversations HEat-Moon takes the time to hold, no matter if they are brief ones in a tavern or long meet ups on a court, does a lot more than just explaining what the person is like. It helps capture the attitudes, ideologies, and complexities of each stop along his drive. They help paint what the towns are like, what the regions are like, and even give Heat-Moon a chance to reflect on himself whenever he walks away from a conversation. I’m sure he uses all the silent time on the road to ponder about himself and see if there’s something about himself that he can improve even if he didn’t know it needed to be worked on. This is why I enjoy the conversations thoroughly. Each interaction is like an intersection where you can stop, observe what’s around you, and take in information about the journey ahead of you before continuing.

*Editor’s Note* : I’ve recently added a comment section, but I’m not certain it works yet. If there are any issues where classmates can’t comment their thoughts on my work, please email me at cfalcon@students.kennesaw.edu and it’ll let me know there’s an issue. Sorry for the delay on having it up!

Blog 4 (9/27)

This week we started reading Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, a memoir about her 1,100 mile hike up the Pacific coast. Before she can start recounting her journey, she has to introduce herself to us, and explain why she decided to do this tough hike up the coast. We learn a lot about her through her memories of her final days with her mother. It’s obvious she means the world to her, a similar feeling most the world has to their mother, but her relationship seemed special. A line that specifically stuck out to me occurs early in the first chapter. While addressing her mother’s final days, she writes “I was twenty-two, the same age she was when she’d been pregnant with me. She was going to leave my life at the same moment that I came into hers, I thought. For some reason that sentence came fully formed into my head just then, temporarily blotting out the Fuck them prayer. I almost howled in agony. I almost choked to death on what I knew before I knew. I was going to live the rest of my life without my mother” (Strayed 21). This was personally gut wrenching for me. Normally, reading about death doesn’t phase me but this stuck with me for some reason. My mother is in perfect health and I still called her directly after I finished reading the first chapter just to check. Shifting focus back to our author, Strayed approached introducing herself through someone else, a tactic I’ve never really seen before. Obviously, it was effective given how I reacted, and I’m looking forward to spent the rest of the book with the witty and strong woman. One last note before I finish up, Cheryl’s style of writing was much different than Heat-Moon’s (duh) and took a second for me to adjust. I don’t want to draw comparisons between the writing styles of the two, but I think I’m going to enjoy the tone of Cheryl’s travel writing after the very introspective writing of Heat-Moon.

Blog 5 (10/17)

Daniel L. Everett’s Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes is a book that I have never experienced before. I assumed we would be widening our scope of travel writing to someone writing their way through a backpacking trip through a continent, but this was a pleasant surprise. Everett depicts the Piraha as true people who are alive, have thoughts, emotions, ideas, an, well, a life! Everett’s life seems chaotic to me, but he does an excellent job describing how his life and the Piraha’s becomes intertwined. He emphasizes he isn’t the “boss of the jungle”. In fact, he does the opposite by emphasizing that the Piraha’s are actually the boss(es) of the jungle. I also found it interesting how Daniel brought his entire family with him. I personally thought this is reckless, especially when his wife and daughter contracted malaria from the tribe. However, I never caught a hint of aggression towards the Piraha from him. Even when they threatened to kill him. Instead, he calmly approaches the group, removes all the weapons, and calmly locks them away. In fact, I feel almost no aggression at all through Everett’s writing. I look forward to chugging my way through this book like the last two, especially because of how different the basis of this story is compared to the previous two.

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   yeah it did lol

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   hey chris this is a test comment. did it work?

Blog 6 (10/31)

Before we start off, sorry for the odd placement of this post. WordPress isn’t exactly my friend tonight but we’ll keep pushing through. I thought Everett’s insight on the Piraha’s view of the world as astounding. I makes perfect sense that the Piraha were very focused on the “now” and not so worried about the future or past. Not exactly the same vein as living in the jungle, but having a short memory is important in sports because if you spend too much time dwelling on what happened on the last play, you’re going to let something else happen on the next. What really stood out to me though was the necessity of evidence in the Piraha culture. Like Everett states in his presentation, you can’t overload them with information without any proof. The three ways to prove something is either by deduction, citing a source, or seeing an event yourself. Specifically when talking about Jesus and the Bible, I thought it was kinda funny when they asked Everett “Surely your dad has seen this Jesus fellow”. It makes sense they would ask about this since they might assume he is currently alive. Like stated earlier, the Piraha only care about the present or immediate future. Talking about a man from the distant past does them no good, and this point was clearly something that stuck with Everett. Personally, I think the “short-sightedness” of the Piraha is a really interesting concept. I understand it being necessary for survival, but its difficult to imagine practicing that within a society like the one we live in. In fact, it would be impossible to do it as a college student. Imagine taking assignments one day at a time and not knowing you have a paper coming the very next day, or asking your history teachers for direct evidence on the things being taught! This is a bit of a silly application to my takeaway, but it’s fun to think about.