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A review by estacer
The Idle Traveller: The Art of Slow Travel by Dan Kieran
2.0
Interesting idea and some compelling stories. Flavoured with smugness that his way of travel is what all of us should be doing.
I was intrigued to read about an appreciation for travel and visits to new places where the traveller can take their time and enjoy the new experiences. But according to the author, that is at odds with the type of travel "encouraged" by guidebooks that list the top 10 sights to see.
Explaining his disdain for tourism that encourages sightseeing, using the example of the time he saw the pyramids: "If anything, seeing a 'must-see' for myself tends to reduce the amazement and intrigue I felt for it before. Sometimes it has a shock value, because it's so immense, but I usually find my mind slips into a state of emptiness as the throng of tourists I have become part of consumes me and we file along in an orderly queue. I've wandered aimlessly, but not in a good way, around quite a few of the world's most famous sites and always found the experience oddly hollow. [....] I'm beginning to wonder if we're all colluding in a conspiracy of silence. Does anyone find this practice remotely enriching?"
Many more examples of this, which made his whole narrative quite pretentious and preachy.
One segment I did enjoy was the idea that traveling to new places allows us to access our brain's right hemisphere - to be open to the new experiences and the unknown, an idea first explained by Iain McGilchrist.
However, then the author goes on to compare travel from the left brain (informed by guidebooks and top sights lists) to travel from the right brain. His example is from an author of her travels that no common person working a 40-hr week would be able to do. She visits South American indigenous communities, native tribes of the Amazon, and does ayahuasca. Not something most people have the time or, in the case of ayahuasca, desire to do.
My own travels are more similar to the kind he derides, but I don't believe I experience any less wonder or appreciation for new places than he does.
I've actually talked myself down from 3 stars to 2. Perhaps partially in self-defense but primarily as a result of the one-sidedness of Kieran's judgement of travel.
I was intrigued to read about an appreciation for travel and visits to new places where the traveller can take their time and enjoy the new experiences. But according to the author, that is at odds with the type of travel "encouraged" by guidebooks that list the top 10 sights to see.
Explaining his disdain for tourism that encourages sightseeing, using the example of the time he saw the pyramids: "If anything, seeing a 'must-see' for myself tends to reduce the amazement and intrigue I felt for it before. Sometimes it has a shock value, because it's so immense, but I usually find my mind slips into a state of emptiness as the throng of tourists I have become part of consumes me and we file along in an orderly queue. I've wandered aimlessly, but not in a good way, around quite a few of the world's most famous sites and always found the experience oddly hollow. [....] I'm beginning to wonder if we're all colluding in a conspiracy of silence. Does anyone find this practice remotely enriching?"
Many more examples of this, which made his whole narrative quite pretentious and preachy.
One segment I did enjoy was the idea that traveling to new places allows us to access our brain's right hemisphere - to be open to the new experiences and the unknown, an idea first explained by Iain McGilchrist.
However, then the author goes on to compare travel from the left brain (informed by guidebooks and top sights lists) to travel from the right brain. His example is from an author of her travels that no common person working a 40-hr week would be able to do. She visits South American indigenous communities, native tribes of the Amazon, and does ayahuasca. Not something most people have the time or, in the case of ayahuasca, desire to do.
My own travels are more similar to the kind he derides, but I don't believe I experience any less wonder or appreciation for new places than he does.
I've actually talked myself down from 3 stars to 2. Perhaps partially in self-defense but primarily as a result of the one-sidedness of Kieran's judgement of travel.