In 1973, Paul Theroux (www.paultheroux.com/) set out from London to travel Asia by train, and then wrote about  his journey through Asia and in 1975, published a book bsed on his writings called The Great Railway Bazaar, which basically triggered a seachange in travel writing, making it more personal, more commercialized and more kitschy. Meaning that from then on, travel books were more than just about the hotels and food, or directions and things to do on vacation.

It was more about the experience, about seeking adventure and doing wonderful exotic things and meeting strange people. The destination, or destinations, became secondary. And now, Theroux has come out with a redux of his game-changer - A new book called Ghost Train to the Eastern Star (Amazon, Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin, August 18, 2008), in which he has retraced his route from the same station in London to all the same places (well, most of them…) he went to in the first book.

Oh, and in spite of being one of the most famous travel writers alive, whose book definitely makes it into every list of the best travel books of all time, Theroux holds an unconcealed contempt for both travel and the art of travel writing. The first page of Ghost Train offers edgy sarcasm intended to make clear the low regard he holds wanderers in, himself included. Excerpt below.

The traveler is the greediest kind of romantic voyeur, and in some well-hidden part of the traveler’s personality is an unpickable knot of vanity, presumption and mythomania bordering on the pathological… Most writing about travel takes the form of jumping to conclusions,  and so most tarvel books are superflous, the thinnest, most transparent monologuing. Little better than a licence to bore, travel writing is the lowest form of literary self-indulgence; dishonest compaining, creative mendacity, pointless heroics, and chronic posturing, much of it distorted with Munchausen syndrome.

Of course, its much harder to stay at home and be polite to people and face things, but where’s the book in that? Better the boastful charade of pretending to be an adventurer…

Talk about sour grapes… Sounds to me like while the Asia he visited 35 years ago has grown up into being more civilized and westernized, Theroux himself has slid into a cesspool of crankiness, loss of idealism and a general cynicism with the way he has lived his own life. 

Posted on September 24th, 2008 by Thomas
Filed under: World