why do we really travel, for self-discovery or experience?
In even greater need of examination and fresh ideas: travel Instagramming.
In the Boston Review, Jessa Crispin writes “How Not to Be Elizabeth Gilbert” (which, great title for sure), examining the pitfalls of the contemporary female travel memoir trend.
As she looks back at the history of travel writing, she observes differences between classic male travelogues and this new wave of personal travel diaries:
We still look to men to tell us about what they do and to women to tell us how they feel.
And even diving deeper into various female travel writers:
Maillart traveled because she was trying to understand something in herself; Stark traveled because she was trying to understand something in the world.
And about modern travel writing in particular, at her most pointed:
The travel writer sells not only lovely prose and insights into a new land but also the lifestyle of the rootless and adventurous. Yet, when you establish your life and yourself as goals to aspire to, you take yourself out of the world. Every interaction is sculpted for its eventual presentation, and the aim of every presentation is to show how wonderful your life is.
How would you best describe your reason for traveling?
How do you process and package travel when presenting it to others? What kind of stories do you end up telling?