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?

Is travel in general enriching, or really just indulgent?

Also you can’t pick Canada.

The reason isn’t important, but say you had to leave the country right now and never come back.

You have to decide right now which country will be your home for the rest of your life. Pretend that upon arriving in that country, you would immediately understand the local language perfectly, so that’s not a barrier.

You wouldn’t have a job or friends in that country waiting for you (if you have friends all over the world, pretend you don’t), so you’d be starting fresh with whatever you currently have.

And once you choose, you can never leave that country for the rest of your life — so considerations like speaking a language lots of other countries speak or proximity to other places you want to travel to on vacation shouldn’t weigh in. Though you can still speak your native language, so watching American TV or calling your parents aren’t a problem.

But once you choose, that’s your home until you die.

Where would you decide to live out the rest of your life?

If you want to make it even more interesting, choose a place you’ve never been before.

*somewhat inspired by this week’s This American Life episode, Abdi and the Golden Ticket.