Here, There & In Xanadu
This week, we are yearning for the good ol' days of travel with John Muir, Tyler Knott Gregson and William Dalrymple. Bonus: a snail mail project and our first video.
It seems like everyone is travelling everywhere these days. You open your feed and there’s an array of guides on what you should do, where you should stay, what you should eat, not eat, wear, not wear, hidden nooks, not-so-hidden ones - an information overload that you never really asked for. Not only has this led to overtourism but it’s destroyed that element of serendipity and reflection that travel is supposed to be about. In Xanadu, in that sense, is about that yesteryear of travel that we deeply miss. This edition is about itchy feet, served with a side of souvenirs.
Books: In Xanadu by William Dalrymple
Dalrymple sets out to trace the journey of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Kubla Khan’s Xanadu in Mongolia. In the 16,000-mile three-month journey, there are run-ins with officials, lucky breaks, breakdowns, plans going awry, a lot of walking, hitchhiking, bus travel, incidents and findings. As promising as the premise is though the writing fails to evoke the same awe. It’s hard to follow the historical references and evocations, which break up the narrative as you try to figure them out. What’s off-putting though is the author’s western gaze that sees people and their ways as lesser than his own. In Dalrymple’s own words, “My 21 year old self – bumptious, cocky and self-confident, quick to judge and embarrassingly slow to hesitate before stereotyping entire nations – is a person I now feel mildly disapproving of.” We agree. That said, Nine Live by Dalrymple is an interesting read. Review here.
Poetry: Typewriter Series by Tyler Knott Gregson
What if it's the there
and not the here
that I long for?
The wander
and not the wait,
the magic
in the lost feet
stumbling down
the faraway street
and the way the moon
never hangs
quite the same.
A Thousand Mornings
Artist Shikha has a snail mail project ongoing where she sends postcards, stickers and other little things via mail from Chile, where she is currently based. We have a few of her postcards and they are lovely.
We would be remiss if we didn’t plug our own products here. Especially, after the effort it took to create a video. Watch. Share. Order.
Before you go
“Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter.”
- John Muir
Speaking of Muir, leaving you with this video by filmmaker Temujin Doran. He teamed up with the John Muir Trust to reimagine Muir’s Wilderness Essays. See it here.