A genre I've always enjoyed is travel writing. I've never been tempted to do a travel book myself because I don't really like talking to strangers on trains or making copious notes about my trips - two things that are essential if you want to be the next Paul Theroux. My favourite travel writers include: Mark Twain, Norman Lewis, Rudyard Kipling, Eric Newby, Robert Byron, Paul Theroux, Peter Matthiessen, Evelyn Waugh, Jan Morris, Graham Greene, Freya Stark, Jonathan Raban, Robyn Davidson et. al. But my two all time favourite travel books are The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry Garrard and A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor. I'll blog about Cherry-Garrard another time but since he's still with us I thought I'd talk here about Fermor. In 1933 Paddy Fermor was 18 years old and washed up, he'd been expelled from school and couldn't get into university or the army and had no idea what to do with his life. So without speaking any modern European language (of course he was proficient in Latin and ancient Greek) he decided to walk from London to Constantinople. A Time of Gifts is the story of that trip, or at least the first third of it, being an account of his wanderings across newly Nazified Germany and into Austria and Hungary. Fermor began the book forty years after he took the journey and it gave him a lot of time to ruminate and contemplate the meaning of his wanderings, and, like a fine Bowmore single malt, 40 years maturation obviously leads to perfection. A Time of Gifts is a wonderful book filled with a young man's enthusiasm and an older man's wisdom. It's packed with beautiful descriptions, funny incidents and thoughtful commentary on the people and places he encounters. Much to his embarrassment young and older women seem to fallen in love with Fermor left and right and he had a knack for falling in love himself as well the ability to pick up German, Hungarian, Romanian and Greek....
After his Constantinople journey Fermor moved to Greece and he was there when WW2 broke out. The British recruited him to be a secret agent operating behind enemy lines in Nazi occupied Crete, where, somewhat incredibly, his small band of fighters managed to capture the German general in charge of the entire island - a tale which was told in the book and film Ill Met by Moonlight. After the war Leigh Fermor travelled in the Americas and spent time in Greek Orthodox monastic retreats. There's a great interview with Fermor in the May 2003 Paris Review which isn't available online and a nice New Yorker piece here which unfortunately requires registration to read the full thing.
81 comments:
I've heard about Fermor for years and years, but somehow never read him, even though they've reissued his books in several nice reprint series over that time.
Pretty much all anyone wants to read travelwriting wise right now is Eat, Pray Love, which I also haven't read, and even that one is well past its peak.
Seana
I haven't heard of Eat Pray Love. The pray part makes me think its some of spiritual thing which doesn't sound like my cup of tea.
I thought Bill Bryson was still a big seller. He also isnt really my cup of tea but I assumed he was wildly popular.
I read "The Road to Oxiana" years ago. I loved some of Byron's reconstructed conversations and his references to the shah as Marjoribanks.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
Yes The Road to Oxiana is great isn't it? Except for the actual Oxiana bit which is a bit of a tease. I read that when I was on a jag through inter war travel writers. Peter Fleming is also in that category. Quite a talented family the Flemings.
“Quite a talented family the Flemings.”
Yes, that Peggy was one hell of a figure skater.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
and then there's Alex who discovered penicillin.
I do like literary siblings though: Bill and Henry James, Ian and Peter Fleming, Evelyn and Alec Waugh, AS Byatt and Margaret Drabble etc.
If you run across any middle-aged women travelers from America in your part of Australia who look like they're traveling to find their spiritual path or identity or whatever, just mention the title. They're probably carrying around a copy of the book in their luggage. Young female backpacking types seem to like it to, though. I haven't read it, because like any publishing phenomenon that gets too big, I get too alienated to be interested. Most people love it and a small group want to throw it across the room. I would probably be in the latter group, except that it did wonders for the sales of the travel writing section, which is mine, which oddly means that I don't have to return all kinds of other books so fast.
Speaking of travel, I'm in New Orleans tonight, rather living the high life at the Ritz, which is where we're staying as my sister recuperates from surgery. (Not on my funds, by the way.) I've hit several of the used bookstores in the odd moments, and the literary fetishists among us will be happy to hear that I have found the William Faulkner bookstore on Pirate's Way, where a plaque proclaims that it is where he wrote his first novel, Soldier's Way. It's so interesting to find what are essentially little badger holes full of used books--pirate's troves indeed, The first one, Dauphin Street Books is owned by a one time bookseller from Santa Cruz. A friend of a friend of a friend kind of thing. He's been through both the earthquake in Santa Cruz, which put him out of a job for a year, and Katrina, which must be a fairly rare distinction. "Trouble follows me," he said dryly.
Yep, that Bill James is a hell of a baseball writer.
The Brontes were pretty good, too, if you like chick lit.
Seana
That is interesting. I had always read that he wrote Soldiers Pay in Toronto while training for the airforce, perhaps I got the wrong end of the stick. I'm sure Wikipeida would solve the mystery but I just cannot be bothered. Quite liked that little book though.
Did you read A Confederacy of Dunces? I've always meant to pay JKT a visit at Greenwood Cemetery just to thank him for the laughs.
Funny how sibling rivalry often does bring out authorial strengths, but father/son or any other parent/child set of writers doesn't seem to help the child usually. Or I guess I should qualify and say that famous writing parents don't so often lead to equally famous writing children.
Of course I'd be happy to hear evidence to the contrary. I think it kind of sucks for the kids.
Peter
Emily was the real talent of the family if you ask me. And to think that if Alexander Fleming or an equivalent had been around in the 1840's they all would have lived.
Seana
Martin and Kingsley Amis?
I'll take your word for it on the Amis family as I haven't read either. But yes, that would be a good example.
Yes, I've read Confederacy of Dunces, but I expect I will get much more out of it now. I was kind of surprised when I started totting up the number of New Orleans books I have read, just by chance. The funny thing is that as we were walking up Canal St. towards the Ritz I came across a figure in the shadows of a department store entrance, which, owing to the darkness I took for real for a moment. It was a statue of Ignatius J. Reilly and I thought, wait a minute, isn't that the name of the character from C of Dunces? And then picked up a travel magazine inside the hotel a few moments later, which happened to confirm that fact.
It's a literary city for sure.
Also, thanks to you I can identify that cover painting on the Fermor.
Seana
Proof if proof were needed that the oldest continuously played game in the world is curling.
Hurling, I thought, rather than curling.
A German banker named Mendelssohn is said to have remarked about his father, the philosopher Moses, and his son, the composer Felix, that "I used to be the son of my father. Now I'm the father of my son."
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
You and your hurling. I keep telling you the real man's game is road bowls.
Incidentally did you check out the front page of Wikipedia? They've done a very nice job this year.
Its always been my fantasy to run a travel book store like the travel book store in Notting HIll.
That front page does look nice.
You should play freeway bowls, a game popular in California. Now, there's a real man's game, especially at rush hour.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Harry
I've seen a few bits of Notting Hill on TV. Thats the one where Hugh Grant falls in love with Julia Roberts I think. I've got to say that those HG films arent exactly my thing either, such bits as I've seen of them. I watched the first twenty minutes of Love Actually on a plane and I saw the funeral scene in 4 Weddings and a Funeral - neither encouraged me to go on.
Actually you know what, now that I come to think about it. I think its in the trailer for Notting Hill that Hugh Grant lambasts some poor fellow for asking for Charles Dickens in his travel book store. Of course Dickens did in fact write at least two travel books, one about France I think, but a rather more famous one about the US called American Notes. What kind of a travel book shop owner doesnt know that CD wrote travel books? Not a very good one.
Peter
The original caption of the Irish PM story was "After months of economic uncertainty Irish PM hung in Dublin" until some unfunny eejit changed it to avoid "offending people".
I once watched Notting Hill on a flight over to France--in French. This was under the misguided belief that I could actually improve my extremely rudimentary French on the way over. But actually Hugh Grant works surprisingly well dubbed over in French.
I do agree that that little shop was charming though. Totally unrealistic, but charming.
We just watched Four Christmases here at the hotel because we were in search of some light comedy fare, and my sister likes Vince Vaughn. The only reason I even admit to this is that I happened to notice that they were driving to the airport by leaving San Francisco and heading north across the Golden Gate Bridge. Nonsensical, especially since you know that every single person involved with the film has to have flown into the SF Intl Airport at some point and so knows that it is south of the city. It's not an obscure reference point. They just wanted to show the Golden Gate Bridge in fog so they twisted geography a little. Movie people...
Oh, I forgot to mention that Bill Bryson is very popular. But Eat Pray Love was a phenomenon. Yeah, Oprah had the author on. The rest is history.
Eat Pray Love was a page turner. I devoured that thing in a couple of fell swoops. Or is that fallen swoops?
Adrian you must be a very good teacher. Are you still one formally? You are very generous with informative details.
Seana
I wonder if I could write a post apocalyptic cannibal novel set in Belfast called "Eat Prey, Love" or would they sue me?
Even I know that about SF. I remember one of the Troubles films I saw featured a sweeping panorama of Manchester with the caption "Belfast 1972"
Sheiler
A little bit over here in Oz but I havent been a full time high school teacher for about two years now.
To be honest I preferred susbstitute teaching anyway. It was kind of fun to go to a school you knew quite well and just goof around with the kids all day. The real teacher never minded that you didn't follow their instructions just as long as no one died and usually no one did.
Did you read A Confederacy of Dunces?
I did - as Una banda di idioti, which won a translation prize here.
I've always meant to pay JKT a visit at Greenwood Cemetery just to thank him for the laughs.
I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell ya!
"After months of economic uncertainty Irish PM hung in Dublin" until some unfunny eejit changed it to avoid "offending people"
Maybe someone had a long,hard look at the pictures and decided that the caption wasn't er...accurate.
This and the bit on substitute teachers brings to my mind that a sf/f blogger I sometimes follow who's also a teacher recently commented on guidelines by the National Education Association which recommended "Never put in electronic form anything that you wouldn't want viewed by a million people, including your colleagues, students, and supervisors-and your mother."
The article cited the famous case of a certain Lou Zivkovich who was fired for posing nude in Playgirl. I googled Mr.Zivkovich- the photos are easy to find.
Thankfully none of the teachers I had in my impressionable youth could have posed for Playgirl.
It was kind of fun to go to a school you knew quite well and just goof around with the kids all day.
I'm sure you geeked out with the kids about Star Trek or Lord of the Rings.
Marco
Yeah the kids were into LOTR and like I say they tried to turn me onto Magic The Gathering but I was having none of it.
Apart from my Villa Park story my other great football triumph came when I played against the entire fourth grade. Just me against about twenty five kids. They game was tied 8:8 when the bell went, which might have been a moral victory for me had I not been cheating like crazy during the whole game.
Fourth Grade is Quarta Elementare (9-10 years)? Hope you didn't foul them too much.
"Emily was the real talent of the family if you ask me."
One of my better English professors in college likened Emily and Charlotte to Paul McCartney and John Lennon. He said people typically enjoyed both but liked one a lot more than the other. Me, I'm a Charlotte kind of guy.
Also, I heard on Radiolab (great podcast, Adrian, I think you'd like it) last year about this study they did on memories. Basically, what they found was that the more you replayed a memory in your mind, the more you changed it and effectively didn't remember it correctly. If that's true, I wonder how much Fermor thought about all his experiences over the ensuing 40 years and how much he affected his own memory of them.
Brian, if you know a way to track down that podcast, I'd love to listen to it for my 'lapse of memory' blog. Even I don't really know what that blog is all about--or if I did, I've forgotten--but it seems like this could fit.
Adrian, I wonder if "Eat Prey, Love" would be a good title for the version that includes all the original text, but is interspersed with random cannibalistic sprees. We already know this type of thing works with zombies, and Elizabeth Gilbert would probably be cool with it if she got a cut of the profits.
it was one of those chance encounters while walking through a 5 and 10 in westport county mayo some 7 years ago on a tour of the turf and a visit with family in kilmeena that i bump into a book by pete mc carthy who became
one of the greatest travel writers to grace my planet whether it's mc carthys bar or the road to mc carthy he found humor in all the foot prints left by the irish and the similarities we all share it probably isn't a lot of things but it tis fun
I know that I'm kind of relied on to do sort of namedropping encounters, so I thought a couple of people here might enjoy knowing that I met Brian Batt, who plays Salvatore Romano on Mad Men tonight. A guy we were sitting with in the lounge area jumped up at the sight of him, so we all were included in the general fan fest. I think you'll be happy to know how excited and anxious he is about the show and his character and everything.
Turns out he's a New Orleans native who just happens to be celebrating an anniversary tonight.
Hey Seana,
That's very cool you got to meet "Sal." Great actor playing a great part on a great show.
Here's the link that should get you the podcast episode called Memory and Forgetting. I don't know if you listen to podcasts or not, but Radiolab is fantastic.
Seana
He's a terrific actor and its a great character. One of the few who seemingly isnt jealous of Peggy's success. That scene where the Russian kid casually announced he was gay was amazing. The reaction on Sal's face as he thought "My God that's how you do it."
Brian
Yeah that podcast sounds like my thing.
I'm assuming Emily is John Lennon in your analogy. Charlotte is Paul. Anne of course is George Harrison and poor old Branwell is Ringo.
Knowa
I'll be honest I know of Pete McCarthy but I havent yet read McCarthy's Bar or his other travel books. They are on my list though. Shame of course that he died so young.
Marco
Yeah it was me against a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds. But I had no qualms at all about pushing them over and doing hard tackles especially since I also was referee. When you're outnumbered twenty five to one you've got to give yourself a chance.
Magnificient performance from Northern Ireland last night BTW. Top of the group!
Yeah, I hear the kids took money to throw the game.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Thank you, Brian. I haven't listened to too many podcasts, but only because it's too hard to listen to on dialup. However if I just go somewhere with wireless access, it shouldn't be a problem. I'm glad to know about Radiolab as well.
Brian Batt said that what he really wishes is that his character comes out on the last show of the last season. He said he'd told the writers, give him kids, just keep building the pressure of the conventional life. Of course, that's a great opportunity for an actor.
Poor, poor Branwell. Someone give me an example of a guy who flourished because he had talented sisters, otherwise I'm going to get depressed about the state of human affairs.
I am not going to comment on the rigged game against children, except to say that it's exactly what I would have done. I think games basically exist to be subverted. Of course, I don't really get the whole game thing anyway.
”Someone give me an example of a guy who flourished because he had talented sisters, otherwise I'm going to get depressed about the state of human affairs.”
Warren Beatty seems to have done all right.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
But I had no qualms at all about pushing them over and doing hard tackles especially since I also was referee.
I must admit that to the less fine footed among us (i.e., me) the scenario of bossing around the fleet little buggers is very appealing.
Magnificient performance from Northern Ireland last night BTW. Top of the group!
So if they qualify you could still make the squad for the final against Brazil next year.
I'm not the most patriotic of supporters, but refereeing in Italy's yesterday match against Ireland was perplexing.
so I thought a couple of people here might enjoy knowing that I met Brian Batt, who plays Salvatore Romano on Mad Men tonight.
Not only everyone and their mother drops by in your shop in Santa Cruz, you have to casually meet them as soon as you leave for a few days!
Seana
Did you see this story which was on the BBC and Daily Telegraph today? having a sister makes you happier
Marco
You would have enjoyed the spectacle.
I've never really held fast to soccer's "no contact" rule.
A boy in that school in the fifth grade beat me at chess, or would have had I not taken so long over my moves that the bell went and I told him that we'd have "to call it a draw".
Peter
Shirley Maclaine is one sister right? Does he have others? I know Eric Roberts hasnt had his career helped one iota by Julia. In fact if I remember my gossip columns from years ago she's tried to spike his career at every turn because of some imagined (or maybe not so imagined) slight in the past.
that the bell went and I told him that we'd have "to call it a draw".
So you were saved by the bell. For the second time.
I've never really held fast to soccer's "no contact" rule.
Well, running all the time and taking a sweep at ball and legs indiscriminately have always been my two major contributions to the matches.
Though thankfully at least I didn't have a sister. In my old neighborhood in Florence there was a wiry young girl (now 12-13, I believe) who plays in the youth section of a female football team (and she's really good) while her 4-year older brother was just a clumsy big ganch. Everytime the neighborhood kids played a match she was among the first to be picked while he was invariably among the last.
I would imagine that's one of the worst possible experiences for a young boy but who knows, maybe he'll flourish thanks to his talented sister.
I've looked up mr.Batt. I remember his face, though not really any role he played. He's gay himself, so I think he can draw on personal experience for his character.
That scene where the Russian kid casually announced he was gay was amazing. The reaction on Sal's face as he thought "My God that's how you do it."
It seems so easy afterwards, but you have to feel it yourself.
If someone had accused me of being gay before I was comfortable with the idea I would have not only denied it, but probably tried to respond with the fists. All the time trying to change, look at the girls not the boys, and when I heard disparaging comments about homosexuals a mix of shame and bottled-up rage...
I think it's like when your body processes and expels toxins.
Peter, thanks for the example of Warren Beatty. Eric Roberts may contradict it but at least there's one.
That's an interesting article about sisters. I'd tend to agree with it, just based on personal history. I think being an all girl family did end up making us all a little more, well, unconventional. Which of course has its pluses and minuses in suburban America. But we survived.
Yes, Brian Batt was actually here celebrating a twentieth anniversary with his partner so we were able to wish them both happy anniversary. Batt said he is actually from New Orleans.
It is odd that we met him, as we're really here in an extremely low key, convalescent sort of way. But the other guy we met, a marketing guy from Reading is Fundamental, pretty much launched himself out of his chair at the sight of him.
It's funny that I'm reading an anthology of authors who've written about New Orleans while I'm here, and just read the excerpt of Walker Percy's excellent The Moviegoer where his main character sees William Holden in the Quarter and watches the lustre he adds to everyone's life just by connecting with him. So I suppose this is all just a tad ironic.
Poor Branwell, though. Tons of sisters and still a wretch.
The same Eric Roberts who had an important role in the pilot for a never-realized "L.A. Confidential" television series and was quite good.
Wretch -- another word fallen into sad disuse.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Adrian, Shirley Maclaine is indeed that sister. I don't know if he had any others.
I also don't know to what extent she may have contributed to his success, but she hit it reasonably big before he did, so she certainly didn't hinder it.
I think Eric Roberts came down the pike before Julia, so he may have become a non-star before she came along. I had not heard that bit of gossip about her torpedoing his career. But then I never used to take tea breaks from my job to dish with Sue Sarandon and Tim Robbins, so I probably miss a lot.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
Me and Shirley Maclaine have both seen UFO's.
Its funny about Warren Beatty he seems to have just dropped completely off the radar screen. Has he done anything in the last five years?
this is all a little odd for me
writing to a writer whose works exhausted my retnas like some kind of 50ish year old groupie out of an ivan albright painting it's just a lil odd and at the same time cool peter mathissens'
at play in the field of the lord the snow leopard and the one about the serrengetti plains all 'enchanting haven't thought of them in years . there's a cult like following of blue collar actually i don't know if any of us actually have any blue shirts readers from illinois to colorado that have become enamoured by your work it hasnt gotten to the point where we're doing any insect sacrifices to a bobble headed doll likeness of you just a group of boomers that grew up with such rich literary tales like 'been down so long it looks like up to me' another roadside attraction 'yellow back radio broke down' and elmore leonard to carl hiassin your works are refreshing . is that enough male gushing or what . now the real reason for typing have you ever read sir hiram binghams' account on finding machuu pichuu awesome as the place itself
Seana
Its the sort of science that agrees with your own intuition which I like. Some much of everything is counterintuitive.
Have you ever read Emily Bronte's poetry? I think thats the clincher that she was the big talent in the family.
Marco
In Mad Men Sal actually goes so far as to get married which I think is increasingly uncommon except in very conservative circles. As far as I know there is only 1 openly gay member of Congrsss Barney Frank - which means that thare are probably quite a few closeted US politicians.
Knowa
Thanx for the praise man. DIWMB never cracked the Amazon 5000 and it slipped out of print last year so I just figured that almost nobody had read the bloody book so its actually nice to hear from people who did and liked it.
HB going to MP? Nope never read it. Been to MP though. He must have been quite the bad ass to get up that mountain without modern equipment but what a reward when he got there. Its spectacular. Second only to a first view of the Gizan pyramids in my experience.
Yeah Peter M. has done some good stuff. I remember listening to The Snow Leopard as an audio and liking it very much and The Cloud Forest was great and The Tree Where Man wsa Born...
Warren Beatty’s last public statements that I can remember came some years ago, when he was said to be considering a run for president. This makes his sister’s claims to have seen UFO only the second-weirdest statements to come from that family.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I think I've read a poem or two of Emily's, and have heard that these are a strength of hers. But I am not going to choose between Emily and Charlotte--Anne, I couldn't say, since I haven't read her.But between the first two, it seems as though what they are trying to do, even with the same settings, etc., is quite different. One of Charlotte's that I liked a lot when I read it was Villette.
Seana
Emily has always seemed more Irish to me than the others.
Anne's books are very slight, but you cant blame her, she was wrote them in her mid twenties. If she'd lived I think she would have become a great novelist too.
when he was said to be considering a run for president. This makes his sister’s claims to have seen UFO only the second-weirdest statements to come from that family.
I haven't seen UFO, but I've seen Reagan president and Schwarzenegger governor.
Oh, sure. Like the American people would really elect some cowboy actor president.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Let's not make it a contest about who has the worst presidents/prime minister now.
Peter
I cant remember if I told you but I was telling McFetridge that one of my old tutors was Michael Ignatieff Cansda's next PM? Pretty decent guy.
Marco
Well if you're going to throw in Roman Emperors you're going to win that contest hands down, so its not exactly a fair fight.
I read a great essay on Wuthering Heights in Mad Women in the Attic some years ago, which saw that novel as beng more about a mythic process than about what happens in our everyday world. So I guess I'm saying that they are writing about different levels of reality.
Now I'm in L.A., having returned my sister safely to her family. Must say that the title of this blog is strangely apropos for this particular week.
Of course you will not be at all surprised to learn that I flew back on a plane sitting just behind another celebrity. I sat there the whole plane trip wondering if that was really the actor who played Bunk on the Wire. My sister had used her airline points to get us into first class so it was not altogether out of the realm of possibility. Then some other film production guy who was working on location on a movie called Jonah Hex in New Orleans asked him more directly. I didn't have any exchange with him. But, being me, I got very excited to see that he was reading a book that I'd been eying that very day-- a novel about post-Katrina New Orleans called City of Refugeby Tom Piazza.
Wow, everybody is meeting or being tutored by celebrities except me.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
MP memories
camped out at some hot springs not far from the train tracks at the base of machuu until the owner evicted us not hard to argue with a man and machete remembering a young boy walking the tracks must have been about 3 with one of those burlap sacks that every amiray or quechua kids wears spotting diariaha and a scrawny hound dog lapping it up in his wake
we took the trail up the mtn.carved into the crease of the hill side with the effects of some san pedro cactus turning in our stomachs sweat biting yellow flies
when we reach the top a tour bus
rolls by and a direct view of the tourist hotel and then the citadel with clouds pumping up from the urabamba what a sight what a smell
did you happen to climb winnu(spell check ) picchu i believe is what it's called the view from the summit disturbed only by emerald green humming birds still remains a vision i can conjour up some 30 odd years later the layout of the city resembled a giant cat with the inca trail as its umbilicus
and then again maybe it was the cactus
Seana
I still havent seen The Wire. One of the British newspapers - The Guardian I think - is having a watch The Wire special, where they watch the entire DVD series from the beginning, so its even taking off in the UK. And I did notice one of The Wire guys is now in The Office.
Peter
You and me both bub. My Ignatieff encounter was 15 years ago so that really doesnt count.
Knowa
I really suffered in Peru (from nausea and altitude sickness) until I discovered Coca Leaves. A little bunch with a squeeze of lime juice, stick in your cheek and you feel like Superman. I did climb the mountain opp MP - there were steps most of the way up if I recall. Of course when I got to the top clouds had completely covered the mountain, MP and everything else and crucially the way down. I was quite freaked. In one of those typical coincidences I met a guy from Belfast and we sort of helped each other down.
Incidentally a couple I hooked up with in Cuzco and did some travelling with sent me an email that the day after I went back to America they had been robbed by bandits on a horse trek south of Cuzco, he had his jaw broken and she'd been molested and they'd been bound and left to die on the mountain before being discovered. The husband reckons the whole thing was an inside job set up by the trekking company but of course no one ever got convicted.
"I still havent seen The Wire. One of the British newspapers - The Guardian I think - is having a watch The Wire special, where they watch the entire DVD series from the beginning, so its even taking off in the UK. And I did notice one of The Wire guys is now in The Office. "
Have I told you lot my Wire stories? I took no interest in the show until the fifth season, whose main story arc was a failing big-city newspaper. Since I have adequate firsthand knowledge of that phenomenon, I saw no need to watch fictional depictions (though I heard that one character on the show disparages the fictional paper with a line I'd been using about my paper for years).
But I did read up on the exceedingly bad blood and public pissing match between the show's creator, David Simon, and editor of my newspaper, Bill Marimow. Apparently the show has a police lieutenant named Marimow, and the character is not a good guy. Apparently also, Simon worked for the Baltimore Sun when Bill Marimow was editor there, and he says Marimow killed the paper through, if I recall right, excessive bureaucratic rules and lusting after prizes.
Simon's initial claim that the Marimow name for character was a coincidence was laughable, of course. As for the accusations that flew back and forth between Simon on the one hand and Marimow and his allies on the other, I never worked in Baltimore, so I have no idea what the real Marimow did with the paper there.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
“Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home”
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
I cant tell who is right there. I am not good at playing spot the asshole (I've been taken in too many times in the past) but I agree the character name is not likely to be coincidence.
I had a very unpleasant encounter with a well known novelist once that I'd love to fictionalise or just blog about but I'm way too afraid of him and his powerful friends so I almost certainly wont (proof if proof there needed to be that I'm no Jim Thompson).
Great idea: I issue thinly veiled fictional attacks on your unpleasant novelist, you do the same for my targets. No one will suspect a thing.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
As long as it doesnt involve me crawling underneath an out of control carousel then I'm in.
there's always serpents in paradise
sorry to see that your climb was less than spirtual fear is such an overhelming toxin that can turn a relatively healthy person ang turn them into a parapelegic i've expierienced it on more than one occassion tied up and twisted by bandits that's a place i hope i never have to visit
the coca leaves and matte teas definitely healed the head i was nearly robbed once by 2 drunks in the small town of corroico bolivia a hamlet for expatriates from europe and north america whose romantic travelling adventures were at the end of a long white line of crystallized powder and endless sermons on life .we had introduced the combination of flavor aid mixed with the local agua diente one nighti believe they called it casasha at the local church where they were showing two films mujeres mujeres and easy come easy don't with elvis extremely surreallike fur trappers trading with indians[ the oddest thing was the black ford van with colorado plates possibly the padres never found out]
anyway the fire water brought out the best in our fellow trekers where verbal and physical assaults followed after the films it was that night on my walk back to our pension that i was approached by the two barracheros who wanted my bag the chase lasted about 50 feet the next morning we hopped on the next bus out of town your riht the journey whether good or bad is its own reward
Knowa
I think you'd agree with me though that on balance Peru is still a wonderful country and well worth a visit. I even liked Lima, something I tried to convey in my book Bloomsday Dead, but I dont think anyone really believed me.
Not sure who is still reading down here, but thought that this was as good a place as any to say that on the morning after our arrival here in L.A., a very traumatic event took place here involving some close friends of my sister. Though not a secret, it's probably not something to go on about in a public forum either. To borrow an expression of yours, Adrian, it's taken the flip right out of me.
Flying home today, and will no doubt be back to speed shortly.
I'm enjoying your impressionistic posts, Knowa. And the rocky road trip adventures you guys have posted about seem strangely apt for the last leg of this journey.
Seana
I do hope everyone is ok.
Likewise.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Thanks, you guys. It isn't resolved yet, but we can hope for the best. I'm home now, and will have to rely on my sister for updates on the situation.
Seana
Well send everyone my best and if knees need to be busted I'm your boy.
And if stinging verbal abuse is called for, I'm your man.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Thanks. Both may come in handy. Since it involves the welfare of a child, I might actually be able to summon the requisite powers myself, should the opportunity arise. Unfotunately, it probably won't.
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