#paul theroux

[dk-thrive]

So many people have it much harder — soldiers, firefighters, field workers, truckers. The writer’s profession is a life of self-indulgence. With luck and effort, you make a living. The only difficulty is its necessity for solitude. Writing is not compatible with anything — its utter self-absorption is generally destructive to family life and friendships — and yet I find it joyous. All creativity is uplifting; I finish a book in a mood approaching rapture.

– Paul Theroux, from “Paul Theroux on Necessary Solitude, Risks and the Joy of Writing. After 60 years and almost as many books, the novelist and travel writer, 83, will stop when he falls out of his chair.” (NY Times, July 3, 2024)

[theblackestofsuns]

Chicago Loop (1990)

Paul Theroux

Random House

[cryingoflot49]

Book Review

Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town

by Paul Theroux

Two decades ago, the novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux took an overland trip through Africa, starting in Cairo, Egypt and ending in Cape Town, South Africa. This certainly isn’t the safest or the most comfortable means of experiencing the supposed “dark continent”, but it makes for some interesting experiences and insights. Keeping in mind that Theroux’s observations are just one point of view among many, his resulting book Dark Star provides a unique look at a region of the world that holds a permanent place off the beaten path.

While Dark Star is an easy book to read, breaking it down into its individual elements is a good way to approach its merits and examine its flaws. The first element of importance is Theroux’s sense of place. Wherever he goes, the author describes what he sees and the vibe he gets from his surroundings. Starting on the tourist trail in Egypt, he heads south through Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, and South Africa. You quickly get a sense of what he appreciates and what he doesn’t. He doesn’t like sites that are swarmed with tourists, nor does he like cities with their concentrations of crime and poverty. He also doesn’t like the “death traps” as he calls public transportation which are usually over-croded minivans driven at dangerous speeds on poorly maintained roads, pockmarked with hippopotamus-sized potholes. If you’ve ever traveled in a Third World country, you will know exaclt what he is talking about.

The places that Theroux does like are usually rural, especially farm lands or jungle villages. These are the places where he sees Africans at their best, meaning Africans being Africans in the absence of corrupt and filthy cities built up on the foundations of European colonialism. Some of the book’s best passages involve descriptions of the pyramids in Sudan which are rarely seen by tourists, a boat trip across Lake Victoria, another boat trip from Malawi across the Zambezi over the border into Zimbabwe, and the pristine countrysides of Zimbabwe and South Africa. All places, whether Theroux likes them or not, are described with language that is clear, simple, and direct, making it easy to visualize what he sees.

Another element that is done to near perfection is writings about the people. Theroux talks with tour guides, people on the streets and in the villages, farmers, nuns, educators, government officials, Indian businessmen, prostitutes, authors, intellectuals, and ordinary people. Just like with the places he goes, he describes these people vividly with precision so that you feel like you quickly get to know them. But not everyone is to his liking. He gets into small argument with a fanatical Rastafarian in Ethiopia, a little ornery with physically fit young men who refuse to work, government officials who demand bribes to do their jobs, and he really gives a hard time to a young American missionary woman about the psychological damage that her evangelical ministry is doing to the local people. There is also plenty of anger directed at clueless tourists as well as NGO and charity workers who he sees as being the Westerners who do the most damage to Africa.

The third element of importance is the author, Paul Theroux himself, and his thoughts and commentaries on everything he sees. Before getting into this subject, it should be mentioned that Theroux had a purpose to his journey. In the 1960s he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching in Malawi. After getting involved with a Leftist political group, he got fired then accepted a teaching position at a college in Uganda. He wanted to return and see what results, if any, his contributions to Africa grew into. What he found was a major disappointment. The charming campuses and villages where he had lived were in ruins and instead of a thriving civilization, he saw emaciated beggars, starving children, an ignorant populace, and chronically corrupt politicians. Shops that were formerly owned by Indian immigrants were abandoned and burnt to the ground, the result of a campaign of ethnic cleansing. African people wanted to buy from shops owned by Africans, but Africans never took control over the businesses after the Indians were killed or chased away. They resorted to begging, theft, petty crime, prostitution, and laziness instead of making an effort to build better villages for themselves. Due to the hopelessness of African society, the most educated citizens fled to America or Europe instead of staying in their home countries where they were most needed.

Throughout his travels in Tanzania, Uganda, and Malawi, Theroux gets increasingly bitter and cynical. He wanted to see Africans thriving and they weren’t. He directs all his wrath towards the Western charities and NGOs who he says are making the local people dependent on aid rather than learning how to run their societies for themselves. Even worse, these organizations work by bribing corrupt politicians to allow them to do work there, keeping greedy and psychotic leaders in positions of power they don’t deserve. Theroux points out that rural people who have given up on the hopeless market economy and returned to subsistence farming are the happiest and healthiest Africans he encounters. Heecomes close to advocating for a type of post-capitalist agrarian anarchism.

Some readers have criticized Theroux for his pessimistic views on contemporary Africa, but he does cite studies that support what he says. He also encounters a lot of Africans in several different countries that agree with him. To make sense of his negativity, you also have to remember that traveling overland through Africa is not exactly stress free. Anybody who has been on an extended backpacking trip anywhere in the world will tell you that traveler’s fatigue is a real thing. Theroux took a longer than average trip through one of the most underdeveloped regions in the world, got shot at by Somali bandits, stuck in the middle of nowhere when his transportation broke down, and got sick with food poisoning, magnifying his traveler’s fatigue to a outsize extent. These circumstances would make you grouchy too. But even in the darkest times, Theroux never loses his appreciation for Africa, the wildlife, the landscapes, and the people who are trying to make the best of their situations. Besides, by the time he crosses the river from Malawi into Zimbabwe, his mood really lightens up.

Dark Star is an engaging travelogue that should be read both critically and with an open mind. All the while, remember that this is Paul Theroux’s singular point of view. That doesn’t make it wrong; that just means that there are other points of view to take into account that may go against what he says even if they don’t necessarily invalidate his opinions. He saw what he saw and he expresses it well. This is raw and honest travel writing and if you haven’t been tough enough to make the same kind of journey, you’re not in a good place to be judgmental of the conclusions he draws.

[book51ut]

Review of Birthday Stories Selected and Introduced by Haruki Murakami

Oh this one was so interesting. It’s a connection of stories centering or touching on the topic of birthdays. Murakami compiled this anthology and added a short story to accompany it, along with his introduction. The stories were excellent, and each had their own merits and revealed things about their cultural contexts and experiences, which I always find fascinating. I think the thing I want to focus on, though, in this little writing exercise that I catapult into the void, is Murakami’s introduction.

First, the topic of birthdays. What a whimsical little topic to pick. What a silly thing to write about. In some of these stories, the birthday is obviously central. In others, it is merely noted- all of the events would’ve unfolded anyway- but it changes the lens through which we read the story. We can assign such high expectations to this day- our birthday, our parent’s birthday, our partner’s birthday. I, for one, love birthdays! I think it’s a wonderful excuse to celebrate yourself and the people that you love. But we put so much pressure on it. Many of these writers go dark with the birthday stories- birthday strife, birthday tragedy, birthday awkwardness. And it’s so easy to do so: we are supposed to be at such a high, it is incredibly easy to be brought down low, to feel that tension that makes a story a story. We can discuss to what extent the “perfect” birthday is even a myth. Are these sad birthday stories the closest we will get to reality?

The second thing that really struck me was Murakami’s first person writing style in the introduction and this blurbs about the authors. I thought it was so cute and comical. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It strayed far from his usual third person mystical narratives that are a sign of his almost autor nature of writing. It also was jarring then, when I read his story, that I was immediately thrust back into that world of immateriality and surrealism. His ability to shift between the conversational and simple writing to heavily artistic and philosophical writing was interesting to witness within the same 200 pages.

The last thing was just a little point of order that I found to be interesting. He published this book both in Japanese and in English, where he says he did most of the translating work himself into Japanese from the original English of many of the short stories. This surprised me when I read it because I didn’t know he did translations. Most of the work of his that i’ve read has been translated by someone else. What surprised me even more was that when it came time for his story, he wasn’t the one that did the translation from Japanese to English. That boggles my mind a little bit. If you have translator capabilities, wouldn’t you be the most capable one to translate your own work. He would be the one most able to retain the intention and mood behind every sentence. That was just odd to me.

[rivieiraa]

Le voyage, prévient-il dès les premières pages, est un acte évanescent, la randonnée d'un solitaire le long de l'étroite ligne qui mène de la géographie à l'oubli... Mais le livre de voyage est l'inverse, le solitaire rebondit plus haut que dans la vie pour relater l'histoire de son expérience avec l'espace... C'est le mouvement mis en ordre par sa répétition dans des mots.

[ronnydeschepper]

Bruce Chatwin (1940-1989)

Het is al 35 jaar geleden dat “de Engelse Boudewijn Büch” Bruce Chatwin is overleden. Continue reading Untitled

[gerbie7]

Paul Theroux – De zuilen van Hercules

De reisverhalen van Theroux zijn altijd leuk om te lezen, omdat hij een heerlijke atypische reiziger is. Als iets populair is, zal hij een andere route kiezen. Als hij zich als een local kan gedragen, doet hij dat. Hij slaapt in slechte hotels, zwerft door lelijke buurten en praat met velen om zodoende te weten wat er speelt in een land, niet wat de reisgidsen zeggen wat hij zou moeten zijn. In…

[slowdrives]

Riding on the Equator

I left Facebook years ago. Myspace long before that. Twitter was my go-to until Elon came along. I have used Tumblr off and on through the years but never really with any gusto.

Now I'm lost in the internet wilderness, looking for a new home - an outlet - and I don't really want to sign up for the latest and greatest social media so here I am giving Tumblr another go.

I also still have Instagram but don't really care for it. I use it to keep up with people I actually know. I also keep up with a few guys in a couple of groups on GroupMe but that whole app seems so outdated and cumbersome and just - not modern I guess. Regardless, I am a latecomer to the established groups mainly discussing soccer and video games. I love soccer but not the league most of them are into. And I'm not a gamer. I sometimes feel when I post about non-gaming things in the non-soccer group, I'm just being a nuisance or treating the group as I would Twitter or Facebook before that - and that's not really what it's for. 

So what to do to kill my boredom and write about things I'm in to without resorting to all of the above? Well...welcome to Slow Drives Redux. We'll see how long it lasts.

For my inaugural post I'm gonna keep it short and sweet, unlike the song below which clocks in at a good 9 minutes. It's my favorite song by my favorite band - well, at least one of my favorite bands. It's certainly on my favorite release by them.

I will also use this post to reccomend a book I'm currently reading. It's a travel book, but there's not much in the way of talking about the journey and hardships of the travel itself, which is refreshing. Having grown up in the deep south, none of it is revelatory, but an interesting read nonetheless.

[micheltaanman-blog]

Boeken over Treinreizen - reizen per trein in je hoofd

Boeken over Treinreizen - reizen per trein in je hoofd

Boeken over treinreizen In Amsterdam zoals in veel steden en dorpen loop je tegenwoordig in de straten tegen kleine houten bibliotheekjes aan – uitgelezen boeken vinden hier hun plek – niet het eindstation maar een verse kans voor leeshunker – gister vond ik hier op de hoek van de straat De Oude Patagonië expres van Paul Theroux – een fantastisch boek over een treinreis die Theroux in 1997…

[silvercompassjournal]

Silver Compass Journal’s Winter Reading List - 2023

Purple Deceiver - Buck Reilly #10 - John H. Cunningham I thought I'd start the winter reading list with a book set in warm, sunny Key West. I really enjoy the fun and exciting Buck Reilly series from John H. Cunningham. Buck is a treasure hunter turned seaplane pilot. These books are Indiana Jones meets Jimmy Buffett. A Step Beyond Chaos - Alex Rutledge #10 - Tom Corcoran Another novel set in Key West. This is the 10th book by Tom Corcoran that features the photographer and reluctant crime solver Alex Rutledge. Alex is one of my favorite characters. He tries to live a quiet life in Key West but is constantly pulled into helping KWPD solve murders around the island. If you haven't read these, I recommend starting with the first one 'The Mango Opera' and reading them all. The Paris Bookseller - Kerri Maher "The dramatic story of how a humble bookseller fought against incredible odds to bring one of the most important books of the 20th century to the world." This is the story of how Silvia Beach opened the famous Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company, published James Joyce's Ulysses, and befriended the characters of 1920's Paris including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. The Search for the Genuine - Jim Harrison "The first general nonfiction title in thirty years from a giant of American letters, The Search for the Genuine is a sparkling, definitive collection of Jim Harrison's essays and journalism-some never before published." I'm a big fan of Jim Harrison, particularly his non-fiction writing about food, wine, hunting, fishing, travel, and life.

The Great Railway Bazaar - Paul Theroux "In 1973, Paul Theroux embarked on a four-month journey by train from the United Kingdom through Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. In The Great Railway Bazaar, he records in vivid detail and penetrating insight the many fascinating incidents, adventures, and encounters of his grand, intercontinental tour." I'm currently reading his follow up to this book called Ghost Train to the Eastern Star Where he re-visits his journey in The Great Railway Bazaar 30 years later.

[movie--posters]

[p-s-infatuated]

Rooney Mara, Justin Theroux, Selena Gomez, Paul Rudd, Julie Rudd, Aleen Keshishian, Petra Collins and Jesse Peretz in a photo taken after the theater show "Harry Clarke" starring Billy Cudrup

[pedroam-bang]

American Psycho (2000)

[closetofcuriosities]

American Psycho - 2000 - Dir. Mary Harron