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Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #138
Granta 138: Journeys
What are the ethics of writing about a place you may visit only briefly and view with the eyes of an outsider? With Granta's long tradition of travel writing in mind, we ask some of the world's best writers: is travel writing dead in 2016?
Plus:
Will Atkins investigates a killing across the US-Mexico border
Xan Rice goes back to school in South Africa
Edna O'Brien: 'Chekhov's Ladies'
David Flusfeder visits record factories in Detroit and California
All the way up London's Holloway Road with Tim Adams
Laura Vapynar: 'Vladimir in Love'
Plus:
Will Atkins investigates a killing across the US-Mexico border
Xan Rice goes back to school in South Africa
Edna O'Brien: 'Chekhov's Ladies'
David Flusfeder visits record factories in Detroit and California
All the way up London's Holloway Road with Tim Adams
Laura Vapynar: 'Vladimir in Love'
224 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2017
11 people are currently reading
58 people want to read
About the author
Sigrid Rausing
45 books52 followersSigrid Rausing is Editor and Publisher of Granta magazine and Publisher of Granta and Portobello Books. She is the author of History, Memory and Identity in Post-Soviet Estonia: The End of a Collective Farm and Everything is Wonderful, which has been translated into four different languages.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
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February 12, 2017Aside from a lengthy, soporific, and solipsistic account of his return to Bombay by Amit Chaudhuri, I greedily read this issue of Granta.
An issue of "travel writing", the stories by William Atkins about tensions along the US-Mexican border, by David Flusfelder about his father's part in the development of the Lened vinyl pressing machine, and by Xiaolu Guo about applying from a distant province to the film school in Beijing are interspersed with essays by likes of Robert Macfarlane, Ian Jack, Pico Iyer, and Colin Thubron that answer the question, "Is Travel Writing dead?" each of these led me to contemplate this genre in ways I'd never considered.
The final essay, by Tara Bergin, is beautiful and a brilliant endnote to this collection.
The 3 photo essays, about Chinese urbanization, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and one of tourists in mountainous regions, but to be considered with the imagined flooding of these peoples' domestic habitat are engaging. The last one stretching the viewers' imagination.
Of the two poems in this collection, Zeyar Lynn's might be read as another answer to "Is Travel Writing dead?" Safiya Sinclair's poem is bold and visceral.
Edna O'Brien writes deftly about the complex relationship and history of an artist couple. White South African Xan Rice returns to his now predominately Black-enrolled, boarding school in South Africa to contemplate the dramatic changes, at least racially, in that country.
Even Chaudhuri's long piece which I read some and then skipped to the end, offered Walter Benjamin's description of Klee's Angelus Novus with which I can now comprehend "The angel being blown backward into the future" referenced in Laurie Anderson songs and elsewhere.
An issue of "travel writing", the stories by William Atkins about tensions along the US-Mexican border, by David Flusfelder about his father's part in the development of the Lened vinyl pressing machine, and by Xiaolu Guo about applying from a distant province to the film school in Beijing are interspersed with essays by likes of Robert Macfarlane, Ian Jack, Pico Iyer, and Colin Thubron that answer the question, "Is Travel Writing dead?" each of these led me to contemplate this genre in ways I'd never considered.
The final essay, by Tara Bergin, is beautiful and a brilliant endnote to this collection.
The 3 photo essays, about Chinese urbanization, the Baikonur Cosmodrome, and one of tourists in mountainous regions, but to be considered with the imagined flooding of these peoples' domestic habitat are engaging. The last one stretching the viewers' imagination.
Of the two poems in this collection, Zeyar Lynn's might be read as another answer to "Is Travel Writing dead?" Safiya Sinclair's poem is bold and visceral.
Edna O'Brien writes deftly about the complex relationship and history of an artist couple. White South African Xan Rice returns to his now predominately Black-enrolled, boarding school in South Africa to contemplate the dramatic changes, at least racially, in that country.
Even Chaudhuri's long piece which I read some and then skipped to the end, offered Walter Benjamin's description of Klee's Angelus Novus with which I can now comprehend "The angel being blown backward into the future" referenced in Laurie Anderson songs and elsewhere.
April 17, 2018
Journeys is another entry in Granta's superb travel writing series, but it will leave you hungry. Sure, you'll feast on "Between Great Fires", "Vinyl Road Trip", "Chekhov's Ladies", and "Old School", suberb entries all. You'll cleanse your palate with "Hymen Elegy" by Safiya Sinclair - visceral, gripping, luscious poetry.
But then what? "Friend of my Youth" has some spirited writing but is overly long at 35 pages, and then another 30 or so pages are wasted on authors answering the question, Is Travel Writing Dead?
Well of course it isn't, but given the 70 pages of filler out of a slim 230 page issue, it appears to be on extended leave. Perhaps when it returns we can hear some insightful tales of its adventures.
But then what? "Friend of my Youth" has some spirited writing but is overly long at 35 pages, and then another 30 or so pages are wasted on authors answering the question, Is Travel Writing Dead?
Well of course it isn't, but given the 70 pages of filler out of a slim 230 page issue, it appears to be on extended leave. Perhaps when it returns we can hear some insightful tales of its adventures.
December 14, 2017
My first introduction to Granta and I very much enjoyed being introduced to a wide range of new writers.
November 12, 2017
A wonderful collection of stories, mostly non-fiction this time around, all about travel and the many places people move to in their lives. Also the question is posed to a few writers of whether or not travel writing is dead. I'm guessing the question was prompted by the internet and how easy it is to find out about places for yourself these days, instead of relying on that trusted travel writer for all the answers. The responses all seem to concur with the general idea that travel writing never was just that, and that all writing, to a certain extent, is essentially travel writing, of one persons account of their place in the world and what it means to them. Definitely food for thought there, and a satisfying and hope driven response to the question rather than a negative one. Travel writing it seems has merely changed shape and evolved to suit the current climate of writers world wide, and if anything it has made travel writing less generalising and more personal.
As for the stories in this Granta collection, I must say that I enjoyed them all for their differences and mix of fiction and non-fiction, but my favourites from this collection were 'Vinyl Road Trip' by David Flusfeder, 'Well Done, No. 3777!' by Xiaolu Guo, and 'Old School' by Xan Rice. I thought the Journeys theme was enjoyable overall and liked the different culturally and geographically styles that its subject permitted.
As for the stories in this Granta collection, I must say that I enjoyed them all for their differences and mix of fiction and non-fiction, but my favourites from this collection were 'Vinyl Road Trip' by David Flusfeder, 'Well Done, No. 3777!' by Xiaolu Guo, and 'Old School' by Xan Rice. I thought the Journeys theme was enjoyable overall and liked the different culturally and geographically styles that its subject permitted.
June 6, 2017
This is one of the better issues. The pick of the issue is the extract from Amit Chaudhuri's upcoming novel - giving an insight into his experience of Bombay. It's beautifully constructed and elegantly tied together. Xan Rice's account of his education in South Africa and his subsequent return to his old school was revelatory. There are almost n misfires in this volume.
August 24, 2017
Why did Granta commission so many authors to answer the unasked question "Is travel writing dead?" for this issue? The grasping, repetitive responses take up way too much of the book. I guess I didn't realise we needed to be concerned about the state of travel writing, but the pieces collected here do the genre no favours.
July 10, 2017
Is travel writing dead? Clearly not, good issue featuring many answers to that question and a lovely bit of Amit Chaudhuri's Friend of My Youth. Some wonderful writing about many Journeys to and from home.
January 17, 2019
Xiaolu Guo's Well Done, No 3777, a look at Guo's journey from countryside China to its best film school; and Xan Rice's Old School, a description of life as a white child in segregated South Africa were the standouts for me, in a rather lackluster Granta edition.
June 5, 2017
hmm ok nothing standout for me
December 1, 2017
3.5, really...but a bump for the pictures.
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March 6, 2017
I quite liked this one, but now can't remember anything about it.
March 27, 2017
I really love this literary magazine of the winter season of the 2017, because it is rich of photographs, the most interesting is at the pages 70 and 71.
This season is dedicated to journeys and I will review "Well Done No.3777!", written by Xiaolu Guo and various authors who responds to a provocation: "Is Travel Writing Dead?"
The writings are very intersting with a multitude of point of view, certainly I cannot say if travel writing is dead, but I'd like that the articles with a strong emphasis on hotels and restaurants should be dead because the true nature of a travel writer is "to sell" emotions rather than "Tastes"
For this reason I wrote an Haiku, a summary of these readings:
No! It Cannot Be Dead, Because
If Our Souls, Will Stop
Travelling, The Knowledge Will End!
I decided to review "Well Done No.3777!" for the title and for his journey from the southern China to the North.
In the first paragraph, the author describes his family and the days in the southern of China, a place who "Retains rotten feudal traditions and trivial domestic comforts"
The boy is young and he wants to know the world deciding to go to the capital city "The north represents culture and power"
The beauty of his Journey is the second one when he is relaxed and he thinks positive, he looks the panorama, outside the train window from the south to north.
"It was the first time I really used my eyes to see my country, and I felt like writing a long epic poem as the train rushed along"
This season is dedicated to journeys and I will review "Well Done No.3777!", written by Xiaolu Guo and various authors who responds to a provocation: "Is Travel Writing Dead?"
The writings are very intersting with a multitude of point of view, certainly I cannot say if travel writing is dead, but I'd like that the articles with a strong emphasis on hotels and restaurants should be dead because the true nature of a travel writer is "to sell" emotions rather than "Tastes"
For this reason I wrote an Haiku, a summary of these readings:
No! It Cannot Be Dead, Because
If Our Souls, Will Stop
Travelling, The Knowledge Will End!
I decided to review "Well Done No.3777!" for the title and for his journey from the southern China to the North.
In the first paragraph, the author describes his family and the days in the southern of China, a place who "Retains rotten feudal traditions and trivial domestic comforts"
The boy is young and he wants to know the world deciding to go to the capital city "The north represents culture and power"
The beauty of his Journey is the second one when he is relaxed and he thinks positive, he looks the panorama, outside the train window from the south to north.
"It was the first time I really used my eyes to see my country, and I felt like writing a long epic poem as the train rushed along"
March 31, 2017
Most of the longer contributions are phenomenal and thought provoking - covering topics ranging from seriously thought provoking (U.S.-Mexican border, Apartheid) to human interest (vinyl production, applying to Beijing film school). However, some of the interludes are a bit fluffy and not all of the long pieces hit the mark (Chaudhuri's is particularly self indulgent).
April 4, 2017
In this edition which questions the whys and wherefores of travel writing, old and new, I found myself drawn to the longer pieces by Edna O'Brien, David Flusfeder, Janine diGiovanni, Amit Chaudhuri and William Atkins.
The history of vinyl, immigration routes in the southwest, reminiscences about youth and age in India, the "Chekhov Ladies," and thoughts on schooling, family, restiveness, the meaning of travel, the possibilities of traveling "at home" and so much else fed my mind for a few days.
This is an edition that raises many questions, good questions. But it also somehow, for me, was too prescriptive, too narrowing, but perhaps that's part of the point.
Hoa Nguyen's words stay with me.
"Growing up, I watched the ease of my white friends, seeing how they could take on the costumes of any era and place...I'm led to wonder, given the history of 'discovery', if we need more accounts of people of European descent 'discovering' places like my mother's country. What is the tourist trade really funding? Is it adult Disneyland, plastic trinkets with little automatons singing "It's A Small World After All?...As a poet interested in the local, I think it vital to understand what is right before one...Travel as one's carbon footprint; travel as a footstep, travel as a naming in a landscape in all its complexity. Homing as a way to place oneself in a constellation of process and being."
Travel as a ways and means of capturing - or recapturing or reimagining- both past and present. And future.
The history of vinyl, immigration routes in the southwest, reminiscences about youth and age in India, the "Chekhov Ladies," and thoughts on schooling, family, restiveness, the meaning of travel, the possibilities of traveling "at home" and so much else fed my mind for a few days.
This is an edition that raises many questions, good questions. But it also somehow, for me, was too prescriptive, too narrowing, but perhaps that's part of the point.
Hoa Nguyen's words stay with me.
"Growing up, I watched the ease of my white friends, seeing how they could take on the costumes of any era and place...I'm led to wonder, given the history of 'discovery', if we need more accounts of people of European descent 'discovering' places like my mother's country. What is the tourist trade really funding? Is it adult Disneyland, plastic trinkets with little automatons singing "It's A Small World After All?...As a poet interested in the local, I think it vital to understand what is right before one...Travel as one's carbon footprint; travel as a footstep, travel as a naming in a landscape in all its complexity. Homing as a way to place oneself in a constellation of process and being."
Travel as a ways and means of capturing - or recapturing or reimagining- both past and present. And future.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews