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The Jason Voyage Q2: A Modern Travelogue
Believe it or not, this is only the second travelogue we've done here at the club, and the first (The Southern Gates of Arabia by Freya Stark) was so long ago that I don't think Richard or Neil were members at the time. But Clash and Ray and I read that, and it was well-received if I recall.
The question for now (and for the future) is did you like this as a club read? Whether you liked or didn't like this book, would you be interested in doing more travelogues in the future? What do you like (or not like) about them, especially with respect to how might shape your gaming or fiction-writing experiences.
Comments
I liked it and would be very happy to tray anotehr. I loved the Freya Stark book!
I don't remember Freya Stark so that must indeed be Before My Time!
Yes, I'd be interested in reading more such. In the Grasmere book club (which includes more non-fiction than we do, but with variable success) we read Nims Purja's Beyond Possible last year, being his account of tackling all 14 of the world's peaks over 8000m in an absurdly short span of time. It was memorable as a book, though the writing style was nowhere near as good as Tim Severin's - the Netflix documentary actually was a more rounded and balanced thing.
I guess from a fiction-writing perspective there's a clear difference in terms of the kinds of conflict or crisis encountered. In the travelogue style of writing the core team (ie Severin and his mates here) certainly had to deal with natural obstacles, and in Beyond Possible there were also bureaucratic ones as Nims struggled to permission for some of the climbs. But basically within the team everyone's a hero. They may (and do) get tired, or have blistered hands, or whatever, but they stay united as a team and there are no real inter-personal conflicts (again, shades of Roddenberry's vision of the Star Trek universe).
But in a work of fiction you need there to be internal crises and conflicts of one kind or another. This shows even in the original Jason story where, for example Hercules had to challenge the rest to leave behind the women of Lemnos, or later on one of the crew was left behind - albeit by accident but it led to irrevocable consequences between Hercules and others.
So the travelogue style feels artificial. I'm willing to bet that in actual fact Tim Severin and his shipmates got pissed off with each other and the quest as a whole, swore at each other, and so on - but all that is gracefully overlooked in the final version.
So (to conclude this little ramble) I think there are definitely elements of the travelogue that could be incorporated into fiction - both written and gamed - but one would need to bring in something a little grittier about the internal workings of the team.
I think this is a form of record that's best in a different medium! I found the book a bit dull: I wanted more immediacy than Severin's words could conjure. I was happy when I found the TV documentary on YouTube, as that gave a more vivid impression of they ship and the journey.
I also tried reading a Freya Stark book, and that didn't do much for me either. It seems that travel writing isn't my thing!
I've mentioned many times that I quite like them - especially travelogues that take us back in time, as well as go to a new place. I find there's a lot that I can get out of them. A travel writer, for example, is never shy to relay the mythical qualities of a place, so a good travelogue has all those bits about being eaten by hyaenas or the follies of trying to void a prophecy. But they are also full of the trials and tribulations of travelling, including the mundane upsets like broken steering oars or your companions getting sick, but they also bring to life great personalities that ones meets along the way, like the boat builder with his adze, the aging wrestler, or the fish whisperer. These little details are great for bringing your setting (and most important, the people that inhabit it) to life.
I like travelogues, but ... maybe I'm just shallow, but I think moving pictures are a better medium for it. We're visual creatures, and images typically have a stronger impact than words. And we still get the words to go along with it!
I'd say that's very true for things like sights, sounds, even food, if your goal is to reveal those things to the audience. But I think thoughts and personalities probably render better in written format. Written travelogues also don't have to rely on a filmed record, which can be an advantage. In fiction, it's not very often people say the movie is better than the book - so I'm not really sure why it would be different for a travelogue, but maybe it is - it's an interesting thought to puzzle through.