Category: Samuel James Conroy

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Samuel James Conroy

Gill Chreia

Chreia Progymnasmata

            A.A. Gill provides a divisive piece titled, “America the Marvelous,” in which he describes why America is better than Europe. Gill himself is British so he is not writing this as an American praising America. The article goes into why America is better than Europe through Gill’s life experiences. The piece starts off with Gill recounting a time where he was at an elite liberal dinner party in Europe and a woman at the dinner was desecrating America. She would say, “Stupid, stupid. Americans are stupid. America is stupid. A stupid, stupid country made stupid by stupid, stupid people” (Gill). This is a common take among Europeans, that America is uneducated, loud, annoying, spoiled etc… However, Gill disagrees with this. He believes that America is everything Europe wishes it was, and that the sly remarks are mere jealousy. He backs up his claims by providing evidence of America’s successes, such as having 14 out of the top 20 schools in the world, winning more Nobel prizes than Germany, France, Britain, Japan, and Russia combined, and having 22 peace prized with 12 being for literature.

This is another common diss at America that our literature is not intellectual. Gill states, “It was Camus who sniffily said that only in America could you be a novelist without being an intellectual” (Gill). This attack is misguided as in America, writing is much more straight-forward and plain, there is not a hidden meaning behind every writing that needs to be solved. This is no way means that the writing is of lower quality, it is just simpler to understand. Gill then goes through America’s sudden rise to becoming a world power, and that those who contributed went to America as they knew it was better than the old world.

Gill’s thoughts obviously clash with just about everyone who is not American, however, his evidence more than backs up his claims. He ends the piece with a fantastic jab at Europeans, he states:

“There is in Europe another popular snobbery, about the parochialism of America, the unsophistication of its taste, the limit of its inquiry. This, we’re told, is proved by “how few Americans travel abroad.” Apparently, so we’re told, only 35 percent of Americans have passports. Whenever I hear this, I always think, My good golly gosh, really? That many? Why would you go anywhere else? There is so much of America to wonder at. So much that is the miracle of a newly minted civilization. And anyway, European kids only get passports because they all want to go to New York” (Gill).

This bit of banter is a brilliant way to conclude the piece in stating that the reason Americans do not leave America is because why would they? It is better than anywhere else and that Europeans who travel just come to America anyways.

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Samuel James Conroy

Selfie Thesis

Thesis Progymmasmata

            Kylie Cardell & Kate Douglas dive into the world of the selfie in their article, “Visualising lives: “the selfie” as travel writing.” They discuss the rise of the selfie in recent times as phones have evolved to a point where we can take a picture of ourselves and upload it to the internet for anybody to see. The selfie is now used as a way for people to brag about their travel adventures for the world to see. In my opinion, this is not a beneficial trend. Personally, I am not a fan of the selfie as I think it is unhealthy for someone to look at themselves in a camera for that much time. In the travel world as well, selfies have become an unneeded source of competition among tourists around the planet.

Travel writing, as we previously read, has been diluted with the rise of the internet as more and more people are able to write about the places they have been, even if they are not educated well on the culture they just wrote about. The selfie only exemplifies this dilution. As mentioned, the selfie has created a competition amongst people on the internet to have this coolest picture and to show off where they have been. There are now “selfie-designated” spots in popular tourist areas due to the astronomical rise in taking a picture of yourself. This has become such an issue that certain places have banned the selfie due to people clogging up the areas too much. Also, the crave to have the best selfie has led to numerous deaths where (for example) someone will try to climb something that clearly should not be climbed, then they fall to their deaths. This is truly tragic as no one should feel so pressured by the internet to take a selfie that they put themselves in harm’s way. No longer is travel about seeing cool places that can only be experienced in person, now, all that matters are that you took a picture of yourself in front of these amazing places. People have become too focused on themselves rather than the places they are traveling to, leading to travel now becoming a bragging match. People simply travel to snap pictures of themselves, upload it to Instagram, and then brag about how many likes random people on the internet have gave them.

 

 

 

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Samuel James Conroy

Theroux Vituperation

Vituperation Progymnasmata

            Paul Theroux is a great American travel writer who wrote about his adventures into parts of the world that most Americans have never heard of. Theroux is from Medford, Massachusetts and attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Theroux is part of a famous family as both of his sons are famous documentarians and he is also the uncle of famous actor Justin Theroux. In Theroux’s short story, “Trespass,” he describes his time in Malawi. Theroux was in Malawi shortly after it had gained independence. He was a member of the Peace Corps and was assigned to work as a teacher in Malawi. Theroux was one of the first members of the Peace Corps as it had just been established in 1961 where his travels took place in 1963.

Around Christmas time, Theroux decided to travel to neighboring Zambia and go to a local bar. At this bar, there were only two other attendees, a man and his sister who Theroux mistook for his wife. The man told Theroux that his sister “likes you very much” (Theroux). Theroux let his lust take over and went with these strangers on a long taxi ride to their home. Theroux and the woman made love, however, the next morning when he attempted to leave, both the woman and her brother would not let Theroux leave. They made him go the bar again because it was Christmas. Once again, Theroux returned with the woman, made love, and was forced to go to the bar again the next day for Boxing Day. He was now stuck in a vicious cycle where he was being forced to stay in this village. The longer he was there, the more Theroux realized how messed up of a situation it was. The two Zambians started to become more aggressive towards him, the thought of sex started to become more frightening, the food was bad, the hut was rundown, the drinking was making him ill, he was giving them all of his money, they spoke a language that he did not understand, and that he really had no way out. He was now a captive. The next day at the bar Theroux realized he had to try and escape. He attempted to use the outdoor restroom when the girl tried to send a man out there with him to make sure he did not escape. She stated, “he will not come back,” knowing exactly what his intentions were. Theroux left his jacket and some cash for them to show that he would return, once outside, he ran quickly down the street until he could grab a cab out of the village.

Theroux had let his guard down and let lust get the best of him. This moment of weakness led him to a place where he was lucky to escape from. He states at the end that this moment was the one that scared him the most on his journey and made him feel the most “American.” Theroux did indeed become an American tourist through his actions, he mistook hostility for kindness and ended up in a vicious cycle for it.

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Samuel James Conroy

Confirmation Progymnasmata

Giorgia Alù & Sarah Patricia Hill composed a great article about experiencing others’ cultures without having outside influence on the way you see these cultures. The authors talk about the “Travellers’ visions” that warp the way we experience our vacations or travels. They quote Italian poet, Guido Gozzano,

“I must free myself from the remembrance of too many descriptions – from those of Marco Polo, deliciously archaic, to the modern and sentimental ones of Pierre Loti – in order to reenter reality, to see the much-awaited object with my own eyes” (1917, 233).

Gozzano is saying that since there have already been famous travelers across the globe, their vision and experience impacts your own journeys in not per se a negative way, but to make you want to experience what they did.

An issue with this is that a lot of the time, these impressions are wrong. Back in the early days of travel, artists would usually exaggerate their paintings to meet the demands that consumers had to see the “wild and exotic” places around the world. This was seen with illustrations added to Marco Polo’s writings about the east. Artists would then add graphics to Polo’s writings to make it seem wilder than it truly was, and usually these illustrations would contradict from the writings they were supposed to be describing. This makes me wonder if any travel adventure can be completely free of influence anymore. The internet has allowed everyone to become a travel writer, so anyone with a computer can read about really anywhere. Therefore, any travel trip has already been influenced making the world of travel largely one of stereotype.

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Samuel James Conroy

Kincaid Thesis Progymnasmata

Kincaid Thesis Progymnasmata

            Jamaica Kincaid’s book “A Small Place” quite accurately describes the current issues surrounding the travel industry. While certain countries have no issues with tourism, a lot of smaller, less wealthy countries do. Kincaid comes from Antigua and Barbuda, a small Caribbean island country formerly ruled over by the British empire. This is where the issues arise. As is common with many former colonial countries, the colonists still have lingering effects all over the place, and this can be heavily reinforced through tourism. The tourist population in Antigua largely consists of white, wealthy westerners who have no real care for the history of the country or the people inhabiting it, instead, they just wish to get away from their current way of life.

The tourists only see the good things, such as the beautiful water, the beautiful landscape, and of course the beautiful weather. What is not seen, the mass corruption, the hospital with fake doctors that the Antiguan people do not trust, and rising poverty levels. This is why Kincaid states, “The thing you have always suspected about yourself the minute you become a tourist is true: a tourist is an ugly human being” (Kincaid). Kincaid does not mean that these people are bad people, just that when they become a tourist, then they become an ugly human being.

I disagree in that I do not believe these people automatically become bad human beings due to tourism. I would instead argue that they are oblivious and do not really understand the impact they have as a tourist.

Overall, tourism has a negative effect on these once colonial countries as the money made is not helping the common person, but rather supporting corrupt politicians. Kincaid does a great job in explaining this to the world through her writing and hopefully there will be a change soon.

 

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Samuel James Conroy

Encomium

Encomium Progymnasmata

            Anthony Bourdain is one of my favorite TV presenters. Bourdain was a chef and travel documentarian who would travel the globe to introduce people to cultures that are not as commonly known as others. My personal liking of him came from Bourdain’s will to try anything and everything. He did not care about the country, the food, the activity, he would try it. No Reservations and Parts Unknown are in my opinion two of the most important shows in the last 20 years. Americans are known for not getting out of the country and most of the time we do not even have passports. This is quite odd to the rest of the world and especially Europe where they travel with ease from country to country and voyaging is a part of their culture. Bourdain attempted to show Americans how unique and interesting other countries are through his TV adventures.

Bourdain would go to popular tourist destinations and not so popular destinations. You can look up where he has traveled, and it is just about everywhere. You can see him going throughout the United States to New York City and Los Angeles, then you can see him eat in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. In the Egypt episode that we watched for class, you can hear him say throughout the episode that he wasn’t going to see the pyramids. This would strike most people as quite odd, yet Bourdain simply did not care. The goal of the program is to show the common viewer parts of the country that are not as frequently visited or known about. Going to the pyramids would ruin the point of the show as you could find 1000s of videos of others doing the same thing, but you won’t find another like Bourdain. Bourdain is in the same category as an Andrew Zimmern, another fantastic food documentarian who would show viewers the most interesting dishes that different cultures have to offer. Overall, Anthony Bourdain is a hero for tourists and was one of the first and maybe the first to truly cover the entire globe in trying to bring other cultures to the common American.

 

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Samuel James Conroy

Confirmation Progymnasmata AD

Confirmation Progymnasmata

            Diane Hope does a deep look into the advertising world, particularly surrounding how men and women are portrayed in advertising. At the end of the day, an ad is trying to sell you a commodity, which means it is going to show you whatever the advertising company best believes will sell this product. Gender is a defining element in advertising. Since overconsumption and environmental degradation are becoming an ever-growing issue, advertising firms need to cover up these issues through their creative imagery, typically surrounding gender. This goes as far back as the ads for the Buffalo Pan American Exposition of 1901.

“Niagara,” personifies the 156 HOPE great falls as a slim young woman (see Fig. 7.1). She stands under a rainbow—still and posed, the fertile shape of breasts and legs revealed by her diaphanous gown as it is transformed into cascades of water that fall from her outstretched arms to the encircling river” (Hope).

The image can be seen here:

Then, for the San Francisco Panama Pacific International Exposition, a similar advertisement was done, except this time is was a man resembling Hercules. The advertisement shows the man splitting North and South America to create the Panama Canal.

The image can be seen here:

In the Hercules ad, masculinity is shown be how he is defining the land around him and literally shaping the earth, while for the Niagara ad, “Nature feminized is a seductive object of our gaze” (Hope). Overall, advertising has always painted a feminized environment as an attractive woman who is seductive in nature, while the man is a dominant force that shapes the world around him.

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Samuel James Conroy

Vituperation Progymnasmata

Vituperation Progymnasmata

            The travel writing industry has undergone an interesting switch over the last decade or so. Previously, travel writers were highly skilled and area-focused causing them to be specialists rather than a generalist. This meant that a writer who wrote about Latin America would only write about Latin America as this was their focus or specialization. However, as the writing and publishing industry started to become digitalized, a work-for-hire system started to be implemented that rewarded generalists over specialists.

Alacovska believes this is a poor switch as these new “generalist” writers are not experienced enough to do the job. I agree with this take as individual writers are getting their credit taken from them in favor of promoting companies’ names. Alacovska states, “Similarly, publishing entities worked to strengthen their companies’ brand recognition through corporate collective authorship at the expense of individual professional authors” (Alacovska). This new style not only compromised the work of the authors, but also made the work worse. In order to compensate for this, companies would enforce strict guidelines onto their writers, so it became pretty hard to fall out of line with the rules given. This “deskilling” of writers as Alacovska put it has made guidebook writing a looked-down upon industry as now it seems just about anybody can do it without honestly knowing about the place they write about.

“Guidebook writers are considered ‘‘talentless freeloaders’’ or ‘‘pulp producers,’’ while the genre itself is viewed as a sanctuary for ‘‘second-rate (literary) talents’’ in search of paid vacations” (Alacovska).

The fall of the guidebook writer is the fault of the companies. An industry that was already looked down upon by other writers has now only buried themselves deeper in the literary world through generalizing the work. The business focused world that has come of guidebook writing through digitalization is a sad one as many talented writers are getting overshadowed in order to promote a company’s image.

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Samuel James Conroy

Confirmation Wallace

Confirmation Progymnasmata

            David Foster Wallace presents a very interesting point throughout his “Supposedly Fun Thing” essay. His style of writing throughout the piece is quite brilliant as he does not try to sound like the typical fancy English writer, instead, he makes it a very direct, un-literary piece. The point is to make the reader understand just how much David Foster Wallace dislikes this cruise ship. His repeated use of the word “despair” and listed out displeasures of the ship give the reader a good idea how Wallace feel about cruise ships and travel as a whole.

Wallace presents his overall feeling of the Nadir (name that he gave to the cruise ship) through the quote, “There’s something about a mass-market Luxury Cruise that’s unbearably sad” (Wallace). He shows his unhappiness through listing all of the things that end up feeling “mandatory” upon the ship. The feeling the Wallace provides is that you are being forced to have fun on cruise ships regardless of if you want to or not, simply because that is what you do on cruise ships, “have fun.” Wallace’s essay is perfectly logical as I experienced the same issues when I was a kid. As I stated in my last writing, I have never been on a cruise ship, but being stuck in the middle of the ocean on a boat where the only thing to do is participate in the “activities” does not seem awfully intriguing. I can personally relate to this when I was young. I never looked forward to going on vacation when I was little because of this exact reason, I always felt out of place and like I was being forced to have fun. If I did not enjoy one of the activities that we did, my parents would get mad at me since they were paying for us to have fun. This concept never made since to me and would make me anxious about going on vacation. Wallace was able to perfectly capture my feelings as a kid on vacation.

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Samuel James Conroy

Thesis Progymnasmata

Thesis Progymnasmata

            David Foster Wallace, one of the great American writers in recent times, produced a short collection of essays called, “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.” In this collection of essays was the writing, “Shipping Out,” a piece about Wallace’s experience on a cruise ship framed as an advertisement for said cruise ship. Wallace was not a fan of his cruise experience as it brought an odd feeling of despair.

Wallace presents a thesis, “There’s something about a mass-market Luxury Cruise that’s unbearably sad” (Wallace). He by providing a list of all of the obligations that come with a seven-day cruise, such as,

“I have eaten more and classier food than I’ve ever eaten, and done this during a week when I’ve also learned the difference between “rolling” in heavy seas and “pitching” in heavy seas. I have heard a professional cruise-ship comedian tell folks, without irony, “But seriously” (Wallace).

Wallace immerses us into the life of the Nadir through this description, making us understand his discomfort and confusion.

Next, Wallace uses the advertising aspect to further push the you are obligated to have fun narrative. This advertising shows why the Nadir is so sad. Wallace states,

This is advertising (i.e., fantasy-enablement), but with a queerly authoritarian twist. Note the imperative use of the second person and a specificity out of detail that extends even to what you will say (you will say “I couldn’t agree more” and “Let’s do it all!”). You are, here, excused from even the work of constructing the fantasy, because the ads do it for you” (Wallace).

You simply do not have a choice on this cruise ship, you will need to have fun. It can be said that cruise ships truly are fun, and that Wallace’s experience is simply anecdotal. However, the overall concept of a cruise ship seems incredibly sad based on Wallace’s writing. Personally, I have never been on a cruise ship, but the thought of being in the middle of an ocean with no choice but to participate in the activities provided does seem gloomy. Overall, Wallace presents an interesting case about travel in general, one where everything seems artificial, even the place you are traveling. One where everything seems expensive rather than beautiful, and where the entire trip appears faux.