Comments on: The Lonely World Of A Traveling Reader

By: Shannon Dunlap

Shannon Dunlap — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:42:08 +0000

I do get frustrated when educated Westerners don’t differentiate between good writing and careless writing.
But in Cambodia right now, it’s a different story. It’s hard not to feel utter despair at the state of education near Siem Reap. The “public” schools don’t pay the teachers enough to eat, so the teachers extort bribes from the students for every paper they grade. The private schools are expensive and only for the elite or the very lucky few who get Western sponsors. There are Buddhist schools where the monks do the best they can (I taught English at one of them for a while before it was closed down) but they struggle to keep the lights on, to get any books (even English ones), to keep the students from drifting off to jobs waiting tables when they’re fifteen years old. And that’s in a major city, where there are some schools, at least. Eight-five percent of the population survives through rural subsistence farming, and though it is hard to find accurate figures on literacy in the countryside, most of them have never seen the inside of a classroom. When I said “those people,” I specifically meant the six or seven people I was watching with no choice but to pick through the garbage, but even in the nation as a whole, education is very hard-won.
The short answer to your question is, no, unfortunately, no one I know of is writing novels or poetry in Khmer right now. There was a literary tradition before the Khmer Rouge, but the KR killed the entire educated sector of the population–professors, writers, musicians, monks…hell, anyone who wore glasses. And what saddens me even more is that even the most educated of my Khmer friends today don’t read those Khmer books from before the KR–most of them were burned and Cambodia is in too bad of shape to worry about printing and distributing something as “frivolous” as a novel.
Rereading my post, I hope I turn out to be wrong about my fifty year estimate. Most Khmer people I know are far smarter and more resilient than I am, but that doesn’t translate to literary skill (or many other intellectual processes that Westerners take as a given) without education to support it, and I don’t see the government stepping in to rectify that anytime soon. As for Doctorow…I don’t even understand his novels all the time, and when there is a “Cambodian Doctorow” I most certainly won’t be reading him or her in the original Khmer. So kudos to anyone, Khmer or otherwise, who picks up The Book of Daniel.
Regards,
Shannon

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By: kasey

kasey — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:50:32 +0000

I think that was a great post, and I often get tempted to stay in and read when traveling…partly because I that’s the only time I get with my books!

There was one part of the post I must depart with though…

“No matter how many strides Cambodia makes in the next fifty years, those people will never be reading Doctorow, and who knows how many generations will pass until they get his equal who writes novels in Khmer.”

…maybe I’m missing some context here but that sounds extremely condescending. Do you read Khmer? Are there no well written novels now? And what does it mean that ‘those people’ will never read ‘your’ level of novels?

I would love to be corrected- maybe you were referring to a specific group of people or were just trying to emphasize how much you love Doctorow…?

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By: Dee Andrews

Dee Andrews — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:31:23 +0000

I am a reader and traveler too and really enjoyed your post. It’s always gratifying to find someone who expresses one’s own thoughts so well.

Now that I am a mother traveling with kids, I learned when they were little to travel with short stories or the latest Vanity Fair. Becoming immersed in a novel was too frustrating because I was constantly being interrupted! Thankfully, they are old enough now to be reading Laura Ingalls.

We have recently moved back to the States from a year living in Spain and deciding what books to pack was one of our hardest decisions. I wish Kindle would have been around as it would have kept my voracious 10-year-old in stories. Books on tape on the iPod helped the 6-year-old. For me though, I still want to crack open a spine, smell the pages, and cuddle in a chair with Jane or Wallace.

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By: Akila

Akila — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:44:36 +0000

It is not just Cambodia. Everywhere we go, we find things that remind us of the books that we read, and need our books to keep us company in a world that we don’t know. In the Red Centre of Australia, we were most reminded of Jules Vernes’ Journey to the Center of the Earth. And, when we read the signs in South Australia of “Moynton Shire,” we are reminded of the Tolkien’s Shire.

And, this may be cheating but . . . we bring our books with us and our vast libraries on our Kindles. I cannot recommend anything better for an avid reader traveling. We have hundreds of books loaded on our Kindles (and though I sorely miss my Laura Ingalls Wilder, I have assuaged that desire with Frances Hodgson Burnett and Lousa May Alcott.

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By: late_stranger

late_stranger — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:14:18 +0000

If you had asked me the question of which books I would bring on a trip only a few months ago, I could never have answered. I’ve recently started reading classic literature (I would say English but I’m a huge Jules Verne fan), and now I know the five or six books that I would definitely take, and three of them were written over a hundred years ago, two originally in French. The clarity is incredible.

(This is sort of unrelated, but I wanted to share it.)

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By: Jessica Nunemaker

Jessica Nunemaker — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:57:05 +0000

There is nothing more frustrating than reading a fabulous book…and having absolutely nobody to dissect it with. Beautifully written post.

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By: chris.

chris. — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:40:40 +0000

i always have a novel going while i’m traveling, and i don’t like to put a book down much once i’ve started reading it. that has made it difficult for me to engage a culture i’m traveling in, because i always want to see what’s going to happen in my book. as a result travel has helped me develop self-discipline. i’ll set aside some time each day to be by myself, to write or read, and then put the book and journal away for the day. it’s a work in progress, but i’ve noticed it translating over to my working life at home.

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By: maya

maya — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:51:48 +0000

i feel like that too! except i live in a “civilized” place (copenhagen – the most civilized of the civilized), which makes it unbearable in a different way.

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By: Leigh

Leigh — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:13:34 +0000

I completely relate to that feeling of a book talking just to me, particularly when separated from home.

I read constantly as a kid, more through high school and college but have found between becoming a mother and travel, that it is a rare thing for me to pick up a book.

You’ve reminded me to remedy that.

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