Comments on: Chuck Thompson Takes Us to Hell and Back

By: Eva

Eva — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:07:15 +0000

That’s a fair point, Christine, but if I remember right it’s not a distinction that Thompson ever bothers to make. He rails about how there was nowhere to publish his stories – he doesn’t say anything nuanced about the lack of grittier narratives in travel glossies, just claims he had nowhere to spin his tales. Why not try pitching Slate, the New Yorker, etc? It’s always seemed disingenuous to me.

Myself, I’ve never had a problem with the more literary and “colorful” narratives appearing in non-travel mags. Different mags serve different purposes – Budget Travel, for instance, is essentially a service mag, so why should they be running Chuck’s (disgusting, disrespectful) story about an aged hooker in Thailand? I’m just not sure why this divide creates so much angst in the travel writing community – I’d bet that a lot of the best food, sports, music etc. writing appears in the New Yorker, Harpers and so on as well, rather than in food, sports, music mags.

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By: Ahi

Ahi — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:04:47 +0000

Thanks for this article. I was interested in this book from reading your review , but the fact that he called Rick Steves a “doofus King” means I’m sold. That guy is a goober and a half. I usually quite enjoy getting indignant about opinionated writing so I will keep an eye out for both these books.

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By: Christine Garvin

Christine Garvin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:02:16 +0000

Eva, while I agree that books like Best American Travel Writing, which often pull articles from magazines, have published quality travel writing for years, often these articles are not found in TRAVEL magazines. They may have been pulled from the New Yorker or Slate or other big name non-travel publications (I know there are exceptions to the rule, like Gary Shteyngart’s piece coming from Travel & Leisure), and are often by well-known authors. But if you pick up a travel magazine or travel guide, up until a few years ago how most people planned or dreamed out their next destination, I can’t help but agree with Thompson’s assessment. I think the landscape of blogs and online magazines has begun to shift this approach, though.

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By: Ian MacKenzie

Ian MacKenzie — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:13:52 +0000

Eva – You make a great point. Quality travel writing has been around for a long time, but it does feels like it’s becoming more accessible with the web… unfortunately that also means the amount of fluff has gone up… likely exponentially.

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By: Eva

Eva — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:13:49 +0000

The funny thing about Chuck Thompson is, he’s got this whole “there’s no room for negativity in this bullshit travel writing world” shtick, while at the same time he is basically making a living off negativity in travel writing. Neat trick.

I’ve gotta disagree with this, briefly – “of course, the market has changed dramatically since Lying; there is now much more “real” travel writing available on the web and in certain travel magazines.” One of the things that frustrated me about “Smile” (apart from the relentless negativity – Rick Steves is “the doofus king”? really?) is that the whole thing, it seemed to me, was built on a straw man argument. Anyone who’s been reading the Best American Travel Writing series over the years can see there’s plenty of travel writing out there that gets beyond the “sun-dappled barf.” That’s been the case for a long while, it hasn’t changed, and hopefully it never will.

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