Inner Journeys by Tim Young- Response

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Tim Young is a professor at Nottingham Trent University Centre for Travel Writing Studies. He undertakes teaching and several of research in the areas of the African-American Writing, Literature of the United States and travel writing. He has been named the pioneer in the development of travel writing studies, and no wonder why as he has been researching this subject for more than a quarter of a century.

The chapter, itself is called, “Inner Journeys’, but throughout the book, it's also split into two different subtitles of, “ Something of Importance to myself”, and “ No bank managers”. The book mostly mentions about Graham’s Greene’s, ‘Journey Without Maps, and it mostly focuses on his time in Africa. Furthermore in the chapter, Tim Young starts to talk about other people’s writings on travel such as Diski and Wheeler’s take on it, comparing all of them together throughout the book.

The reading connects to the theme of the week, which is, “Mobility”, as it talks about the four different models of travel writing, such as; spiritual, materiPacificific or martial and these are all portrayed through different people’s experiences. Furthermore, when the writer looks into all these different perspectives, he then starts to compare all of them together by saying for example:

“Diski’s and Wheelers writing on travels are talking about the whiteness and the emptiness of the Antarctica to convey the theme of blank space which projects inner consciousness whereas Greene’s use of Africa reminds the reader of Freud’s notion of the unconsciousness itself, which deploys racial imagery.”

This shows the difference between the two, places, one being an empty space which somewhat seems quiet and beautiful and the other place described by Greene as, “truly horrible village’, which clearly shows that he did not particularly enjoy his time in, “Galeye”.

What I found the most interesting about the reading was that, the writer decided to look into other people’s ways of talking about travel as well as comparing their experiences within different parts of the world, such as Antarctica or Africa. It gives the reader a greater perspective on what the journey of living there is all about and that there is always going to be positives and negatives about places no matter where you go.

I would recommend this to the class, as it was an interesting piece to read, especially if you would like to find an insight on the differences and similarities between Antarctica and Africa. Although I found some if the reading hard to understand, I did find some interesting points such as the fact no matter how awful a place could seem, you will always find a positive out of it.

Quotation: "The motive of the journey deserves a little attention.”




Photo by:

Photos in this set were taken by H. Hunting of the Paterson Zochonis trading company between approximately 1910 and 1913. 



http://monovisions.com/west-africa-1910-1913-lagos-nigeria-villages-and-its-people-vintage-photos/

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