For the speedy reader paragraphs become a country the eye flies over looking for landmarks, reference points, airports, restrooms, passages of sex.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Today, I'm very careful not to mention very specific locations when I write or give captions.
Writers and travelers are mesmerized alike by knowing of their destinations.
The reason is that for many years I have avoided reading anything whatsoever that approaches my own line of country, out of a somewhat fanatical desire to avoid the risk of unconscious imitation.
The one thing that's terrible about traveling for fun is writing about it.
When I'm traveling the world, I don't ever look anymore at the geography - just enough to catch galleries and paintings.
As a writer, you owe it to yourself not to get stuck in a rut of looking at the world in a certain way.
Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening.
For one who has an interest in the body as text, airports are treasure troves of information. It seems almost un-American to enjoy delays, and perhaps enjoy is not the best word, but certainly a delayed flight, if it does nothing else, allows one the opportunity to make prolonged observations about one's fellow travelers.
One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.