Of traveling, Steinbeck says:
"Once a journey is designed, equipped and put in process; a new factor enters and takes over. A trip...is different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us...schedules...dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it."
The weather hasn't been great on our trip so far, but here's a pic I snapped yesterday of Mel in front of his diner:
4 comments:
Now whoa hossie---I confess I'm a Bill Bryson fan. LE introduced me to him (via *A Walk in the Woods*) and I've been a-gigglin' ever since over ever-thang he ever done wrote. Not to say he surpasses Steinbeck---oh my no---but on his own terms, he's pretty dang readable and we've enjoyed his stuff. As he's an expat (read *I'm a Stranger Here Myself*) who married a Brit, you should empathize with BB, girlie!:):)
I agree he's an entertaining writer but not much depth. He was so popular in the UK, then he decided to move back to the US, then came back to the UK a few years later, but I got the impression that his career then lost a bit of steam. I know he still has a following but I think the mania is gone. But of course I could be completely wrong here.
You are right, not much depth, but he sure is funny. I'm shallow myself so me 'n' BB get along fine! I also enjoy David Sedaris' writings. He reminds me of a FAG James Thurber. Oh well...I wish I could get interested in writers with depth, but if I'm not amused, I fall asleep! It's all my fault for having a very short attention span, and I'm going to fix that one day.
About depth vs. shallowness: someone sent me one of those questionnaires you fill in and forward on (I never do) but one question caught my attention: "What was your first career ambition?" It came to me like a flash: "Writer for MAD MAGAZINE". Don't you remember those wonderful parodies of movies, and the naughty songs made up to the tunes of real ones? I would have KILLED to be on that writin' staff. Don't you know they fell over laffin' every day. cramking out that foolishness? As Jane Austen's character Emma said, "I would rather have been merry than wise."
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