Journal 3

In my opinion there is definitely a border between tourism and travel. I believe this has to do mainly with the idea of authenticity, not only of one’s experience while they travel, but if the world is acting in its normal state despite the introduction of the traveler. This idea is dealt with at the beginning of the Introduction to Travel Writing. In order for a writer to write a travel writing piece, the experience has to be authentic. The writer has to try and integrate into whenever they go and much of what they need to write about comes from that attempt to integrate . Where did the difficulties come from? Were there any extremes that made the writer feel so uncomfortable they wish they weren’t there? It’s these kind of data that separate travel from tourism. 

Now i am not saying that the border is clearly visible. Like in the case of Chernobyl,  there were a laundry list of hoops the writer had to go through to travel through the radioactive city, which included a translator and tour guide. In my mind these would usually make the experience a mater of tourism but if it is a necessary step, the i could still these step as a means of authentic travel. In closing, the thing that separates travel from tourism is the sense of the individual trying his or her’s best to integrate with the environment around them and much of that is taken away if they simply rely on tourism ideas. 

Journal 2

Yes Roughing it does demonstrate a preinterstate treatment of Primeau’s idea that “Americans have treated the highway as a sacred space”.  I believe it treats this idea almost as if this idea is not perhaps in its infancy as pre interstate would suggest, but it still demonstrates the main idea in the writing. To Twain and his time, the area that they explore is no different than if someone today were to grab a  car and drive cross country. Exploring the unknown is universally both thrilling and excruciating, even if the point of view from which Mark Twain writes this story is someone who is a bit spoiled and unwilling to go at times. That’s the beauty of  this idea however. That it doesn’t matter if someone wants to take the journey or not, whatever the space is, at least everyone treats it with respect and from respect comes this idea of it being sacred. You respect both the dark and threatening unknown ad well as the thing you love so i can determine from this that Twains writings are reminiscent of this idea. This line from Roughing it helps with my argument, “Pretty soon he would be hundreds and hundreds of miles away on the great plains and deserts, and among the mountains of the Far West, and would see buffaloes and Indians, and prairie dogs, and antelopes, and have all kinds of adventures, and maybe get hanged or scalped, and have ever such a fine time, and write home and tell us all about it, and be a hero”. Even though he may be reluctant, he sees this opportunity as a chance to not only experience all these wondrous things, but be at peace and perhaps become more than himself. A sacred space can do this to a person so i believe this story is an early version of Primeau’s idea of the highway.

Journal 1

Gaudium et Spez is the document made by the Church during the Second Vatican Council that addresses the Church and how it must adapt to the changes of the world around it. This document would be effective for us to read in class because it addresses what travel does to someone. It causes them to experience new and perhaps dangerous ideas and cultural ways that the traveler had never experienced before. These new ideas challenge travelers  to either change their way of thinking or find news ways of thinking brought on by their experience. This also applies to the Church. It was met with the new and evolving world and solidified its convictions in the new world.