Found via cortese: The great escape.

In the past, women traveled to lose themselves, while men preferred to climb and conquer. So, asks Dea Birkett, has anything changed?

This article bugged me a lot - probably because it just reinforces gender stereotypes. The whole point of it is to show - surprise, surprise - that women are from Venus and men are from Mars even when traveling around Mother Earth.

The article implies that the (great) male travelers tend to cover a lot of mileage, trying to cover as much ground as possible in manly conquest. This is in contrast to the (great) lady travelers tend to stay in once place for a year or so, swapping knitting and embroidery with the locals ethnography-style or losing herself entirely and living a life she wouldn't at home.

Essentially, both the men and women of this article travel to find themselves, within the confines of gender. Women introspect and connect, finding themselves in the "freedom" of other cultures and places. Men score social points for overcoming obstacles, boinking the locals and achieving masculinity through mileage.

Neither extreme comes even remotely close to my reasons or approach to travel, and it's not just because I'm some weird sort of anomaly. Jeff and I seem to share the same attitude toward travel that has nothing to do with a gender divide, despite other differences that are very stereotypical between us.

We travel in order to peek in the nooks and crannies of this planet - and it's cultures - that we haven't peeked into before, and thus discover something new and possibly to be charmed by it.

In fact, our worst travel experiences are when we dash from place to place, covering enormous ground and ticking off the obstacles and milestones one-by-one. They only serve to whet our appetite and make the list of place we need to come back to for further exploration longer. The most boring travel experiences are when we are too familiar with a place, knowing it like the locals do. Those places may feel familiar and homey, but the discovery part is what renews us the most - and is what drives us to travel, beyond the "let's get away from work and recharge".

We don't have to go to far-flung places or even spend a long time to achieve our travels goals (though there are certainly a long list of far-flung places whose nooks we'd like to poke around in). A single day, in a nearby place that isn't familiar to us, can bring about the thrill of discovery and the pleasantness of being charmed.

Perhaps this rather scientist-like exploration and discovery of the natural world doesn't quite fit a gendered world. Science, exploration, discovery - just knowing for knowings sake - seems to be out of fashion in this polarized society. Politicians question the need for space exploration, would have rather scrapped the Hubble space telescope than fix it and the buzz everywhere seems to be largely about war, scandal and advertising. Those of us hanging onto the thrill of discovery seem to be a waning minority.

Nifty! I'm going to see Simon and Garfunkel in concert tonight.

My favorite song? I think it's probably "The Sounds of Silence".

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence

Art Garfunkel explains:

The Sounds of Silence is a major work. We were looking for a song on a larger scale, but this was more than either of us expected. Paul had the theme and the melody set in November, but three months of frustrating attempts were necessary before the song 'burst forth". On February 19, 1964, the song practically wrote itself.

Its theme is man's inability to communicate with man. The author sees the extent of communication as it is on only its most superficial and "commercial" level (of which the "neon sign" is representative). There is no serious understanding because there is no serious communication - "people talking without speaking - hearing without listening". No one dares take the risk of reaching out ("take my arms that I might reach you") to disturb the sound of silence. The poet's attempts are equally futile (" . . . but my words like silent raindrops fell within the wells of silence"). The ending is an enigma. I find my own meaning in it, but like most good works, it is best interpreted by each person individually. The words tell us that when meaningful communication fails, the only sound is silence.

Wednesday Morning 3AM album notes
by Art Garfunkel, 1964

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