In a blog post two weeks ago, I unthinkingly described a reaction I had to being in an intimidating situation in an Arab country by calling to mind some of the violent terrorist imagery currently popular in the media. I failed to draw attention to the fact that this fear was based on unfair generalisations. Nor did I stress the extent to which the people I met were different from this negative stereotype. I apologise for any offence my carelessness may have caused.
The mistake of writing irresponsibly led me to consider some of the other issues that come with writing non-fiction, and travel writing in particular. An author travelling to a foreign place for the first time is unable to write with an insider’s perspective.
So, what kind of perspective can one give that isn’t simply about “the newness of the foreign environment” and nothing else? How focused on personal reflections should the writing be, or how much should the writing focus on objective observations, if objectivity is even possible? To what extent are the details an author draws attention to statements about the larger culture?
One of the points of travel is to unlearn preconceived notions about a place and people and to (hopefully) learn something universal that links people without losing an appreciation for the things that make us different. So, how does one emphasize those differences without coming across as culturally distant?
I hope the answers to these questions come with experience. I’m grateful for what I’ve learned so far – contact with foreign cultures can usurp some of the inaccurate notions that lay dormant inside of me, and give me the opportunity to deal with them.
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