"I Came Here Because I Wanted to Write a Novel"

TangierIn his review of the Paul Bowles’ novel The Sheltering Sky, playwright Tennessee Williams said of the lead character Port that “he is a member of the New York intelligentsia who became weary of being such a member and set out to escape it in remote places. Escape it he certainly does. He escapes practically all the appurtenances of civilized modern life. Balanced between fascination and dread, he goes deeper and deeper into this dreamlike ‘awayness.’”
Williams was comparing Port to Bowles himself. Bowles spent a deal of time in Gertrude Stein’s artistic circle of friends in France before going to Tangier in 1931 on her advice. When he moved permanently 16 years later, he said, “I came here because I wanted to write a novel.”
And write one he did. The terse prose, the unfortunate fate of the two main characters, and the lively and varied supporting cast all bolster The Sheltering Sky. And though Bowles didn’t actually meet the end that his literary stand-in Port did, there is still plenty to be garnered about travel fiction and reality from the parallel between author and subject.
Port, and by extension Bowles, says that, “he did not think of himself as a tourist; he was a traveler. The difference is partly one of time.” If we deem one who spends a small amount of time in another area and then returning to an area of comfort then Bowles has no chance of being mistaken for a tourist. His was essentially a relocation if anything.
But in our continued debate on what differentiates the traveller from the tourist, is there going to be a cut and dry solution? Obviously not, but then why not look at other options as well, such as the settler in this case. At the very least, it is relieving that the novel itself outwardly contemplates this question instead of leaving us to debate it on our own.