the world in monochrome

paths aren't meant to be purely in black and whiteIn Erik Cohen’s A Phenomenology of Tourist Experiences, the author diffuses the tensions between two camps regarding the truth about traveling – Boorstin, who finds tourism to be “an aberration, a symptom of the malaise of the age” (179), marked by insincerity and a lack of authenticity, and MacCannell, who argues that tourists “pursue ‘real’ authentic experiences, but are denied them by the machinations of a tourist establishment…” (180) – by stating his belief that traveling can not be generalized into two extremes, and that, like life, traveling is made of in shades of grey rather than black and white.

Ironically, all of the books read thus far in class have only served to emphasize the dangerous nature of being too extreme in either direction. Those characters more than often wind up dead by the end of the novel. Case in point: Daisy Miller is a classic example of Boorstin’s views on travelers, and falls under Cohen’s first mode of touristic experiences, the recreational mode. The people in this category use travel as a method to relieve themselves of stress and usually look forward to their return home. According to Boorstin, these individuals “thrive on… ‘pseudo-events’” (184), whilst Cohen argues that in truth they are meant to be viewed as “persons who attend a performance of participate in a game; the enjoyability… contingent on their willingness to accept the make-believe or half-seriously to delude themselves” (184). In this manner, travelers such as Daisy Miller merely use the places they visit as a form of amusement and treat the locale with a cavalier attitude. This careless manner leads to various repercussions, least of which is death to the character.

On the other hand, there are those who fall into the existential mode of tourism, on the far end of the spectrum compared to the recreational mode. Cohen says that those in the existential mode are characterized by “the traveler who is fully committed to an ‘elective’ spiritual centre, i.e. one external to the mainstream of his native society and culture” (190). A character that falls easily into such a category is Kurtz from Heart of Darkness. Kurtz submits himself entirely into native culture, submerging himself until even the natives accept him as their rightful leader. There, in such a position of power, he slowly slips out of touch with his previous European sensibilities, leaving him in a limbo between whom he used to be as a person and who he strived to be. In the end, such a lack in distinction coupled with his own greed driven personality steer Kurtz into illness, and subsequent death.

While Cohen’s essay is meant to persuade both camps, Boorstin and MacCannell, away from their strict belief in extremes, it can also be taken as a reminder that people, let alone travelers, can not be grouped into merely two categories – the characters in our novels cover all five of Cohen’s modes of tourism, which alone is indication enough that there is some truth in fiction.