03-06-2023, 09:24 AM
A Book of Migrations by Rebecca Solnit
At about the same time that I toured Ireland with my father back in 1993, Solnit made a similar journey and wrote essays about the experience. Her essays about the journey were far better than mine.
The parts of the book that were best for me when she wrote about Ireland and her experiences there. She gave some short background history that i found fascinating. She stumbled upon out of the way spots that I had been to as well, like the Hag of Beara. She was really insightful about tourism and what it does to a city. Basically a country with a majority tourist economy eventually loses its own culture in an attempt to produce a tourist friendly simulacrum of that culture.(My theory is that there is a bubble of simulated culture around the actual culture you need to penetrate to see the real place) She had a lot to say about emigration and the effects on the rural agrarian economy. She even did a nice chunk on the Travellers which I would like to learn more about.
The book worked less for me when she talked about other experiences, like growing up in Napa or meeting with Native Americans in Idaho. They might be valid experience but those experiences tie in with the overall Irish narrative were tangential at best. And she would go down some deep rabbit holes that were too esoteric for me to follow or care about. Solnit had a lot to say about a New Age conference in Kerry she attended and how they would cherry pick cultures for their own uses.
My biggest complaint about Solnit's essays about Ireland is that I don't think she had any fun on her journey. There were very few, if any, instances in the book were she found joy in her travels. The picture she paints is kind of a bleak one. And I didn't recognize the country she was in. It is probably my own blinders and biases that rejects or at least wants to soften a lot oof the critiques she makes.
I would be curious to have her go back and see Ireland as it is today thirty years on from her last journey to find out if the country has improved or devolved even more between trips.
At about the same time that I toured Ireland with my father back in 1993, Solnit made a similar journey and wrote essays about the experience. Her essays about the journey were far better than mine.
The parts of the book that were best for me when she wrote about Ireland and her experiences there. She gave some short background history that i found fascinating. She stumbled upon out of the way spots that I had been to as well, like the Hag of Beara. She was really insightful about tourism and what it does to a city. Basically a country with a majority tourist economy eventually loses its own culture in an attempt to produce a tourist friendly simulacrum of that culture.(My theory is that there is a bubble of simulated culture around the actual culture you need to penetrate to see the real place) She had a lot to say about emigration and the effects on the rural agrarian economy. She even did a nice chunk on the Travellers which I would like to learn more about.
The book worked less for me when she talked about other experiences, like growing up in Napa or meeting with Native Americans in Idaho. They might be valid experience but those experiences tie in with the overall Irish narrative were tangential at best. And she would go down some deep rabbit holes that were too esoteric for me to follow or care about. Solnit had a lot to say about a New Age conference in Kerry she attended and how they would cherry pick cultures for their own uses.
My biggest complaint about Solnit's essays about Ireland is that I don't think she had any fun on her journey. There were very few, if any, instances in the book were she found joy in her travels. The picture she paints is kind of a bleak one. And I didn't recognize the country she was in. It is probably my own blinders and biases that rejects or at least wants to soften a lot oof the critiques she makes.
I would be curious to have her go back and see Ireland as it is today thirty years on from her last journey to find out if the country has improved or devolved even more between trips.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm