We are the pilgrims, master

[shewhomust]

Among the many fragmentary travelogues in this blog are a sequence of reports from stages along the pilgrim route to Compostela. But I'm always aware that this description is liable to misinterpretation, and try to spell out the many ways in which I am not a pilgrim. If sometimes I seem to be protesting too much, consider this article from Saturday's Guardian Travel: Actor-turned-travel writer Andrew McCarthy explains how he accidentally bought and read a book (this one, though he doesn't name check the author) about the pilgrim route and "something about the author's tale of his modern-day pilgrimage spoke to me. I was looking for something, I just didn't know what it was."

And two weeks later, wearing new hiking boots, he is crossing the border into Spain. Plenty of warning signs here: the new boots (yes, they cause him problems and yes, he abandons them and is happier: but unless I'm missing something, this is presented as evidence of suffering overcome rather than folly learned from), the starting at the Spanish border (sweeping generalisation: people who see the Camino as an interesting historical route start in France, people who see it as a personal challenge start in Spain).

Obviously, then, what followed was going to tell me less about the Camino and more about the author than I really wanted to know. I should have stopped reading. But I couldn't turn away from statements like: "At night I often shunned the refuges where the other walkers gathered, choosing instead small inns or hotels where I could be by myself." This perfectly reasonable choice of the more comfortable but less economical option is presented as if it were evidence of some extreme emotional state.

Fortunately - if unsurprisingly - things get better: "The next two weeks went by in a blaze. Every step took me deeper into the landscape of my own being. I was in sync with the universe." I read this aloud to durham_rambler, and we agreed that while every step was no doubt taking him further up his own something, we had never before heard it called "the landscape of my own being".

So far, so irritating. But oddly enough, the phrase that made really cross was the apparently straightforward: "by the time I strode into Santiago in late July..." The feast day of Saint James the Apostle is July 25th: it's a fairly big deal in Spain anyway, and on the pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James, immeasurably more so. Did he stride into Compostela in time to celebrate the saint's day, or was he too late? We aren't told, we aren't supposed to be interested, what matters is how he felt about himself. This isn't travel writing, this is self-help.

Thank you, I feel better for getting that out of my system.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I feel better for getting that out of my system.

Heh. This isn't blogging, this is self-help...

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Ugh--the kind of self-involved twittery I loathe. A good dose of Patrick Leigh Fermor's A Gift of Time ought to clear away the blargh.

[anef.livejournal.com]

I went to a talk the other day by Artemis Cooper who has just published a biography of PLF. Apparently the unfinished Third Book is being edited by his literary executors and will be out next year. (Though I'm not expecting it to be as good as the first one - editing it seems to be an archaeological exercise in constructing a text from various sources)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn.

[anef.livejournal.com]

Well, it may not be that bad. I believe Colin Thubron is editing it. Also, I think it was that or nothing, and I would rather have the best that can be done with what he had already written rather than nothing.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yes--you're right on both counts. Well, I will still buy it the minute it's out, I just won't expect the transcendent experience of reading the first one.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

PLF is someone I would expect to enjoy, but somehow don't get on with - he's one of my blind spots. Peter Fleming, on the other hand...

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Ah! A dose of somebody else, then.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

This is a book I shall now avoid, which means that I am better for you getting it out of your system, too.

On a more elevating note, I understand that Biddy's Secret is about to be reprinted. More I do not know, I'm afraid, except taht Aussie Abbey Girl groups have put in an order.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I'm glad all this negativity has a positive result!

And goodness, so it is! Why that title in particular, I wonder...

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but I'm not unhappy, for I've never managed to get hold of a copy and this means I get to read it. In fact, I shall own it, for a friend included me in her order.

[anef.livejournal.com]

Yes, the new boots are a bad sign. I note that he donated them to a random homeless person - let's hope they were the right size.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Sadly, this kind of thing is all too common. I will avoid this book, and I will warn my friend who is intending to do the pilgrimage for religious reasons not to read it.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I don't know if he ever wrote an actual book about the Camino - the article was about how he became A Travel Writer (and I didn't investigate what he actual book was about). But there are many bad books on the subject.

Edwin Mullins wrote a very good one - but there are doubtless others more specifically suited to those doing the pilgrimage for religious reasons. I'd be interested to hear how your friend gets on.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Like many stage/screen actors (professional or otherwise), I suspect that Mr. McCarthy has a healthy dose of narcissism. His writing certainly implies it from what I read in the article.

And yet, I like the writing enough to see what I think of the book. Certainly not enough to spend money on it, but my library appears to have a copy to lend. At some point, I'll give it a go. I'm curious as to him as a person, ergo I might get more from the book than someone who's looking to read about Spain.

(still working through the tabs...and glad I tabbed this one though I don't remember doing so)