“There was another problem: the explorers who had come before and discovered facts had at the same time laid down distinctions between what was significant and what was not, distinctions which had, over time, harded into almost immutable truths.”

This seems to be from Alain de Botton’s miserable book, The Art of Travel. In which he appears to be not only really depressed, but rather misanthropic. He seems to not care much for the places or the people he travels toward, in fact, he’d be happier, I think, as de Maistre, traveling only in his room.

de Botton is riddled with guilt, whether he chooses to do something or to not do something. He doesn’t seem to enjoy any of his travels, and yet, there he goes, sulking miserable from place to place, writing about other people who do, in fact, seem to like travel. So while he may be writing of other’s arts of travel, perhaps he needs to embrace the art of staying home?

But my point is not, in fact, de Botton’s misery but that interesting quote, especially as I am currently read Travels into Print, about the House of John Murray and the travel books he printed in the 18th and 19th centuries. I haven’t finished it yet, but I had been struck by the above quote, which I had come across in one of my seafaring journals (notes of people I meet and books/articles I read while at sea), and it particularly struck me as I read Keighren et al’s book.

I read, and own, so many books and articles by explorers that one day soon I shall have to get down to those shelves and see who the publishers are, and what years. That would make a nice wall chart, for the chalkboard, though sadly not related to the adelphi project, so perhaps not what goes on the wall.