Episode #003
F E A T U R I N G * 9 4 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S
Paul Brady (@p_brady) offers the SSTS* its first-ever viewer query: which is the preference, window or aisle. We've turned over the question to some travel experts: Jim Benning (World Hum, @jimbenning) Pam Mandel (of Nerd'sEyeView), Stefanie Michaels (aka "AdventureGirl"), Jessica Spiegel (Boots'n'All, and @italylogue) plus Tony and Maureen Wheeler (the founders of Lonely Planet).
Plus Pat.
...& WHAT ABOUT MARK TWAIN?
Paul also wondered about Mark Twain -- is he the most underrated or overrated travel writer?
It's an interesting question, and one I had been thinking

Parts should be skipped, parts relished -- like most of his writing.
But I can't call him overrated. Twain tends to color all his books with a fictive landscape of scalliwags, boasters and liars. Even his non-fiction. It can be distracting, but it has it place. I think Innocents Abroad, following his Europe-by-ship trip, does to Europe a bit what Bob Dylan's Bringing it All Back Home album did to the British Invasion. Kinda made fun of it.
Dylan's cover is lined with American contributions to pop music -- sort of calling the Beatles the ladle to American soup -- while Twain, and his moustache, reversed needling inspection of the Tocquevilles and Dickenses. America hadn't seen that before. And it struck a chord. In his lifetime, Innocents Abroad outsold Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.
Plus the "is he dead?" jokes are hilarious.
So I give the guy credit. You with me?
--> The SSTS welcomes all travel queries.
*SSTS = 76-Second Travel Show
0 comments:
Post a Comment