Czech literature goes beyond Kafka and Kundera. It can be humorous, heavy, and soul-crushing, but it’s always approachable. The lack of recognition for Czechs makes readers poorer. Czech themes and ideas about art remain relevant, though some of it comes from bleak circumstances. War, social decay, disillusionment, tradition, progress, modernity. Sex, intimacy, adultery, jazz, freedom. …
Category Archives: Thoughts
Old World Illiberalism: The Fall of Schengen
As Sweden introduces identity checks at the Danish border, the Schengen Area has come under threat, along with the liberalism at the heart of what is valuable within the European Union. Sweden isn’t the first. Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, and Denmark have added checks, controls, and fences to various extents. Under pressure from …
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A Spring in Russia, or, “You Should Come in the Summer”
Russia exists on a level alongside the United States, India, and China. It is a culture, a history, a nation that surpasses the individual and escapes comprehension. The contradictions will stand, and fate demands a surrender to a postcard, a snapshot with a few words to satisfy curiosity. Take that as an omission of humility …
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A Humbling Act: Perspective on Being Born in America
Travel is a constant reminder that there, but for the grace of God, go I. I was lucky enough to be born in the churning economic monstrosity that is America. I’d only feel guilty for that if I tried to deny the same to anyone unlucky enough to be born outside it. Had I lived …
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Wild Europe: Perceptions of the Balkans and the East
Travel writing appeals to me because it’s possible to be honest and sincere, yet write something ignorant and vapid. That tension, and the problems it reveals, makes travel writing a sociological lens for perceptions and assumptions about foreign countries. London, Paris, and Rome, for example, have mythical qualities and romantic notions associated with them. For post-communist …
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Talkin’ Brno Blues: Alienation and Dislocation While Traveling
The morning is the worst part of the day. If I’m forced to breakfast, I’ll glare at the food as I eat, or moulder over a glass of tea with too much sugar. The upswing is that the day improves as time passes, so I’ve the rest of the day to enjoy after a hellish …
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On Travel Writing and Writing Well
Good travel writing doesn’t come from exotic locations. Any place can spark insight, nuance, or inspiration. Appalachia provides as good material as England, Ukraine, or Thailand. To write well requires a mix of entrepreneurial spirit to act as historian, journalist, tourist, guide, and sociologist. It leads to historical quirks or overlooked towns for subject material. …
How to Travel in 7 Steps
Everyone talks about how much they’d love to travel. Ignoring the 90 percent of people who lie when they say it, the remaining 10 percent who want to probably won’t leave the country. So I want to help that 1 or 2 percent of the 10 who might commit to the cliché and see the …
Your Ideology Makes You Lie to Yourself
As we descend into the cave of reality and search for truth, ideology guides our action. Yet, as the mystery in the cave deepens, the ideology we use as a flashlight catches our eyes and blinds us instead of lighting the path. Though I’m skeptical that we can escape the cave, we can avoid blinding …
Appalachia Is a Place, Not Just a Backwater
I used to envy my friends with cultural connections to the country their families immigrated from. The traditions, cultural ties, and general identification for a way of life left behind but still valued enticed me. It continued a rare brand of conservatism that reflected Burke’s definition of society as a pact among the past, the …
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