Rereading The Namesake for Mother's Day, and this passage struck a nerve. A discussion, on the value of travel. The author stages Ghosh and Ashoke as having competing viewpoints, whereas I think they're complementary?
Ghosh shook his head. "You are still young. Free," he said, spreading his hands apart for emphasis. "Do yourself a favor. Before it's too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will not regret it. One day it will be too late."
"My grandfather always says that's what books are for," Ashoke said, using the opportunity to open the volume in his hands. "To travel without moving an inch."
May 10, 2010
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It's interesting that you see it as complementary, although I suppose I agree that reading and traveling are very similar activities that create some of the same feelings at times. But then consider people who never have had the luxury of traveling...does reading really take the place of physically going out of your element and experiencing something new with all of your senses?
ReplyDeleteTravel and reading are both ways of dreaming, imagining, and, ultimately, fantasizing...I don't know that the gentlemen's viewpoints are presented as competing, because Ashoke doesn't disagree. But I do think his being an avid reader, beyond its role in the plot advancement itself, serves as a foil to the movement/travel motif throughout the novel. Because as much as Ashoke as a reader is willing to imagine new places, in important ways, Ashoke as a traveler is not.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ghosh more than Ashoke, and I guess that means that their viewpoints are competing. While both characters advocate travel as a means of broadening one's horizons, Ghosh seems to advocate spontaneity. I'd suspect Ghosh prefers the "life-changing" nature of random wandering. I've met a few backpackers that only knew where they were going to arrive, and figured out the rest based on things they learned, boots on ground. While that has the possibility of leading you into an "into the wild" situation (he was only a few miles from a heavily touristed trail!?!!), most of the backpackers I've met end up going places and doing things they never would have imagined themselves doing. Even though quite a few have books to read while they are in between destinations. And, unlike books of yore (in which the imagined audience was large, and not niche because of the cost of operating a printing press), travel is very much individualized - if you are willing to take risks, the kinds of risks that someone married with kids or even someone trying to establish a career may not be willing to take. In other words, as Lennon put it "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."
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