Literary Tourism | Waywords Studio

LITERARY NOMADS

Resources

Lucy Maud Montgomery:

Anne of Green Gables

Literary Tourism

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Transcript

Listener Survey!

Where are we going this summer? This journey on Literary Nomads, we pack our bags and ask a simple question: What are we tourists expecting to find, and why? Step into the fresh air of travel writing, history, physical geography, and tale-telling.

Imagine us, then, as literary pilgrims. Why are we drawn here, what we might gain, and what awaits us? It’s a line sometimes between the pristine ideal and the physical reality of the dirt, of the ghosts, and of the weather left behind after the gift shops close.

7.00 Trailer

Literary Tourism & Anne of Green Gables

7.01 Grand Tours Pt. 1: The Postcard Illusion

(Literary Tourism)

Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges (pdf)

Authenticity or Staged Performance?

In this opening episode of Journey 7, we begin our exploration of literary tourism. When we travel to the places that inspired our favorite books, whose landscape are we actually stepping into? Today. we cross the eight-mile concrete expanse onto Prince Edward Island to investigate the massive, multi-million dollar infrastructure designed to capitalize on Anne of Green Gables. Along the way, we unpack our collective urge to buy raspberry cordials and straw hats. And we consider the “tourist gaze.”

Transcript

Passive tourist or wayfarer?

Follow the 17th-century footsteps of Matsuo Basho to find the gap between curated tourist destinations and the open-ended, ego-stripping realities of travel. We contrast the lush landscapes of L.M. Montgomery with the haibun of the Master’s reflections, and we ask: Can we ever truly meet a place, or do our books merely wrap the earth in a comforting postcard illusion?

Transcript

7.02 Grand Tours Pt 2: Bat on the Narrow Road

(Literary Tourism)

7.03 Packing Lists Pt. 1: Dreams and Dirt

(Literary Tourism)

Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges (pdf)

Did your horse throw ya, buddy?

We investigate what we hope to achieve by literary travel . . . and why our packing cannot prepare us for it!

While the global tourism industry spends billions to shape our eager expectations, what is it that we’re actually so anxious to see? And whatever it is, how likely are we to find it? In this first of two parts, we ask if what we pack in anticipation is to better guarantee our success or to ward us from disappointment. As an example, we read an excerpt from Isabella Bird’s 1879 travelogue, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains.

Transcript

Who carries the weight of our leisure?

Some readings from the past by thoughtful and resilient women! Take in some early writing of place and circumstance, journals and reflections which reflect the jarring collisions between our travel expectations and the realities we meet. More, we learn that an adaptable attitude and skeptical eye are essential tools.

Transcript

7.04 Packing Lists Pt 2: Stalwart Women

(Literary Tourism)

We’ve read the books and cherish their value. Why are we compelled for still more?

“My future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does.”