Category: Travel

Let’s Learn and Explore

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We’re coming up on the end of February vacation for a lot of schools. In case you or your kids are on break and you haven’t seen anything cool yet, check out the National Children’s Book and Literary Alliance’s list of awesome museums across the country. Not a bad way to spend a Friday!

Some of the great museums included are the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in MA(somehow I still haven’t been there yet!) and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

Another on my to-visit list is the MIT Museum, which explores invention and technology. They have robots!

Have you visited any cool museums lately?

A Whole New World

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When I first read The Princess Bride, I thought Florin was a real place, or at least that it had been at some point. (Prussia was real.) Goldman crafted his novel so well that I really wanted it to exist. Also, my copy of the book included a map. It had to be real if some cartographer had written it down!

Okay, so I was a naive little reader. (Um, I still might be waiting for Goldman to finish Buttercup’s Baby–WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, GOLDMAN?!) But there is something exhilarating about fictional lands. World-building is difficult, but so necessary for novels, particularly in the fantasy realm. The Pevensies are great, but what I love most about Lewis’s books is the possibility of Narnia. As a reader, you want to go to these places.

Part of world-building requires actually knowing where these places might exist. Maps like the the one in The Princess Bride can help a writer figure out how events can unfold and keep the narrative on track.

The Awl has a great collection of some literary maps, including Goldman’s. Others I hadn’t seen, like A.A. Milne’s Hundred Acre Wood or Baum’s map of Oz. Although it wasn’t included in the actual books, the recent map of Panem also gets a shoutout.

In case that’s not enough map-love for you, make sure to check out this gorgeous post from the Horn Book by Julie Larios. One point I especially enjoyed:

“I ask my writing students at Vermont College of Fine Arts to think long and hard about the setting they develop in their books for children. Kids want to be explorers, too. They don’t always want to identify with a familiar character in a familiar world. Books, says Fran Lebowitz, should be doors, not mirrors. So I ask my students to think of offering the setting of their stories to young readers as a gift that opens doors. By doing so, they turn their readers into explorers, and what child doesn’t want to explore?…We explore, and we come to know the unknown.”

I love the connection between maps and children’s literature in particular. Books are a major way (maybe the only way) children get to freely explore. Why not have fun with it?

A Whale of a Tale

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Confession: I love giant sea creatures. I’ll watch any movie about them (even horrifically bad SyFy channel movies). I love real life versions. Shark Week is like a holiday.

So of course I have to share this article by Ben Shattuck that answers the question: Can you actually survive in the belly of a whale? I won’t give away the answer (lots of cool whale info in the actual article), but here’s a taste:

“You want to believe in an animal that can fit you inside them — that you might be consumed not piece-by-piece, mouthful-by-mouthful as sharks and bears would eat you, but wholly; to be encased as your full self, womb-like. You want to believe in big animals like you did when you were a kid. You want to be powerless as you are leaning into hurricane winds or with your eyes closed or looking into the ocean.”

The sea is not our natural habitat, and it’s so thrilling to think of these ancient, giant creatures that could overwhelm us. Make sure to check out the whole article. Shattuck even ends up at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which isn’t far from Boston and a place I haven’t visited when I was very young. This might inspire me to take a visit this spring. Maybe a nautical  novel is in the works at some point? Apparently the museum has a Visiting Scholar in Residence program, so anyone interested in writing about whales or whaling should check it out.

(image via KPBS, Nantucket Historical Association)

Graphite Library

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Check out artist Eric Fonteneau’s new installation, “La Bibliotheque,” at the French Institute Alliance Francaise. A little about the exhibit:

“Fonteneau traveled Europe and North America with graphite and charcoal. The artist goes to libraries and rubs them on book bindings, taking with him a facsimile of the offerings of the particular branch. At first, Fonteneau rented a warehouse in Nantes for his collection, but has since taken them on tour, showing internationally.

A press release for the installation described “La Bibliotheque” as “playing with the idea of real versus imagined and memory versus record,” and the images below offer a promising peak into what’s sure to be a haunting experience. The “books” are carefully arranged, and the rubbed bindings are legible. Diminutive lights illuminate the space and provide an eerie scale to the room, interrupted only by spare wood furniture which suggest a hidden, important library where one is never seen, but always caught.”

What a cool idea! I love the combination of documenting travel with a technique like rubbing (which reminds me of gravestone rubbings) to create an eerie yet beautiful atmosphere. Click through for more pictures of this gorgeous exhibit.

Traveling Light

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Seeing John and Hank Green on their current tour got me thinking about literary life on the road. So it was fun to see this packing list from Joan Didion. If I ever get on the book tour circuit, I’ll need to take major notes from Didion. I consider myself a good packer, but she has it down to a science. Only two pairs of shoes? I’d need at least three. (Of course, I could also leave out the cigarettes. That takes up the same amount of space, right?)

What’s on your current/future book tour packing list?