IOP Essay

English A1
Harold Seah In the Art of Travel, to what extent is de Botton influenced by the personalities brought up in the novel? TOPIC Alain de Botton is a notable non-fiction writer who covers mainly topics that would confound, at times, even the wisest people, and places the subject into relatable bite-sized portions for the average reader. His sixth book, The Art of Travel is no different. Published in 2002, it provides a remarkable perspective on traveling. As mentioned in chapter VII in the book (On Eye Opening Art), We overlook certain places because nothing has ever prompted us to conceive of them as worthy of appreciation. At this juncture of the book, Alain de Botton seems to be summarizing his objective in the writing of The Art of Travel. He wanted to show readers that traveling was so much more, or could be so much more, if only wed pause and see it from the universal standpoint, the perspective of a shared humanity, a point reinforced by the many references de Botton includes in his novel, ranging from Biblical Characters like Job, to scientists like Alexander von Humboldt and even fictional characters like Duc des Esseintes, featured in J.K. Huysmans novel, A Rebours. De Bottons integration of all these perspectives are seamless as they resmain relatable and surprisingly relevant. This is a huge plus for the readers of this novel, as it potrays the universality of traveling, and how the love or even just the idea and even the experience of travel transcends culture, that when we are in a foreign land, the things we notice as foreigners have a shared connection, that the human desire to discover unchartered or unfamiliar territory has been and continues to this day as a long-time infatuation with most things foreign from what we know. De Botton writes with remarkable consistency, preserving the narrative-journalistic writing style however at the same time making sure to keep the novel at a readable level, without being lost in his own thoughts without regard for the readers. He does this by constantly referring to a certain person in the past from whom he has been influenced by. However, in each of his essays, de Botton seems to be following this pattern: Own experience, experience of someone famous, how that experience holds true in his life, and finally, relaying

INDIVIDUAL ORAL PRESENTATION ESSAY this influence onto the readers own impression of that topic. As such, it is not surprising that de Botton would be caught in the trap of unoriginality or derived epiphany. More often than not, he seems to be caught up in the experiences of the personalities brought up in his novel. In this essay, we shall be exploring the following chapters for which de Botton seems to be overly enthralled by the experiences of the different personalities: Chapter III (On the Exotic), Chapter V (On the Country and City) and Chapter VII (On Eye-Opening Art). In chapter III, de Botton draws experiences from the likes of Gustav Flaubert (1821-1880), a French writer who paid scrupulous attention to art and style. The chapter commences as the previous two had begun, with an anecdote from his own treasure trove of experiences. In this chapter, de Botton brings up his experience in Amsterdam, and how a mere sign made him notice that he was no longer in London, his place of origin. He writes that a mere airport sign may tell [us] more than its designer had intended. He defines exotic as not just an adjective used to describe something that is different from what we have back in our respective home countries, but rather a description used on the things or places that succeed in suggestingthat the countrymay prove more congenial than [his] own to [his] temperaments and concerns. This is a key definition in this chapter and sadly, is the high note of this section of the book as De Botton carries on his momentum of individuality and personalized opinion. De Botton proceeds by presenting to the reader an anecdote of Flauberts life. As a young boy in Rouen, France, desires a means to escape from the claws of life as traditional French bourgeoisie. He later receives an inheritance from his late father and sets on a journey with his companion Maxime du Camp to the Orient, subsequently becoming enthralled by the beauty of the Orient. The general feel of the novel so far is retained, however, it is in de Bottons next paragraph whereby we see that there is a slight decline in the individuality and the profundity that was prominent in de Bottons perception of the previous two topics, Anticipation and Travelling Places. He draws a parallel between Flauberts experiences in Alexandria and his own in Amsterdam, comparing the camels, Arabs and

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guttural cries, with the architecture of Amsterdam. While de Botton notes the differences in the paradigm shift between Flauberts Alexandria and France, and de Bottons Amsterdam and London, he seems to suggest and even insist that the two are analogous. De Botton compares the democratic scruffiness, an absence of ostentatious buildings, straight streets interspersed with small parks, of Amsterdam with the look of classical temples that front doorways in London are prone to ape. Here, there seems to be a distinct lack of awareness of the difference in his own experiences of the exotic versus that of Flauberts. For Flaubert, Alexandria or the Middle East was not simply a longing for superficial change, but rather a desire to understand a culture so vastly different from ones own, that even modes of transportation differ by the species of animal. While de Botton notes simply the difference in the doorways of apartment buildings in Amsterdam compared to London and a desire to ride a bicycle and live in one of those uniform apartment buildings. While de Botton expresses a craving to live as the Dutch do in Amsterdam, he goes as far as imagining a day in the life of an apartment dweller in Amsterdam, while Flaubert has expressed his intense longing (quote deliberately misappropriated) to venture into the Middle East since the age of 18, and expressed his disdain for France since the age of 12. De Botton on the other hand seems to be simply someone who sees a more desirable trait in a foreign land than back at home. He writes, Why fall in love with a place because it has trams and its people seldom have curtains in their homes? To condemn ourselves for these minute concerns is to ignore how rich in meaning details may be. It seems to justify his comparison between himself and Flaubert, but ignores that these minute concerns that Flaubert found meaning in, was because they were so vastly different from his own. From neat and tidy to chaos, from conventional Napoleonic bourgeoisie society to the chaos of Egyptian life, and from the repository of the most extreme prudery, snobbery, smugness, racism and pomposity, to the most immodest freedom of conversationeven by the most virtuous and respectable womenwithout any idea of their being indecorous. De Botton on the other hand notes the modesty of the design of the

INDIVIDUAL ORAL PRESENTATION ESSAY comfortable but not grand building. Flauberts infatuation with the Middle East hardly consisted of minute concerns but of the great differences between the order of his origins and the disorder of his locale. The differences as to the architecture of London and Amsterdam pale in comparison, to the extent that de Botton seems to be trying to ape the profundity of Flauberts Middle Eastern expedition by comparing it to his own vacation across the North Sea. While de Botton does deserve credit for continuing in his objective to help readers see the things that they would normally overlook, as nothing has ever prompted them to conceive them as worth of [their] appreciation, he seems overly caught up in the concept of his objective and thus, this chapter lends to a desperation of sorts, ruining the book thus far. In Chapter V, de Botton describes his journey into the Lake District, aptly drawing inspiration, at the same time from British poet, William Wordsworth (1770-1850). Wordsworth had lived in the Lake District for the most part, and had used the scenery around him as inspiration for his poetry which therefore revolved around the beauty of nature. Wordsworths poems are simple and memorable, with the elementary rhyme scheme, and de Botton is correct to point out the profundity in his poems given that Wordsworth was one of the first to value nature in preference to the urban metropolis. At a time when there was significant rural-urban migration, Wordsworth was keen to remain in the countryside, admiring the beauty of nature and condemning the urban environment as one that fostered a family of life-destroying emotions. Nature to him was the necessary antidote to the evils of the city. De Botton affirms Wordsworths opinion on nature, citing the relief he derived from nature upon reaching the Lake District, away from that turbulent worldof men and things. While readers may gain a slight empathy for de Bottons realization of the healing powers of nature on the human soul, it does seem a tad forced. He seems to be deriving relief from a vast object that caught his attention in the Lake District. We learn later that de Botton is referring to a cloud that was drifting overhead, powerless against the strong westerly wind. He admires the clouds origins and its movement across various

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terrain, and finds meaning in the journey that the cloud is traveling on, over the fields of Essex, then the marshes and oil refineriesmutinous North Sea Waves. For some reason, de Botton finds a calmness of sorts as he follows the cloud with his eyes, and seems to find the need to quote Wordsworth at this point. Here, de Botton does not seem to be simply validating the claims of Wordsworth, but rather he seems to be using Wordsworth as a kind of substantiation for his inspiration. This lacks the originality and individuality that is so prominent in other sections of the book, and de Botton seems to be deriving too much from Wordsworth at this point, unable to come up with an individualist perspective on City and Countryside. De Botton sadly continues this trend as he begins his rhetoric in point 6. He asks why would proximity to a cataract, a mountain or any other form of nature render one any less likely to experience enmities and low desires than proximity to crowded streets? The question already seems to already be answered by Wordsworth and his allegation that the city created a crowded, anxious sphere where it seemed harder than on an isolated homestead to begin sincere relationships with others. De Botton in trying to find the answer to this question in his own travels seems to be reinventing the wheel, merely finding evidence for Wordsworths claim, only to restate the conclusion: The company of certain people may excite our generosity and sensitivity, while that of others awakens our competitiveness and envy[therefore] objects that after all have no conscious concernsit would seem can neither encourage nor censor particular behavioursyet an inanimate object mayhave the power to suggest certain values to usandact as inspirations to virtue. This simple restatement of the conclusion already reached seems to be a redundancy, and therefore a mere repetition that serves no purpose. That is not to say that de Botton is completely off target in this chapter. De Botton actually has a promising beginning to this chapter, with the mention of the blond hair that he finds stuck to his headboard at the hotel, that caused an inability to concentrate. He reflects on the implications of the blond hair, that a previous traveler had left part of himself/herself behind and for that moment, shared a

INDIVIDUAL ORAL PRESENTATION ESSAY kind of bond with de Botton. This could have been used as the substantiating point for de Bottons treatise on life in the countryside, that in the city, where it is too crowded and he too anxious to notice others amidst the competition, in the countryside, the mere trace of another person can have such a profound impression on him. This juxtaposition between city and countryside can be further built upon with Wordsworths experiences of the city and the countryside, and in doing so, Wordsworth would seem more of a kindred spirit that the originator of this chapter. In Chapter VII, On Eye Opening Art, Vincent van Gogh (18531890), a Dutch post-impressionist who had a lasting impact on the art world, albeit post-mortem, influences De Botton, as de Botton ventures to find beauty in traveling. Vincent van Gogh is most well known for his revolutionary artistic license where he uses bright contrasting colours in his paintings, much unlike the dull, complementary colours used in many of the renowned painters at the time. It is in van Goghs ability to appreciate the things that others at the time would not have perceived as worthy of appreciation, his desire to help other people to see it and possibly in his faith in the eye-opening power of art that inspires de Botton the most. De Botton embarks on a similar journey in Provence to see what van Gogh saw and hopefully to gain a similar epiphany on art and beauty. Once again, de Botton begins the chapter on a promising note, telling readers how he too is plagued by the inability to change ones tastes and preferences in regards to ones aesthetic preferences. However, he does acknowledge his resolve to notice the eye-opening, to witness the ordinary from a new perspective, for which he gives the example of olive trees and how we might find something to appreciate in noticing the silver in their leaves or the structure in their branches. We sense a kind of individualistic approach that de Bot ton possesses for the most part and it seems that he would continue his search for beauty and artistic quality with originality. De Botton seems to go about his quest in this chapter by placing himself in the shoes of van Gogh, trying to find beauty where others had not. It is here that de Botton seems to be merely rehashing the realizations of van Gogh in the 19th century. De Botton too notices the

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way that cypresses move in the wind, as van Gogh did, and while acknowledging that this observation was borrowed from van Gogh himself, de Botton seems to continue venturing in Provence, looking at things with a perspective that was no longer unique. The individuality and originality, and his quest to find beauty in things that others would not have conceived to be worthy of appreciation, seems to take the back seat from here on as de Botton merely states how he recognizes van Goghs genius in noticing the minute details that made something so beautiful, rather than gaining a personal epiphany from the sights surrounding him. Previously bored and unable to detect the charm oft ascribed to Provence, after telling the tale of van Gogh and his characteristic use of bold primary colours, de Botton seems to have had his eyes attuned to the colours that had dominated van Goghs canvases. It is in this unexpected transition that de Botton seems to be directly applying van Goghs observations onto his own, seeing things as van Gogh would have seen it. It is ironic therefore, while de Botton seems to extol van Goghs abandonment of the traditional classical style, as a result of van Goghs eye-opening realization, and a symbol of unconventionality, de Botton simply adheres to van Goghs observations and like the classical painters, cannot see beauty for themselves. De Botton also seemed a tad irritated when an Australian man commented on how he could not see the resemblance between the olive trees and van Goghs Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background (1889). He describes, almost mockingly, the mans companion as a small, tousle-haired woman, as though the attack was personal. It seems at this point that de Botton was a tad perturbed by people who did not completely agree with van Goghs perspective on things. The Australian mans opinion could very well have been an eye-opening one, in that in his own mind, he might be seeing the olive trees quite differently from van Gogh and therefore de Botton. De Botton seems adamant in his opinion and certainly acts with disdain against anyone who disagreed. Overall, in this chapter, de Botton seems to be greatly inspired by van Goghs eye-opening art, and relays to readers how this 113 year-old realization can still be eye-opening even till this day, however,

INDIVIDUAL ORAL PRESENTATION ESSAY rather than providing a new outlook on this century-old opinion, de Botton merely shows readers how the work of van Gogh can provide an eye-opening perspective, but fails to convince readers as to if he gained any personal experience different from what he would have gained looking at the works of van Gogh, in a book or a gallery. In conclusion, while de Botton writes remarkably well, with a characteristic individualistic tone throughout most of the novel, the praise is whittled away by the pitfalls in the abovementioned chapters. De Botton can get too caught up in his influences and inspirations that he seems to forget his main objective in writing the Art of Travel. On the whole however, the Art of Travel remains an excellent book, full of insight and imagery, perfect for the armchair traveler.