I really cannot begin to describe how addicted I am to travel blogs and how much I've come to view them as actual literary pieces as we've talked about social media in English class. What I love about travel blogging is the accessibility of it. The bloggers are able to instantly share their experiences pretty much as they are happening, and the readers are able to embark on journeys with them sometimes seeing real-time pictures of places that are thousands of miles away.
Of course, there is also the literary component of them. I have noticed that the blogs that I love most are those which are crafted in a way that reels me in, through the literary elements they employ to convey how they feel about their travels to their readers. One of my favorite travel blogs is Anywhere But Home:
"How can I even describe why? Maybe it’s the look of the city – beautiful, ornate buildings crumbling in the old town, towering blocky church towers, secret courtyard gardens and grape vines hanging off every house.
Maybe it’s the friendliness of the people I’ve met – the family who spent 15 minutes bartering with taxi drivers on my behalf at the airport, the monk who blessed me in the metro station and enlisted passers-by to translate so we could talk, the women in the market who break into smiles when I attempt Georgian, or even my adorable new roommates."A device, for instance, that is seen being used here is anaphora, the repetition of the phrase "Maybe it's the..." The blogger uses this device to create a sense of an enumeration of the countless things that one can find in Tbilisi, Georgia to love.
Do you follow any travel blogs you think I should also check out?
I never have checked out travel blogs, but I used to love reading travel magazines like Conde Nast. I too love the way that travel writers reel you in and its like you are in the place they are describing.
ReplyDeleteI especially liked where you said "the blogs that I love most are those which are crafted in a way that reels me in, through the literary elements they employ to convey how they feel about their travels to their readers." Just because it is nonfiction (or about travel) doesn't make it literary. Do you think that the images accompanying travel writing are necessary? complementary? competing?
ReplyDeleteI feel like the images are very much complementary. She includes them after small paragraphs where she describes her experiences and they really enhance her words. I don't think that they are necessary because through the way that she specifically writes I am able to really visualize the places she explores (she is very descriptive.) I also don't think that they are necessarily competing because they really don't take away from the effect her writing has on the reader. Without delving into the words that describe how she feels about these places I would not be attracted to a blog that has merely just pictures.
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