Traveling in Place
A History of Armchair Travel
Armchair travel may seem like an oxymoron. Doesn't travel require us to leave the house? And yet, anyone who has lost herself for hours in the descriptive pages of a novel or the absorbing images of a film knows the very real feeling of having explored and experienced a different place or time without ever leaving her seat. No passport, no currency, no security screening required – the luxury of armchair travel is accessible to us all. In "Traveling in Place", Bernd Stiegler celebrates this convenient, magical means of transport in all its many forms.
Organized into twenty-one "legs" – or short chapters – "Traveling in Place" begins with a consideration of Xavier de Maistre's 1794 "Voyage autour de ma chambre", an account of the forty-two-day "journey around his room" Maistre undertook as a way to entertain himself while under house arrest. Stiegler is fascinated by the notion of exploring the familiar as though it were completely new and strange. He engages writers as diverse as Roussel, Beckett, Perec, Robbe-Grillet, Cortazar, Kierkegaard, and Borges, all of whom show how the everyday can be brilliantly transformed. Like the best guidebooks, "Traveling in Place" is more interested in the idea of travel as a state of mind than as a physical activity, and Stiegler reflects on the different ways that traveling at home have manifested themselves in the modern era, from literature and film to the virtual possibilities of the Internet, blogs, and contemporary art.
Reminiscent of the pictorial meditations of Sebald, but possessed of the intellectual playfulness of Calvino, "Traveling in Place" offers an entertaining and creative Baedeker to journeying at home.
About the Author
Bernd Stiegler is professor of twentieth-century German literature and of literature and media at the University of Konstanz.
Peter Filkins is a poet and teaches literature at Bard College.
Reviews
"Bernd Stiegler introduces us to a history of travelogues, all written by trailblazers who measure the span of their adventures by the number of paces between the fireside armchair and the window casement. Stiegler shows the degree to which the room of the writer has become a microcosm, already stocked with enough exotic detail to place itself at the infinite disposal of our curiosity. The book suggests that no matter how far any wandering sightseer might travel, what really embarks on the trek is our imagination" – Christian Bok, author of "Euonia"
"Bernd Stiegler's rich snapshots of traveling in place are a long overdue addition to the history of modern travel. Here we see Robinson Crusoe in relief: not the lost soul on a far-off tropical island but the intrepid explorers of the close at hand, recounting their arduous journeys through rooms, pockets, purses, desks, and drawers. 'Traveling in Place' is a thought-provoking 'Wunderkammer' of small distances" – Andrew Piper, author of "Book Was There: Reading in Electronic Times"
