Exploration Literature

[Patrick Murtha]

Again, some overlap here with other categories, and some provisos. I know that “exploration” is largely a Eurocentric concept (but not entirely, see: Ibn Batutta, Zheng He). And also that the explorers were disruptive to indigenous cultures and have a bad rap today (Columbus). But this is all a part of history, and reading and thinking about it expanded my world as a youngster; I still enjoy the topic. So please don’t shoot me. ?

Richard J. Bush, Reindeer, Dogs, and Snow-Shoes

Isaac I. Hayes, The Open Polar Sea

Christopher Hibbert, Africa Explored (excellent account)

L.P. Kirwan, A History of Polar Exploration (ditto)

Alan Moorehead, The Fatal Impact

JE Nourse, American Explorations in the Ice Zones

Arthur King Peters, Seven Trails West

Marco Polo, Travels

Peter Stark, Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire

Walt Unsworth, Everest: A Mountaineering History

 

[MichaelHW]

One of the worst travel writers in history was Marco Polo, and one of the best was Ibn Batutta. When Marco Polo describes his arrival somewhere: he mentions the height of objects, the distance between them, the length of travel, etc etc. He never includes himself, and his personality is an utter mystery.

Ibn Batutta mentions his emotions in his first paragraph, what he felt, what he thought, and his individuality permeates every sentence.

But oddly, it is Marco Polo that gets all the movie versions, and the void of his character is filled by screen writers. While the real Ibn Batutta, a man of flesh and blood, and not just a list of measurements, has never been filmed.

 

[MichaelHW]

China has more travel narratives than Zheng He, and his fleet. There is Zhou Daguan, an emmisary who traveled to Angkor Watt during its hay day, and described it in great detail. It is the only major written source the Cambodians have of that vanished culture. The texts of that huge culture were written on material that no longer exists, and all that remains are stone inscriptions and Daguan's Chinese narrative. I expect that the Chinese sent similar emmisaries to many other ancient Asian cultures?

 

[kpjayan]

I expect that the Chinese sent similar emmisaries to many other ancient Asian cultures?

Indeed. Hiuen Tsang or Xuanzang is one traveler toured India extensively in the 7th century.

Xuanzang - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Leseratte]

One of the worst travel writers in history was Marco Polo, and one of the best was Ibn Batutta. When Marco Polo describes his arrival somewhere: he mentions the height of objects, the distance between them, the length of travel, etc etc. He never includes himself, and his personality is an utter mystery.

Ibn Batutta mentions his emotions in his first paragraph, what he felt, what he thought, and his individuality permeates every sentence.

But oddly, it is Marco Polo that gets all the movie versions, and the void of his character is filled by screen writers. While the real Ibn Batutta, a man of flesh and blood, and not just a list of measurements, has never been filmed.

Maybe because Marco Polo left room for the imagination of others.

 

[Liam]

There's a new book by Tom Bullough about walking down an old Roman road in Wales that I want to read: Sarn Helen. It's one of my favorite genres: reflections on the nature of life, composed whilst on a long, long walk.

 

[tiganeasca]

There's a new book by Tom Bullough about walking down an old Roman road in Wales that I want to read: Sarn Helen. It's one of my favorite genres: reflections on the nature of life, composed whilst on a long, long walk.

Have you ever poked your nose into Hilaire Belloc? Though his views on other subjects may leave something to be desired, I've read and enjoyed a few of his walking tours in England (and France?).

 

[Liam]

I haven't, but thanks for the recommendation, ?

 

[Ben Jackson]

Haven't read much from this genre, will read from this genre soon. Do you know modern exploration books?

 

[MichaelHW]

Maybe because Marco Polo left room for the imagination of others.

No, it is about contemporary genre conventions, I think. In days before maps existed, accuracy and details served an important function. Many of the requirements writers like Marco Polo placed upon their texts were later assumed by cartography and today google maps. However, what was the strength of Marco Polo's approach in his own day, reduced their lasting value as literary texts. So, I think the answer is that they were not intended literarure in the modern sense. If enjoyment is what you seek in the twelfth century, arthurian legends and fairytales are probably some of your options, poetry etc. However, viewed from our modern perspective, Ibn Batutta becomes a superior travel writer. He was a strict traveling muslim legal scholar, but he had a fondness for contemporary cuicine, and when he felt lonely or afraid, he would tell you. And then you empathized and felt what he must have felt when he was attacked by bandits or shipwrecked or whatever. I also think the fact that people like Ibn batutta, Avicenna or Ibn Khaldun are ignored by Hollywood etc, is quite revealing of how the West has treated colonies. You cannot acknowledge the academic traditions of India, ethiopia, china or the middle east without making yourself less superior. Less special. Therefore Kant is what you hear, but never Zera Yacoub. You will hear about Alexandria, but never Nalanda or Timbouctu. You will hear about Herodutus, but not Sima Quian and so on...While hunter gatherers roamed parts of Europe, the Indians wrote philosophical dissertations and the Chinese were worried about civil service exams.

 

[Leseratte]

I fully agree with you about the Eurocentric point of view, Michael. I am fascinated with the literature of the early travelers to Brazil, because it is with them that Brazilian Literature starts. At a time where there still didn´t exist neither Brazilian writers nor readers, their careful descriptions of the landscapes, the weather, the vegetation, the animals, the people, etc. where responsible of a certain conception of Brazil, which maintained itself during centuries. No matter if they not only read each other, but also, to a good extent, copied each other.
But a few of them howered, like it seems to have been with Marco Polo, between exploration and adventure literature. This is the case, for example, with the German Hans Staden, which maybe you know already. The first part of his narrative reads like a novel. The second contains the usual descriptions.

 

[Benny Profane]

Adding a new name on the board: Jean de Léry (the French counterpart of Hans Staden).

Ah, I have a doubt: what about George Borrow? Has someone read him?

 

[MichaelHW]

I fully agree with you about the Eurocentric point of view, Michael. I am fascinated with the literature of the early travelers to Brazil, because it is with them that Brazilian Literature starts. At a time where there still didn´t exist neither Brazilian writers nor readers, their careful descriptions of the landscapes, the weather, the vegetation, the animals, the people, etc. where responsible of a certain conception of Brazil, which maintained itself during centuries. No matter if they not only read each other, but also, to a good extent, copied each other.
But a few of them howered, like it seems to have been with Marco Polo, between exploration and adventure literature. This is the case, for example, with the German Hans Staden, which maybe you know already. The first part of his narrative reads like a novel. The second contains the usual descriptions.

i dont know much about Brazil. But I know that you live next to a vast jungle that has always persisted. And that is filled with diverse native american cultures. The codex' of the mexican maya were destroyed by de landa. Only a few remain. But there is at least one other south American indian culture with writing. Also, they had oral traditions. And for a very long time, vikings in scandinavia or even ancient Greek or even jews passed stories from mouth to mouth, the oldest form of literature we know.

They have scanned the Mayan jungle territories with lidar, and discovered that it was much bigger than previously assumed. I do not know whether the same has been done in Brazil? In some ways Brazil resembles the US, in the sense that there is some seemingly infinite territory segmented in your mind. But. in Brazil it has remained a fact, while the US fronteir myth is a right wing abstraction in a highly developed jungle of skyscrapers.

Even if no additional texts will ever be found to illuminate pre-conquest brazil, archaelogy may find something. In the seventies, a roman shipwreck was discovered in a bay outside Rio de Janeiro. There is another legend. In the middle ages, the richest man known to history, Mansa Musa, ruled over an empire in West Africa. The sources also say that his predecessor was a ruler obsessed with crossing the sea, in order to discover what was on the other side. This African king gathered a huge fleet, set sail and was never heard of again. Only one ship, separated from the others in a storm, returned. It is therefore possible that a fleet of african warriors set foot on Brazilian territory in the middle ages.

Even if the Africans drowned and the Romans were blown off course and sunk by accident, some mayan or aztec or inca, or perhaps even a Cahokian native american version of marco polo could have journeyed into brazil before the arrival of the Europeans.

But the Romans travalled much farther than people realize. They sent military expeditions deep into Africa, some may have reached Nigeria! And they may have sent emissaries to the Chinese! If we have a little fun with this idea, we can construct the following narrative in the spirit of Dan Brown. A reseacher at the villa de papyri in Pompei invents a new way to save texts, and discovers a roman travel narrative from the jungles lof south america

 

[Leseratte]

i dont know much about Brazil. But I know that you live next to a vast jungle that has always persisted. And that is filled with diverse native american cultures. The codex' of the mexican maya were destroyed by de landa. Only a few remain. But there is at least one other south American indian culture with writing. Also, they had oral traditions. And for a very long time, vikings in scandinavia or even ancient Greek or even jews passed stories from mouth to mouth, the oldest form of literature we know.

They have scanned the Mayan jungle territories with lidar, and discovered that it was much bigger than previously assumed. I do not know whether the same has been done in Brazil? In some ways Brazil resembles the US, in the sense that there is some seemingly infinite territory segmented in your mind. But. in Brazil it has remained a fact, while the US fronteir myth is a right wing abstraction in a highly developed jungle of skyscrapers.

Even if no additional texts will ever be found to illuminate pre-conquest brazil, archaelogy may find something. In the seventies, a roman shipwreck was discovered in a bay outside Rio de Janeiro. There is another legend. In the middle ages, the richest man known to history, Mansa Musa, ruled over an empire in West Africa. The sources also say that his predecessor was a ruler obsessed with crossing the sea, in order to discover what was on the other side. This African king gathered a huge fleet, set sail and was never heard of again. Only one ship, separated from the others in a storm, returned. It is therefore possible that a fleet of african warriors set foot on Brazilian territory in the middle ages.

Even if the Africans drowned and the Romans were blown off course and sunk by accident, some mayan or aztec or inca, or perhaps even a Cahokian native american version of marco polo could have journeyed into brazil before the arrival of the Europeans.

But the Romans travalled much farther than people realize. They sent military expeditions deep into Africa, some may have reached Nigeria! And they may have sent emissaries to the Chinese! If we have a little fun with this idea, we can construct the following narrative in the spirit of Dan Brown. A reseacher at the villa de papyri in Pompei invents a new way to save texts, and discovers a roman travel narrative from the jungles lof south america

I don´t know about these Middle Age legends, Michael, there must be a lot of them. And the tradition of the Brazilian Indians is wholly oral.

As to the territory, what I know is that it was under the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 ratified in 1524: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas. Lots of conquerors specially Portuguese, Spanish, French and Dutch travelled to South America in search of new territories, Eldorado and etc. So the Portuguese and the Spanish accorded among themselves that "The lands to the east [of the meridian] would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Castile[Spain]. The treaty ignored the other nations and the other nations ignored the treaty. In a general way both nations respected the treaty, but much later Brazilian expeditions made incursions into the interior of the continent, overstepping the imaginary line, enlarging the country. This accounts for it´s curious form

 

[Leseratte]

Adding a new name on the board: Jean de Léry (the French counterpart of Hans Staden).

Ah, I have a doubt: what about George Borrow? Has someone read him?

Thanks,Benny!There are many others. But I don´t know if they would interest the readers of this forum.