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Host: Arizona State University
Homepage: http://rmmla.wsu.edu/rmmla/conferences/conf02-Scottsdale/conf02.asp
Email: rmmla@rmmla.wsu.edu
Organizers: David W. Foster
Deadline for abstracts: March 01, 2001
Description:
There are still places to go and journeys to be written into stories.
The physical world may be thoroughly charted, but when it encounters the
uncharted territory of the intellectual, psychological, and creative
worlds of the extreme tourist, extreme stories result. In a tradition
which includes David Thompson and Mina Hubbard, this branch of travel
writing is as much about the journey in as the journey out. The element
of risk is integral; these are not holidays. Papers which address any
aspect of the resultant documents of extreme travel are invited. More
than just maniacs who engage in high-risk behaviour, these travellers
want to risk and tell. Look to Sand Dance: By Camel Across the Arabian
Desert (Bruce Kirkby); The Water in Between: A Journey at Sea (Kevin
Patterson); and Honeymoon in Purdah (Alison Wearing) as very recent
examples of this phenomenon. When a caf=E9 just isn't our Everest, when
the beach is no Empty Quarter, where do we go, and why do we go, and
what have we got to say for ourselves when we get home? What are we
trying to prove? To whom? And what makes others of us want to read about
it? Somewhere there is a line between sailing on the reservoir and
white-water rafting; then there's another one between that and taking on
an ocean. There's a line between watching Lawrence of Arabia and heading
out to meet the scorpions. There's a line between dinner at an Iranian
restaurant and putting on the veil. What does it take to cross the line?
And, most importantly, what kind of story does it make?
Date received: November 23, 2000
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