Alain De Botton – The Art of Travel - Review

After a weekend in bed, feeling sorry for myself decided to sit on my front porch and sketch the view. I have a 'travel" journal that goes with me on every trip I've made since the turn of the century. Mostly landscapes and buildings, I write a comment about the time and place next to the sketch. The harsh sun shining through my window, dragged me out of bed this morning, "traveled " just outside my front door, and the moment was revealed as, really, I could have been anywhere!

I would recommend this book because what De Botton suggests makes sense and, when applied, works

"Philosophical Tools for Meaningful Travel..."

One of Alain De Botton's publications, ~The Art of Travel~ is a philosophical investigation, simply written, on the reasons and motivations for why we travel. The book's main thesis is that our lives are dominated by a search for that elusive and fleeting emotion or state known as happiness. Travel, he proposes, is a major activity that seeks out this state of mind. Travel can possibly show us what life is about outside our routine-filled day-to-day existence. The book examines our motives for traveling, our anticipations, and expectations using the writings of various artists, poets, and explorers, providing different and highly creative perspectives on the subject.

Personally, I found the most rewarding and instructive chapter to be, 'On eye-opening Art', using the views and paintings of Vincent van Gogh. Just as instructive, however, is the chapter, 'On Possessing Beauty,' drawing on the works of the 19th-century critic and writer, John Ruskin.

The message from both these individuals is quite similar. One of the tasks of art, specifically painting, is to provide us, the viewer, with new perspectives to view the world. Vincent van Gogh's exceedingly original style and use of color, for example, transformed, for some of us, the way we see a sunflower, a wheat field, and a Cypress tree. When viewing these works of art, or any work of art, we are inspired to travel to these places where the artist created and experience the works' subject first-hand.

John Ruskin believed that one of our primary needs in life is beauty and its possession. He suggested that the only meaningful way to possess beauty was through understanding it: '...making ourselves conscious of the factors (psychological and visual) that are responsible for it' (P.220). Indeed, to attain this understanding, he suggests, is to draw and write (word paint) those things and places we come across in the travels that strike us as beautiful. A person sitting down in front of an expansive landscape, and sketching its many features, will discover aspects about the scene that would be invisible to the casual observer. When traveling, take the time to draw and write about those places and things one sees, and the experience will be much richer as a result.

~The Art of Travel~ is a helpful philosophical guide to the budding and seasoned traveler. Where other books on the subject instruct us on where to go and what to see, Alain De Botton tells us how to approach our journeys and some useful tools for achieving a much more meaningful experience.