Module C Essay - 'The Art of Travel'

[NobelOne]

Hi everyone!

This is my first draft essay on Module C, can I please get feedback on it? particularly on analysis if possible. Thank you!

Question: People and landscapes intertwine in an enriching yet sometimes uneasy relationship. Explore how this relationship is represented in your prescribed text and ONE other related text of your own choosing.

The relationships that are created between individuals and real, remembered or imagined landscapes can generate an uplifting experience, yet also sometimes be a difficult connection. Alain de Botton’s hybrid philosophical text ‘The Art of Travel’ (2002) and the romantic fantasy film ‘Midnight in Paris’ (2011) by Woody Allen both draw upon humanity’s response to landscapes, and how it can lead towards providing the individuals involved to have a mixed response. De Botton uses personal journals, paintings and the use of philosophical ‘guides’; creating a montage representing the constant changing relationship with individuals and landscapes. Allen too addresses the difficult relationship between man and landscape with the story of a nostalgic screenwriter who suddenly goes back in time from 2010 to the 1920s at midnight, interacting with landscapes in both the present and past. Both texts demonstrate how landscapes can provide enhancing experiences, yet sometimes have setbacks.

In ‘The Art of Travel’, De Botton focuses on how people would notice the detail in landscapes through the psychology of landscapes which ultimately illuminate the enriching power of travelling through both real and imagined areas. In the ‘Departure’ chapter, he makes an uneasy connection with anticipation of landscape, as after reading the ‘Winter Sun’ travel brochure with its tranquil qualities of the “palm trees”, “turquoise sea” and “azure sky”, he was determined to travel to Barbados. Once he arrives in Barbados, he deliberately contrasts his experience to “the profusion of images” when he arrived, mentioning that the travel brochure images have made it “strangely harder to see the Barbados I had come to find” and he further mentions that “nothing was as I had imagined” De Botton foreshadows the harsh reality that reality can be a lot harsher by anticipation, describing the visual imagery of “frayed mats”, and a “waste ground”. He mirrors his experience with the story of J.Huysman’s character Duc des Esseintes as he boards a train and suddenly being “overcome with lassitude” as his excitement lowers thinks that he has “some mental aberration”, thus exposing that his desire to travel was not met with enjoyment. Despite De Botton’s disappointments which made his relationship with the Barbados landscape uneasy from anticipation, he managed to find exotic and pleasant aspects, with lush and intriguing imagery. De Botton has been enriched through this experience as he was able to facilitate a deeper understanding, yet he was undoubtedly set back by his anticipation of landscape.

Through De Botton’s experiences within the chapter ‘On The Sublime’; where he explores the Sinai desert, he explores how awe inspiring landscapes are capable of generating emotions for people such as fear and shock, which allows for a unique understanding and experience. He outlines his experience by deciding to “wander in the Sinai”, a biblical allusion to the Hebrews’ exodus. He goes on to outline his personal context into exploring the sublime in order “to make himself feel small”, which allows him to demonstrate the power of sublime landscapes in evoking ideas in individuals of our own mortality and identity. The barrenness of the desert helped him obtain interest, describing it with what it doesn’t have with cumulative listing of “trees, grass, water and animals”. De Botton expands on his enriched experiences of sublime landscapes by including the painting “An Avalanche in the Alps” by P. De Loutherbourg where the figures in the painting demonstrate their reactions to the sublime landscape using fearful body language. Finally, De Botton includes as his ‘guide’ the biblical character Job from the Book of Job of the Old Testament. De Botton emphasises how important it is for individuals to understand how powerful nature is through including Job’s constant suffering despite his goodness and faith. G-d’s response of “do not be surprised that things may not have gone your way. The universe is greater than you” in authoritative tone, displays the importance to become enriched in experiences with landscapes. De Botton’s sublime experiences in the Sinai and the relationship with this particular landscape has allowed him to further improve their connections between man and land.

Alongside De Botton’s experiences with landscape which supplemented him with new experiences, Allen also looks at how landscapes can provide meaningful experiences for individuals. In ‘Midnight in Paris’, the landscape of Paris is displayed as a major character in itself, which is achieved in the intro when it provides an establishing long shot of the Siene River in the foreground and in the background the Eiffel Tower. Allen uses visual effects during the intro to provide gold-tinted view of Paris with filtered lighting, creating an aesthetic image of landscape. The protagonist Gil lives in a hybrid state of existence who is obsessed with the nostalgia of Paris, mysteriously travelling to the past and present again. Allen’s utilisation of intertextual references to past literary figures and artists help to appreciate beauty and relate to the world, such as Gil meeting his idols such as Pablo Picasso and Scott Fitzgerald. As a result, Gil is able to escape his nostalgia and escape from reality, and through Gil’s idols can Allen offer a visual representation of an imagined landscape. Gil’s experience has distanced him from his fiancée, and has led to the realisation that despite being nostalgic, it’s better to accept the present as it is, which would be an uneasy decision to make. Through Gil’s experiences in Paris, he gets a better understanding of the changing landscape and the relationship with it.

Both ‘The Art of Travel’ and ‘Midnight in Paris’ have looked into how individuals such as De Botton and Gil are capable of having an eventful experience with landscapes, while it can sometimes can be disappointing, with De Botton’s anticipated experience in Barbados and Gil’s realisation that it is best to embrace the actual present time after his experiences with the nostalgic landscapes. Through these experiences, both De Botton and Allen challenge their audiences to reflect on the relationships and meanings they have with landscapes, allowing a better connection and experience.