Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Expatism vs.Traveling....
This post is unusually difficult to write, or perhaps I should say begin. My dad is in town for two weeks with his 3rd son, Alex, in tow. Luckily for Alex, his English is much better than my German ever was. It's easier to learn a new language anyway, with multimedia and the 'Net, but Alex is also taught (British) English in school and can practice with my father when they talk and visit. Alex is an American citizen (born in Greensboro, NC) and my dad is naturalized for MANY years (nearly 40), but both are recognizably German if you were to hear or even see them here in the States. Alternately, in Germany both would be seen, sooner (my dad) or later (Alex) as Americans. Their accents or fashion sense wouldn't give them away, but eventually their attitudes would. My father has NO tolerance for the bullshit Germany places on its productive citizens, and this lack has cost my dad dearly over the years. Alex has taken some of my father's American attitudes, but to what extent I cannot say just yet. He's certainly mellower than my father and brother and he's awed by America's size, but he's adapting. I guess my father has taught his that he is an American and will someday have the option of living here. I guess I'm saying he appears American to me rather than German. I suppose his mind set appears to me as American. I'll elaborate: Irish-Americans like to state they have strong ties to the Emerald Isle, but when faced with their Irish relatives, they find they have little to nothing in common. Irish-Americans have an idealized notion of Ireland that does not mesh with reality. The Irish are just poor Europeans who wish to live in prosperity the same as everyone else. The Irish have more in common with Germans or the French than with Americans, we just don't know it. Anyway, what does this have to do with my unstartable post? Well, I'm considering the differences between expat literature and travel writing. It's late, so I'll save here and write more later.
I'm back, nearly 13 hours later at the office. I should clarify that I mean not only expat writings vs. Travel writings, but travel vs. expatism on the whole. Neither category of writing is overflowing with titles, and insight for either path is in short supply. Are all expats just long term travelers? Probably not, but are more expats really travelers than they care admit? You bet. America doesn't have an expat community; we consider such enclaves immigrant communities. You can include England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and interestingly, Argentina in this group. Other countries don't encourage immigration as enthusiastically, and I include France, Germany, and Ireland in this group. All encourage immigration, but not for immigration's sake. Essentially, these nations and other like them are desperate for workers and their tax revenue, so they can come in as workers, but they are not "moving" to these countries. Turks in Germany have been living there for 3 generations, but they are Turks, not Germans, and have little or no rights as a result. The understanding is these guest workers will eventually return home. It doesn't always happen.
Regardless of one's status or what country one in which ones lives, if you are an American you are not a local. People in other countries are often mystified by American living abroad. The whole world is clamoring to get in, why did you leave? We have our reasons. Anyway, the question I'm attempting to answer is simple: which is more honest? I'll give you the following writers: Rolf Potts and D.A. Blyler.
Rolf Potts is the author of Vagabonding, and a world traveler. After living as an expat in Korea teaching English, he saw the change in the air and left after saving a small fortune. He then backpacked through SE Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Mongolia over the course of 2 1/2 years while sending dispatches to Salon.com. These missives were occasionally hilarious, sometime poignant, and always insightful. Click the link to the left for more. Anyway, his overriding philosophy was that however long he spent in a place, he was not and would not ever be one of them. He was a traveler and would always be seen as such. Moreover, everyone else would seem him as a foreigner, not matter how long he stayed in a certain place. He didn't mind this, and accepted it as the reality of the situation. His writing certainly reflected this truism. Therefore, we can certainly label him a traveler. However, he wrote his vagabonding book in Thailand and when he needs to write, he goes back to this one place. Can he now be called an expat? He owns a small cabin in his native Kansas near his parent's farm, so why doesn't he write there? Thailand is cheaper, aside from the flight, but he could probably sponge off his parents in the interim. He likes Thailand more than Kansas and I'm sure I would agree. So is he an expat? Probably not, but neither is he a traveler. Staying in one place to work and earn loot is not the activities one would engage in while on vacationing. In fact, the very act of working prevents him from being a traveler. He is (as his book implies...) a vagabond, a post-modern wanderer benefiting from the Internet and seeing the world. He's closer to expat than he wants to admit, but not there yet.
DA Blyler is the classic expat, living first in the Czech Republic and now in Thailand. An ESL teacher, he also writes, operates a PR company inThailand, and comments about politics on various blogs and news sites. His first book, "Steffi's Club" details his adventures as an ESL teacher in the Czech Republic in a small city outside of Prague. A decent book, he becomes a limited partner in a brothel (i.e. Steffi's club...) and befriends a Russian mobster, fights off a nasty Gypsy pimp, all while teaching and signing up his fellow teachers as clients. Things go awry and he escapes with a small wad of cash and hightails it to Greece to meet his Roma/Czech girlfriend who disappeared earlier in the narrative. He then moved to a small provincial city in Thailand and teaches English while living on a banana plantation with his Thai wife and stepdaughter. When I read this I wanted to scream "Sellout!" but who am I to judge? Is he an expat? Sure, but he has not fully cut the cord between himself and the USA, as he still comments on the USA. He may come back one day, but does that make him a traveler? No. Still, he recognizes himself as an American, and knows that everyone else sees him as an outsider. He's not an interloper ala "The Beach" by Alex Garland, but he's not Thai and never will be.
I ask these questions because of the uncertainty in my own life. Is my dad effectively an American expat, living not in his home nation but the nation of his birth? Is he traveling to the US as a tourist or is he coming home for a visit? I don't have these answers yet, and I may need to figure these things out sooner rather than later. I suppose I'm looking for a theme to guide me. I'm not much of a traveler; I sit in a coffee shop for hours surfing on my laptop. I'm also rootless enough to live in 3 states in one year, and the purpose of expats is to lay down roots. I suppose I'll wander around for a while until I figure out what's next. More in the proverbial later.
I'm back, nearly 13 hours later at the office. I should clarify that I mean not only expat writings vs. Travel writings, but travel vs. expatism on the whole. Neither category of writing is overflowing with titles, and insight for either path is in short supply. Are all expats just long term travelers? Probably not, but are more expats really travelers than they care admit? You bet. America doesn't have an expat community; we consider such enclaves immigrant communities. You can include England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and interestingly, Argentina in this group. Other countries don't encourage immigration as enthusiastically, and I include France, Germany, and Ireland in this group. All encourage immigration, but not for immigration's sake. Essentially, these nations and other like them are desperate for workers and their tax revenue, so they can come in as workers, but they are not "moving" to these countries. Turks in Germany have been living there for 3 generations, but they are Turks, not Germans, and have little or no rights as a result. The understanding is these guest workers will eventually return home. It doesn't always happen.
Regardless of one's status or what country one in which ones lives, if you are an American you are not a local. People in other countries are often mystified by American living abroad. The whole world is clamoring to get in, why did you leave? We have our reasons. Anyway, the question I'm attempting to answer is simple: which is more honest? I'll give you the following writers: Rolf Potts and D.A. Blyler.
Rolf Potts is the author of Vagabonding, and a world traveler. After living as an expat in Korea teaching English, he saw the change in the air and left after saving a small fortune. He then backpacked through SE Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia, and Mongolia over the course of 2 1/2 years while sending dispatches to Salon.com. These missives were occasionally hilarious, sometime poignant, and always insightful. Click the link to the left for more. Anyway, his overriding philosophy was that however long he spent in a place, he was not and would not ever be one of them. He was a traveler and would always be seen as such. Moreover, everyone else would seem him as a foreigner, not matter how long he stayed in a certain place. He didn't mind this, and accepted it as the reality of the situation. His writing certainly reflected this truism. Therefore, we can certainly label him a traveler. However, he wrote his vagabonding book in Thailand and when he needs to write, he goes back to this one place. Can he now be called an expat? He owns a small cabin in his native Kansas near his parent's farm, so why doesn't he write there? Thailand is cheaper, aside from the flight, but he could probably sponge off his parents in the interim. He likes Thailand more than Kansas and I'm sure I would agree. So is he an expat? Probably not, but neither is he a traveler. Staying in one place to work and earn loot is not the activities one would engage in while on vacationing. In fact, the very act of working prevents him from being a traveler. He is (as his book implies...) a vagabond, a post-modern wanderer benefiting from the Internet and seeing the world. He's closer to expat than he wants to admit, but not there yet.
DA Blyler is the classic expat, living first in the Czech Republic and now in Thailand. An ESL teacher, he also writes, operates a PR company inThailand, and comments about politics on various blogs and news sites. His first book, "Steffi's Club" details his adventures as an ESL teacher in the Czech Republic in a small city outside of Prague. A decent book, he becomes a limited partner in a brothel (i.e. Steffi's club...) and befriends a Russian mobster, fights off a nasty Gypsy pimp, all while teaching and signing up his fellow teachers as clients. Things go awry and he escapes with a small wad of cash and hightails it to Greece to meet his Roma/Czech girlfriend who disappeared earlier in the narrative. He then moved to a small provincial city in Thailand and teaches English while living on a banana plantation with his Thai wife and stepdaughter. When I read this I wanted to scream "Sellout!" but who am I to judge? Is he an expat? Sure, but he has not fully cut the cord between himself and the USA, as he still comments on the USA. He may come back one day, but does that make him a traveler? No. Still, he recognizes himself as an American, and knows that everyone else sees him as an outsider. He's not an interloper ala "The Beach" by Alex Garland, but he's not Thai and never will be.
I ask these questions because of the uncertainty in my own life. Is my dad effectively an American expat, living not in his home nation but the nation of his birth? Is he traveling to the US as a tourist or is he coming home for a visit? I don't have these answers yet, and I may need to figure these things out sooner rather than later. I suppose I'm looking for a theme to guide me. I'm not much of a traveler; I sit in a coffee shop for hours surfing on my laptop. I'm also rootless enough to live in 3 states in one year, and the purpose of expats is to lay down roots. I suppose I'll wander around for a while until I figure out what's next. More in the proverbial later.
