The MagazinePoets of MobilityThe beckoning world, and closing ranks, of travel writers.Jul 4, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 40
• By THOMAS SWICK
 Last year I gave a reading in New York City, and talking to people afterwards I was struck by how many were also travel writers, or at least survivors of a travel-writing course. It was refreshing to be around literate travelers. At home in Florida I usually address seniors, who like to ask me about cruise lines.  But reflecting later, I thought it unfortunate that the audience had not included more people with no professional interest: a few accountants, for instance, out for a good time. I wondered if travel writers had become like poets, who have long been accused of writing for each other. It’s odd, when you think about it, because both groups take on big, universal subjects: the world and life. Who isn’t interested in those two things? (Though, admittedly, many Americans exhibit astonishing apathy toward the first.) The rap against poets is that they have forsaken their audience in an effort to dazzle their peers. Travel writers, for our part, can go overboard on small epiphanies and life-altering moments that may have little resonance for someone resigned to a two-week vacation. At the same time, what if Elizabeth Gilbert had focused more on India and less on herself? In a country where a mere 30 percent of the population possesses a passport, there is a thin, unnerving line between self-indulgence and bestsellerdom. To read more, you must be a Weekly Standard Subscriber We're Sorry,
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