While Kapuscinski and Russell discuss far different subjects in their writings, both are border crossers. What borders do you think each writer has crossed? Do those borders matter to you? Why or why not?
After having read about these two border crossers and their journeys, and experiencing a foreign country myself for the first time, I think that travelers in some way always remain on the border. Torn between the familiar and the new, a traveler remains somewhere in the in-between. Kapuscinski was shocked by the natives’ reaction to the ‘sacred river,’ and Russell is torn by the poverty of war-ravaged Bosnia. Both have to cross a language border that perplexes them. I have experienced both an emotional border and a language border in Italy, and these borders do matter to me.
In the “Introduction” to Amazonian, the “psychological journey” of the travel writer is emphasized in new travel writing (ix). As border crossers, these writers delve into their feelings before, during, and after their travels. Kapuscinski recalls his intense desire to have a border-crossing experience and then come promptly back. He wondered how ‘different’ would feel. Since the Suez war prevented him from returning, he had to stay and truly explore these differences in India. He is surprised by the natives’ treatment of the river- families, animals, and starving beggars who can barely walk all make the pilgrimage towards the Ganges. To him, the purification ritual in the water “looks like torture,” but he thinks that the grandmother may even be enjoying this half-drowning (“Crossing the Border” 25). Russell also battles with her feelings, and that is a border that she also must cross in Bosnia. She longs to give Vahid money, but he needs the money she has and he is too proud to accept it anyways. Russell describes feelings that may be similar to other border crossers: she is not able to fix the ills of the new country. She writes, “leaving him, I try to steady myself against the emptiness I feel” (Mirror Images 147).
Another perplexing feeling is the inability to communicate through language. Kapuscinski knew that “every distinct geographic universe has its own mystery and that one can decipher it only by learning the local language” (“Crossing the Border” 22). He notes that one only remembers what one can name. Russell encounters this same barrier that those who have crossed the border encounter. When spoken to, Russell can only nod and smile. She says that their languages get in the way. She wants to tell the woman that Sarajevo is her cosmopolitan ideal; this border crosser wants to move into the realm of Bosnia, but language keeps her in the border area whether she likes it or not.
These borders matter to me because they are things that I am dealing with in Italy as well. The emotional border can be the presence of so many beggars in Rome that you must ignore. Half of them are swindlers, and will pretend to be poor to get your money or to even steal your purse while you are off guard. It breaks my heart to see the poor begging at the side of the road, while everyone walks by and ignores them, off to buy another Gucci something. But it can’t be helped, and that’s a border I’ve had to get used to. I also had to get used to the language. Though I am learning Italian, and I enjoy practicing it, I am unable to say and understand many things. Getting lost is especially frustrating if you can only ask for and listen to directions in Italian. However, though I remain on the border, I still feel happy about that position. I can immerse myself in the culture, while having a constant internal tie to my real home. I’d imagine that many travel writers find that living on the border is a comfortable place.
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