The Challenge of Travel

Here's one I've been sending to a lot of my old traveling companions (link):

If the explorer moves toward the risks of the formless and the unknown, the tourist moves toward the security of pure cliché. It is between these two poles that the traveler mediates.

--Paul Fussell, Abroad

As one who spends a fair amount of his life looking out of bus windows, I say too true too true. I hope I get beyond cliché; on the other hand, I am too old & sick & stupid & tired for the formless and the unknown

Terry Teachout and Buce: Together Again

When I was first living on my own and earning the princely sum of $37 a week, I decided to tone up my squalid existence with a bit of classical music. I bought three LP records: Schubert's "Trout" Quintet; Mozart's Horn Concertos, and somebody's (Toscanini's?) rendering of "Wagner's Greatest Hits." I can't imagine what prompted me (pretty much untutored) to make such an auspicious beginning. Is there anything more affable than the "Trout"? I wonder what I would have though had I known that I was about the same age as Schubert was when he wrote it. My only real regret is that (particularly with the Mozart) I had started with pretty much the best there was--all downhill from there.

And the Wagner: I loved the tune-y parts. I can still hum duh-DAH, duh-DA, duhduhduh DA DA DA DA DAAAA Dyum, if you get my meaning. But somehow in the turmoil between that time and the time I started paying serious attention, I lost my taste for the Big W. Not that I haven't tried: I've listened to Tristan--in a castle, at that--and I've even read Brian Magee's estimable and instructive book about it. I sat through Meistersingers and Flying Dutchman--the latter of which appears to have at least the virtue of being Not Too Long. But for the most part, this Wagner stuff pretty much makes me puke.

Imagine my delight, then to have my taste validated by a distinguished critic. That would be Terry Teachout, and while I don't suppose I can say he is a partner maybe, still I'd certainly say that he is a soulmate:

... Time was when I pretended to keep an open mind about Richard Wagner--but no more. He is not now and never has been my cup of tea, and I plan, insofar as possible, to go through the remainder of my life without ever attending another public performance of his music. Nor do I see any reason to explain why. You've heard it all before, from others if not from me: countless distinguished critics and composers have been staunch anti-Wagnerians, publishing reams of articulate prose about his aesthetic demerits. ...

Source: "I Don't Do Wagner," originally published in 1997, republished lately. In fairness I should add that he apparently does enjoy stuff like this:

Shakespeare Sighting

Terry Teachout discovers The Rough Guide to Shakespeare (link) --which he might have discovered here or here. Note that I get my two cents' worth in among Terry's comments.