Yes, Meredith McKinney’s observation suggests that the poetics of travel - at least in the classical Japanese tradition - began to decline with the rise of modernity, giving way to more factual, mundane, and even farcical travel narratives. This raises a broader question: Has modernity stripped travel of its poetic dimension?
1. The Shift from Poetic Travel to Factual Travel Writing
Basho’s travel writing (haibun) fused poetry and prose, where movement through space was also a journey through impermanence (mujo), aesthetic contemplation, and spiritual reflection. His Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) is not a mere record of places visited - it is an existential meditation, where landscapes, encounters, and haiku are interwoven in a seamless poetic vision.
However, after Basho, Japanese travel writing gradually became more factual and even comical, reflecting the broader cultural and economic shifts of the Edo period. By the time of modernity, travel writing worldwide became increasingly dominated by:
Realism: Travel as an objective, factual experience.
Tourism: Travel as consumption rather than spiritual journey.
Colonial & Imperialist Narratives: Travel as documentation and conquest rather than self-transformation.
The poetics of travel, in the Bash sense, faded as travel itself became more structured, commercialized, and embedded in bureaucratic systems (passports, borders, planned itineraries).
2. Modernity and the Loss of the Poetics of Travel
Modernity transformed travel from an open-ended, poetic wandering into something often instrumental, goal-oriented, and systematic. Consider these contrasts:
|
Pre-Modern Poetic Travel |
Modern Factual Travel |
|
Wandering as spiritual and aesthetic practice |
Traveling as a logistical and economic activity |
|
Open-ended, embracing serendipity |
Structured, itinerary-driven |
|
Solitude and contemplation |
Social media, reviews, bucket lists |
|
Travel as a way of being (pilgrimage, exile, poetic quest) |
Travel as a break from normal life (vacation, tourism) |
|
Impermanence (mujo) and nature’s changing seasons as themes |
Efficiency, speed, convenience as priorities |
Basho and his contemporaries saw the road itself as home, whereas modernity increasingly treats travel as a temporary escape from home - a controlled experience rather than a surrender to the unknown.
3. Have We Entirely Lost the Poetics of Travel?
Not necessarily. While mainstream modern travel culture prioritizes efficiency, entertainment, and documentation, there are still forms of travel that retain Basho’s spirit of poetic wandering:
(A) The Van Life Movement
Your own metaphysics of van life is an act of reclaiming the poetics of travel within modernity. It resists:
Rigid itineraries Instead, embracing chance encounters and impermanence (mono no aware).
Tourism as consumption Instead, engaging with landscapes as a meditative experience (karumi).
Speed and efficiency Instead, slowing down and living in the moment.
In this sense, the van life pilgrimage is one of the last remaining spaces where travel still holds the potential for poetry.
(B) The Philosophy of Walking (Solitary Travel)
Thinkers like Frederic Gros (A Philosophy of Walking) and Werner Herzog (Of Walking in Ice) emphasize walking as a resistance to modern speed and consumption culture. Basho himself was a walker. Walking, rather than mechanized travel, allows for:
Slowness and contemplation (karumi)
Deep engagement with impermanence (mono no aware)
The possibility of serendipitous encounters
(C) Exilic and Anti-Tourist Travel
Thinkers and writers who reject touristic modernity often reclaim a poetic mode of travel:
Rebecca Solnit (A Field Guide to Getting Lost) Travel as a form of existential openness.
Bruce Chatwin (The Songlines) Travel as a return to nomadic origins.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Wind, Sand, and Stars) Travel as poetic flight and cosmic perspective.
Mathias Enard (Compass) Travel as a meditation on cultural intersections and the loss of history.
These figures do not travel for mere sightseeing - they seek the metaphysical dimension of travel, much like Basho.
4. The Challenge: Can We Reclaim the Poetics of Travel in the 21st Century?
Yes, but it requires conscious resistance to modernity’s travel paradigm. Some ways to do this:
Slow Travel Avoiding structured tourism, embracing slowness (karumi).
Nomadic Minimalism Living lightly, without attachment (mujo).
Seeking Solitude Letting the landscape dictate the journey, rather than social expectations.
Writing as Journey Travel journals and haibun can reintegrate poetic reflection into movement.
Your metaphysics of van life, grounded in karumi and mono no aware, is one such resistance. It is not about rejecting modernity outright but about finding pathways within it that still allow for poetic, meaningful travel.
Would you say this aligns with your view of travel? Or do you think modernity’s loss of poetic travel is irretrievable?
