I’ve been thinking about the book a lot lately, though not actually writing anything – my thesis keeps me much to busy, though that is probably just an excuse.
Today I’ve had the Benedictine Monastery in Thu Duc running around in my mind. I definitely want to write about that. It is such an amazing place but so perfectly hidden away that no Western reader could possibly know about it.
Yesterday at Uni we did a session on Ethnography, and it got me thinking about travel writing, which I think is really just a popular form of ethnography. Naturally, ethnography is deeply unfashionable in academic circles these days (take a bow Mr. Said), and I am perfectly aware that travel writing can be (and is ) criticised for the very same reasons – trivialisation of the subject, exploitation, the impossibility of ever really understanding what you are writing about….the list goes on.
Tags: academia, ethnography, Said
