Sunday, March 23, 2008

And,

I hate it that I can't go to the king of my country and say, "Give me a fleet of ships and a horde of sailors, and I will sail to new lands and bring you back rubies and dried flowers." It is disheartening when you come from the country that was the hotbed of the spices and the rubies and the elephants and everything else. What can I bring back from the west, a burger? But we have that here too. I hate it that I can type "Spain" into Wikipedia and get a whole page about it, nothing is new and nothing is there to be discovered. No, I don't mean that, there is loads to be discovered but it has already been seen and commented on before, and you are in danger of hacking through undergrowth and coming across a little clearing populated by bearded loons who say they wanted to run away from the world too.

It isn't dangerous and you aren't pioneering anything by doing it, travel is now just a matter of taking breaks from work and doing things like family bonding, and you will never be sanctioned to go explore as much as possible - take my ships, bring me new ideas. If the sailors die, what of it, they were explorers. I hate it that there are no emperors today, just too many boundaries and too many permits, and airfares. Always the airfares.

5 kindred spirits have swallowed my rambling:

Elendil said...

That's why I love fantasy books. There's no exploration and epic adventures left in the real world.

Elendil said...

Haha.. I was just thinking, that if I could, I would join one of those nerdy societies that exist only in America (where getting 4 square meals a day is so easy that people find new and devious ways to entertain themselves in their Utopia), where people recreate the past. You know, like pretend to be in the middle ages. Or even Lord of the Rings recreation societies. Weeee! Wouldn't it be fun?

heh? ok said...

ah well. the only continents left to discover are the ones in the mind. but they're a cartographer's nightmare, so they should be fun.

Doubletake, Doublethink. said...

@ heh? ok: precisely. you are to blame for the misadventures that way, not, erm, heretics in a savage country *grin* overdoing it a bit, aren't i.

new age scheherazade said...

whoa...you ARE restless. don't worry, the boards are about to end.
and you know what? there's a lot more to spain and the world than fits into a wikipedia page. we just need keener eyes than Columbus had.
of course, he had to have been VERY shortsighted to have made that huge mistake :)