Tramp: Or the Art of Living a Wild and Poetic Life (Seagull World Literature)

A lyrical travelogue charting Tomas Espedal’s journeys to and ruminations around the world, from his native Norway to Istanbul and beyond. “Why travel?” asks Tomas Espedal in Tramp , “Why not just stay at home, in your room, in your house, in the place you like better than any other, your own place. The familiar house, the requisite rooms in which we have gathered the things we need, a good bed, a desk, a whole pile of books. The windows giving on to the sea and the garden with its apple trees and holly hedge, a beautiful garden, growing wild.” The first step in any trip or journey is always a footstep—the brave or curious act of putting one foot in front of the other and stepping out of the house onto the sidewalk below. Here, Espedal contemplates what this ambulatory mode of travel has meant for great artists and thinkers, including Rousseau, Kant, Hazlitt, Thoreau, Rimbaud, Whitman, Giacometti, and Robert Louis Stevenson. In the process, he confronts his own inability to write from a fixed abode and his refusal to banish the temptation to become permanently itinerant. Lyrical and rebellious, immediate and sensuous, Tramp conveys Espedal’s own need to explore on foot—in places as diverse as Wales and Turkey—and offers us the excitement and adventure of being a companion on his fascinating and intriguing travels. About the Author (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/803467.Tomas_Espedal) Tomas Espedal is the author of several novels and prose collections, including Bergeners , Against Art , Against Nature , both published by Seagull Books. "A lyrical travelogue charting Tomas Espedal's journeys to and ruminations around the world, from his native Norway to Istanbul and beyond. "Why travel?" asks Tomas Espedal in Tramp, "Why not just stay at home, in your room, in your house, in the place you like better than any other, your own place. The familiar house, the requisite rooms in which we have gathered the things we need, a good bed, a desk, a whole pile of books. The windows giving on to the sea and the garden with its apple trees and holly hedge, a beautiful garden, growing wild." The first step in any trip or journey is always a footstep--the brave or curious act of putting one foot in front of the other and stepping out of the house onto the sidewalk below. Here, Espedal contemplates what this ambulatory mode of travel has meant for great artists and thinkers, including Rousseau, Kant, Hazlitt, Thoreau, Rimbaud, Whitman, Giacometti, and Robert Louis Stevenson. In the process, he confronts his own inability to write from a fixed abode and his refusal to banish the temptation to become permanently itinerant. Lyrical and rebellious, immediate and sensuous, Tramp conveys Espedal's own need to explore on foot--in places as diverse as Wales and Turkey--and offers us the excitement and adventure of being a companion on his fascinating and intriguing travels."-- Amazon.com Cover Title Copyright Contents Dedication Part : One 1 : Why Not Begin With a Street 2 : Going to the Dogs 3 : Before I Go 4 : An Impossible Living Room 5 : The Dream of Vanishing 6 : To Walk Away From a Relationship 7 : A Lonely Wanderer's Reveries 8 : I Should Have Had a Trade 9 : Down the Open Road 10 : Swansea. Wales. Summer ’98 11 : Staufen. Germany. Spring ’99 12 : The Origin of Loneliness 13 : So Full of Leave-Taking 14 : The Perfect Day 15 : I Found a Resting Place 16 : Breakfast With the Dales in Modal 17 : To the Mountains 18 : Night in the Mountains 19 : The Sun’s Reveille 20 : With Anders Øvrebø at Ortnevik 21 : Boots and the Man, I Sing! 22 : At the Hairdresser’s 23 : Faun’s Evening 24 : To Go Alone or With a Companion 25 : The Wayfaring Books 26 : The Diaries 27 : An Attempt 28 : A Midsum­mer Night’s Dream 29 : Sleeping Out 30 : On the Beach Part : Two 1 : Sport and Entertainment 2 : Giacometti and the Prostitutes 3 : The Rimbaud Route 4 : How Does a Journey Begin? 5 : Finding the Way 6 : Out of Greece, Into Turkey 7 : Walking the Streets of Istanbul 8 : The Lycian Way 9 : A Sojourn at Olympos 10 : Homesickness Epilogue "The first step in any trip or journey is always a footstep - the brave or curious act of putting one foot in front of the other and stepping out of the house onto the sidewalk below. This title contemplates what this ambulatory mode of travel has meant for great artists and thinkers, including Rousseau, Kant, Hazlitt, Thoreau, and Rimbaud."--Publisher's description Tomas Espedal ; Translated By James Anderson. Translation Of His: Gå, Eller, Kunsten å Leve Et Vilt Og Poetisk Liv. Translated From The Norwegian.