This was originally published on my old blog BackpackBook (Livro de Mochila), a project that blended literature and travel, sometimes just traveling in my lucid dreams. It ran as âViagens de Gulliver por um mundo realâ on August 2, 2007.
The restlessness of the doctor Lemuel Gulliver is besieging me. After that traveler started his adventures in incredible places, he could never sit still again while the world turned the wrong way.
I was thirsty for the classic travel literature, and then I found Fernando Nuno’s Correndo Mundo collection, which according to him gathers the main works of literature about other lands and other peoples, real and imaginary, retold in a way that preserves their charm and their currency. It fit like a glove, injecting an incurable restlessness into my nights and my plans.
I started with Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, retold by Fernando. Even though it isn’t the original version, its weight is preserved and it’s perfect company on a trip.
Gulliver got to know strange places, cultures and peoples (or similar ones?), and even while trying to keep his distance from the selfishness, discrimination and corruption of the real world, on his travels he always ended up witnessing exploitation, stupid wars and contradictory laws, all characteristics still alive in our society today.
Restlessness
I think it’s hard not to run into all of that on any trip, in this era or another. And even knowing all of it, the restlessness of making life worth it, taking more risks, following dreams to get to know distant peoples and lands is taking me over, and I don’t know how long I can hold out. As Mandrake, our collaborator for all occasions, would say, I don’t know why on earth I repress this restlessness, and when the eggs are done frying I’m only postponing the inevitable.
Speaking of Mandrake, it seems he was struck by Gulliver’s pioneering spirit and is leaving for the new (old) world in search of plenty of adventure and new experiences. Mary invited herself along, and they had the brilliant idea of saving space in the backpack for a few books, aware that they can leave for (and come back from) imaginary trips while waiting for the flight.
Few people know these travelers. They aren’t very active online, and they bring a lot of inspiration to our occasional meetings. One day I’ll describe them properly.
Gulliver would certainly be astonished to run into figures that rare on his travels.
The post also carried short biographies of Swift, born in Dublin and one of the great Irish authors, a withdrawn and voracious reader who started writing poems in his teens and became one of the greatest satirists of all time, and of Fernando Nuno, who studied journalism and letters at USP, art history in Florence and mythology in Scandinavia, and works as an editor and musician.
Traveling with the book in your backpack
Fernando Nuno and Jonathan Swift would like to travel with you and Gulliver’s Travels through:
- Strange lands of the distant East, lost in the language and the culture, sitting in a large and beautiful Japanese square, following the rhythm of life of a different civilization.
- London and its cloudy days, close to everything but far from home, lying alone on those rocky sand beaches listening to the waves arrive.
- Countries that share our language, walking the narrow historic streets of Lisbon, surprised by the cultural differences of a country so close and yet with such distant similarities.
So then, Mary and Mandrake, which books are going with you on this trip to faraway lands?