November 18th, 2005
Browsing Wikipedia for some computing work wasn’t going anywhere, so as I started reading Himalaya again last night, I decided to take a break and see what they say about Michael Palin on his entry.
From there I followed a link to his impressive official site. It must be among the best sites on the internet simply because of the content. All of his books are available to read online unabridged and free of charge! If you haven’t read any of his work, but are interested in travelling–or the prospect of travelling–I think you’ll find his writing compelling. For the casual reader you might want to go straight to the photos section of the site where there are some awesome photos by Basil Pao.
It’s amazing to think that as you read this now there are people who lead their lives knowing nothing about computers or the internet, or even the concept of them… I think it’s very easy to get caught up in your own little society and base your life around what everyone else does: go to school, go to work etc; it’s funny to consider that in some places the way we do things is totally alien. I suppose much in the same way we wonder how they, whoever they are at the time, manage without modern things. Or more to the point how easily they manage without modern things–I’m not talking about the vitals such as drugs and healthcare–but I mean how they manage without Tesco, processed food, packaging, central heating, the internet and chat clients that seem invaluable to people my age.
Well, anyway, funnily enough Palin himself updated the site a mere week ago with news of another expedition. I can’t wait for the new series; they must be among the best thing television has ever produced. I’ll leave you with a favourite quotation:
There are many ways of seeing the world. You can hang upside down from a meteor, volunteer to be the fourth stage of a three-stage rocket, or simply get in a balloon and keep going. But if it’s sheer, unadulterated discomfort you’re looking for, just stay on land.
November 18th, 2005 at 8:00 pm
If you’re interested in reading books like that might I suggest Into the Wild. Very gorey, but amazing and quite true investigation about a 18/19 year old kid trying to survive in Alaska.
November 18th, 2005 at 8:20 pm
Amazoned it, is it by Jon Krakauer? Might get it for Christmas.
November 19th, 2005 at 3:02 am
I think, until someone is introduced to the new technology or modern way of living, they can live pretty well the way they are in a fashion that we’d consider ‘ancient’. And that reminds me. I was listening to the radio earlier today, and some woman rang in about what to get for Christmas presents, the host mentioned something about iPods and she had absolutely no idea what they were at all.
November 20th, 2005 at 9:49 pm
nice austin powers title pic!
November 20th, 2005 at 10:14 pm
Cheers
–Austin Powers
Can’t beat it.
June 21st, 2006 at 9:33 pm
[…] I had always enjoyed Palin’s travel books but up until last Christmas didn’t realise that he was also a Hemingway aficionado, when I was given the complete Palin collection on DVD that included his “Hemingway Adventure” the series where he follows the journeys of the man himself through such places as Italy, Paris, Africa and Cuba. If you ever need an example of living life to the full, you can start with that. Now. An odd occurance happened yesterday. I’ll first quote this out of the book Palin wrote that accompanies the series: By my bed tonight is A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway’s famous story of love and war in Italy. It’s an orange and white Penguin paperback edition of 1959, price two shillings and sixpence, which I was issued with at school as part of my ‘A’ Level English Literature course. It’s dog-eared and coming apart at the spine, but I wouldn’t part with it. This was the book that introduced me to Hemingway and, in a sense, introduced me to Italy as well. […]
October 8th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
[…] Palin’s latest post suggest he still has a little while to go with his “New Europe” series I wrote about last November. But he has recently been back in England to publicise the publishing of the diaries he kept during 1969 to 1979; the years in which he worked on Monty Python. […]