ENG511

Diaries, are you serious??
2003-02-09 05:44:41 (UTC)

My journey

Dear Diary,

What have you been up to? Not much, I presume. Go
anywhere interesting? Probably not, right? I thought
so. I did go somewhere interesting once, though. And I
will tell you about it. Why? Not because I want to
record my travels. Not because I want to have these
memories stored in some book for future reference. I will
tell you because, well, you can’t experience it. Also,
this is an example of how the so called journal of travel
is really misunderstood.

Awhile ago I embarked on a journey to the Grand Canyon in
Nevada, Las Vegas. Where is this? If you don’t know,
consult a map. How did I get there? In a van. How long
did it take? Long enough.

Anyways, this canyon, which is one of the world’s seven
natural wonders, wasn’t really a wonder at all. Well,
actually, it was, but in a different context. The wonder
that I am referring to is the wonder of how it got to be
so famous. I mean, it is in fact, a big hole in the
ground. Everywhere I looked I saw the same colored dirt,
with the odd rock here and there. At the bottom of this
hole, I saw a river that stood out against the brownish-
red, burnt soil of the canyon.

The animals that I saw there weren’t really animals at
all, but monsters. Scorpions, tarantulas, vultures,
basically animals that you wouldn’t want to meet. And the
weather, it was so hot you felt as if you were melting.
The few patches of vegetation I saw included bushes of
branches, plants that looked as if they’ve been burnt, and
the odd cactus. The air was so thick and dry, it felt as
if you were actually inhaling the dust.

Truly, this place was nothing more than a death trap.

Or was it? How, and what do you think of this place now
that I have told you about it? Pretty bad, right? Why
wouldn’t you want to visit here? I’ll tell you why,
because of how I described it. The way I tell my story,
the way I describe my visions and observations, the way I
translate my ideas and thoughts of some foreign land onto
paper will affect and influence your opinion of that
place. If I didn’t like the location of my journey, I
will write in that fashion, and thus, you will read it in
that fashion. If I did, then you would have realized this
by the end of my descriptions. Either way, my opinions,
thoughts, and experiences are translated to you through
the terms of what I believe is right. And you will accept
them as facts, because, well, you are reading this
journal.

I know, it’s hard to understand. Let me explain it this
way. If I don’t like a rose, then I will describe it in a
way that will both show you my disgust in the rose, and
give you an impression of disgust in a rose. However, if
I were to describe its beauty to you, you would, in turn,
take in that information and categorize a rose as
something that is beautiful.

The type of diary, called the journal of travels, is a
diary that can only be written and read by the same
person. One cannot base their planned vacation based on
another’s impressions of their experience. And as for
these types of diaries being used as important historical
records, it isn’t rational. The person writing the diary
will always incorporate their views into what they write,
thus swaying the opinion of their writings to one side.

That is the misunderstanding behind a travel diary. The
bias opinion.

Oh, and the Grand Canyon, it was one of the most
breathtaking views I have ever seen




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