Tag: Pico Iyer
Finding Leonard Cohen in Montreal and California
by Eva Holland | 07.30.09 | 10:03 AM ET
In the latest issue of Geist, Ann Diamond tells the story of her series of near-encounters with Leonard Cohen—with 1970 Montreal, in the midst of the October Crisis, as the grimly compelling backdrop. And if that’s not enough Cohen-related, travel-esque writing for you, check out Pico Iyer’s 1998 essay about visiting the poet/rocker at a Zen Center in the San Gabriel Mountains, outside L.A.
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Yahoo! BuzzPico Iyer on the ‘Romance of Civilizations’
by World Hum | 07.20.09 | 11:15 AM ET
Pico Iyer at the 2007 Auckland Writers & Readers Festival.
Living Among Incompatibles
by Pico Iyer | 07.20.09 | 10:46 AM ET
Why Japan has the best mind Pico Iyer has encountered in a lifetime of traveling
Things I Didn’t Know About the Dalai Lama
by Julia Ross | 05.05.09 | 1:25 PM ET
I dropped by a lively discussion last night on all things Dalai Lama, by World Hum contributors Eric Weiner and Pico Iyer, and learned a few things about His Holiness’s travel habits: he always flies business class; is addicted to the BBC World service and feels out of sorts when he can’t tune in; and prefers to spend his downtime on trips visiting local high schools.
Why We Travel
by Pico Iyer | 04.27.09 | 11:47 AM ET
iStockPhoto In a classic essay, Pico Iyer explores the reasons we leave our beliefs and certainties at home to see the world with open eyes
Morning Links: Flushing the French Quarter, Car-Rental Madness and More
by Michael Yessis | 02.02.09 | 8:30 AM ET
- Kurt Andersen talked to Pico Iyer about his life as an “outside man” in Japan. There’s also video.
- Spud Hilton calls place-dropping a “a subtle and often unnoticed art form.”
- Goodbye, street-flushing in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Hello, toxic stench?
- Travel with Spirit, a new magazine for “focusing exclusively on Christian travel,” debuted last week.
- Arthur Frommer has an idea to stimulate the U.S. economy: Induce more foreign tourists to visit.
- Dan Bilefsky investigates the battle for the Czech Republic’s Kingdom of Wallachia.
- The outlook for mobile-ticketing—using your cell phone as a boarding pass—is strong. (via Tripso)
- One upside of the down economy for travelers: Unexpected hotel room upgrades.
- Video: This guy was pushed a little too far at the car-rental counter.
- This is kind of creepy: Plane-crash simulation as team-building exercise.
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Pico Iyer in Japan
by World Hum | 02.02.09 | 8:14 AM ET
Kurt Andersen spoke with the writer about Buddhism and his life as an "outside man"
Honolulu Overheard
by Pico Iyer | 01.05.09 | 8:21 AM ET
iStockPhoto Pico Iyer takes in the Hawaiian city through its sounds
Pico Iyer: On ‘The Open Road’ and 30 Years With the Dalai Lama
by Kevin Capp | 03.25.08 | 1:48 PM ET
The iconic travel writer's new book taps into his personal experiences with the Dalai Lama. Kevin Capp asks him about the exiled spiritual leader's "global journey."
Blog to Watch: Jet Lagged
by Michael Yessis | 12.06.07 | 9:59 AM ET
The New York Times has just launched Jet Lagged: Navigating the Unfriendly Skies, a group-written blog boasting some contributors familiar to World Hum readers. Among them: Wayne Curtis, Elliot Hester, Patrick Smith and Pico Iyer. Iyer kicked off the proceedings yesterday with a contrarian idea: “Air travel is in fact as comfortable and reasonable today as it’s ever been.”
Pico Iyer: On Travel and Travel Writing
by Matthew Davis | 11.30.06 | 8:32 AM ET
Two decades after boarding a plane for the trip that would yield "Video Night in Kathmandu," Pico Iyer talks to Matthew Davis about fact and fiction, books he wishes he hadn't written and his humble beginnings as a travel writer.
World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books
by World Hum | 06.25.06 | 7:00 PM ET
We recently counted down the best travel books of all time. Here's the entire list -- and loads of picks from World Hum readers.
No. 8: “Video Night in Kathmandu” by Pico Iyer
by Rolf Potts | 05.24.06 | 11:04 PM ET
To mark our five-year anniversary, we’re counting down the top 30 travel books of all time, adding a new title each day this month.
Published: 1988
Territory covered: East and South Asia
A collection of 11 essays chronicling the cultural fusion of East and West in the 1980s, Iyer’s literary debut is an answer to all those critics who claim that great travel writing died once the terra incognita was mapped. As this Asia-themed collection shows, the final frontier of adventure isn’t located on some distant mountain or impenetrable jungle, but in the intimate (and often comical) cross-cultural fascinations and discoveries that arise from an ever-shrinking world.
Amid his sharp reportage and analysis, Video Night in Kathmandu‘s greatest strength is Iyer’s refusal to draw prim moral conclusions as Western popular culture bumps up against the traditions of the East. Instead, he casts things in terms of a tenuous romance.
“When Westerner meets Easterner,” Iyer writes, “each finds himself often drawn to the other, yet mystified; each projects his romantic hopes on the stranger, as well as his designs; and each pursues both his illusions and his vested interests with a curious mix of innocence and calculation that shifts with every step.” Moreover, the author’s eye for ironic juxtapositions—Rambo-inspired musicals in India, baseball fever in Japan, Mowhawk haircuts in Bali—proves so keen that he practically inaugurates the now-common “cultural-contradiction” travel-story template. Even if the specific cross-cultural obsessions of “Video Night” (Michael Jackson, Rambo) seem a bit dated, the ensuing rise of globalization and reach of the Internet have only underscored how relevant Iyer’s observations were.
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