The Art of Travel: An Interview with Alain de Botton

Alain de Botton (Random House photo)

Bestselling and prolific, British author Alain De Botton has published six books (available in 20 languages) since 1993. He has writen three novels -- Essays in Love (On Love in the US), The Romantic Movement: Sex, Shopping and the Novel, and Kiss and Tell -- as well three non-fiction works -- How Proust Can Change Your Life: Not a Novel and The Consolations of Philosophy (The British television show based on The Consolations of Philosophy, which sold 150,000 copies in the UK, has yet to air in America). The Art of Travel, which has sold 60,000 copies in England already, hitsAmerican bookstores in August, and De Botton will be travelling again, this time in the USA on a publicity tour. Meanwhile, he is working on another non-fiction work with the title 'Status Anxiety' (scheduled for publication in 2004).He has a personal website at AlainDeBotton.com.The Idler caught up with with De Botton via email.

THE IDLER: Why did you writeThe Art of Travel ?

DE BOTTON:. My motives for writing The Art of Travel were rather obscure to me. I started with two main ideas. I wanted to write about service stations, motels, planes, and trains. And I wanted to write about the beauty of the sky and the countryside.

From this, I realised that what I could do was to write about how certain places impact on our psychology. I'd written a lot about how people can impact our psyche, now it seemed to be the turn of places.

Then I cast around for a hold-all in which to contain everything and I came up with travel - because travel is all about going to certain places in the hope that they will benefit our souls.

THE IDLER: How has the book been received in Britain?

DE BOTTON: The Art of Travel's reception in Britain has been extraordinary. I expected a) universally bad reviews b) sales of no more than 5,000. In fact, the gods have provided me with a) some very nice reviews, including raves from my two favourite travel writers, Colin Thubron and Jan Morris and b) sales of 60,000 and still rising (the book has been in the top 4 of the Sunday Times bestseller list for 10 weeks now). I expect to be struck by lightning/run over soon.

THE IDLER: So do you see yourself as a British Travel Writer?

DE BOTTON: I think the dominant note in my work that one could describe as English has little to do with class, and much more to do with irony. The dominant note in British writing for the last 250 years has been irony - the gentle deflation of pretension, be it intellectual or status pretensions. The key to life in England (note, not Wales or Scotland at all) is: one must never take oneself too seriously. This can be a wise dictum, but there are clearly moments when one must be unafraid to be very serious and very emotional.

THE IDLER: Or perhaps, European?

DE BOTTON: I am attracted to a style of writing often labelled 'European,' by which I understand a lack of embarrassment about juggling with the big ideas. This tends to be hugely frowned on in England, but, rather like a German philosopher, I have rather an appetite for the 'Well, what IS this all about?' kind of questionning of life.

THE IDLER: Has anything in the public reaction to this book surprised you?

DE BOTTON: I've been surprised that a great many people have said that I'm very anti-travel, which I hadn't thought I was. I'm not sure why people thought I was anti-travel. Perhaps because of the first chapter of my book, which is a bit sceptical, and most journalists don't read past chapter 1. One learns a lot from putting a book out in the world.

THE IDLER: There does seem to be a bit of anger in your work, for example, in detailed descriptions of arguments with girlfriends.

DE BOTTON: I'd never thought of my work as angry, but I don't necessarily reject the word (though I hope my books don't read as if they were written in a temper). I do think, however, that my books are very personal and at the same time, strive for a kind of objectivity. They tend to be inspired by things that strike me as very painful or else beautiful/impressive.

THE IDLER: Do you travel much?

I travel quite a lot for book promotion. Ideally, I'd never travel any more.

THE IDLER: Have you been to the United States?

DE BOTTON: I've spent 4 six month periods in Washington and New York over the last 12 years. Like many, I have a love-hate relationship to the States, hating all the obvious things, loving the energy, the sense of living in a still mutating, still shapeable society. I am particular attracted to the tradition of the American rebel, in the line of Thoreau, Emerson, and Whitman. America is at once highly conformist, and yet produces these back-woodsmen type spirits, which I have a fondness for, especially today, when corporate America is so powerful.

THE IDLER: Have you heard from any of the people you write about?

DE BOTTON: Fortunately, my first three books, sold as novels, were sufficiently far from reality not to attract the attention of any ex girlfriends.

THE IDLER: Who do you see yourself writing for?

DE BOTTON: I try to pitch all my work to the same audience - which is 'someone a bit like me' i.e., of average intelligence, of average concerns, of average attention span.

THE IDLER: Which newspapers and magazines do you read?

DE BOTTON:. I read: The Economist, The London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, the TLS, the Independent newspaper - and occasionally flip through Conde Nast Traveller and the New Yorker if they're around.

THE IDLER: Have any of your reviews impressed you?

DE BOTTON: One of the best reviews I had was from Colin Thubron of The Art of Travel. Also one from John Banville of The Consolations of Philosophy. The most memorable was from John Updike, who reviewed How Proust Can Change Your Life in the New Yorker, and transformed my fortunes in America overnight.

The worst review was of my first book, by a novelist called Jonathan Coe. He said I should never write another word. He was perhaps right!

THE IDLER: Do you belong to a literary circle?

DE BOTTON: I know many writers, but true mate-yness is difficult. Either writers are too different, at which point, they have nothing in common, Or they are too similar, at which point they want to kill each other. I hence usually fraternise with other types; doctors, lawyers, teachers, farmers.

THE IDLER:Do you see your writing as variations on a theme?

DE BOTTON: I haven't read Essays in Love (On Love in the US), in at least 5 years, so I'm a little unsure what is actually in the book, but it would be nice to think that I was returning to some of the themes, if only unconsciously. Why would this be nice? Because it would show me that I was much the same person I was at 21, though growing in different ways.

THE IDLER: How did you become a writer?

DE BOTTON: I wrote basically because I was very unhappy, anxious and troubled. Writing was a way of making sense of the world and of finding my feet. I wasn't someone who was incapable of joining 'the real world.' In fact, I had and still have hankerings to make a mark in business. I also wanted to be a professor in a university, but - though gaining a very good degree from Cambridge - found that there are now an extraordinarily horrible range of obstacles to a fulfilling academic life. The problem is that no university wants to employ me (I'm not teaching at the moment) in any properly decent post. Ideally, I'd want to be a tenured professor somewhere - but that's obviously just a fantasy.

THE IDLER: Do you keep anything special in mind when you write?

DE BOTTON: I am rather drawn to the basic building blocks of life: food, physical comfort, sex, physical ailments - I like to remember that these things are present even in the weightiest moments. Or as Montaigne knew how to put it so much better than me, 'Even on the highest throne in the world, we are seated, still, upon our arses.'

THE IDLER: Which authors have made the greatest impression on you?

DE BOTTON: Among great influences, there has been Roland Barthes - for his inventive use of forms (especially in S/Z and A Lover's Discourse). Also, Montaigne, for this ability to mix the personal and the abstract; his way of shifting from a consideration of Plato, to thoughts about what he's had for lunch. Also, Proust, for his psychological acuity, and in his mixture of the novelistic with the reflective (he doesn't just tell us a story, he reflects on it and around it continously). I identify with a certain kind of essayistic writing, as practiced by Montaigne, Stendhal, Emerson, Roland Barthes: a kind of writing that is personal and abstract at the same time, where great questions are dealt with in an un-academic way.

THE IDLER: You mentioned Montaigne a couple of timse. Have French Enlightenment thinkers played a major role in your intellectual development?

DE BOTTON: Apologies for sounding pedantic but Montaigne is way before the French Enlightenment, he's a 16th century guy, the Enlightenment kicks in only in the 18th. But I guess he shares with certain French Enlightenment thinkers a cheerfulness and a worldliness - which I like. I myself wouldn't align myself with the French enlightenment too much - the movement was mainly scientific with lots of rather dangerous political ideas thrown in too. Also, apart from Voltaire and Rousseau, the main figures don't attract me too much.

THE IDLER: Have any artistic or literary movements influenced your work?

DE BOTTON: I love the Romantic Movement; I have a fondness for people wearing black, taking themselves very seriously, writing bad poetry, reflecting on death in a melodromatic way and living in Paris garrets.

THE IDLER: Any movements you don't like?

DE BOTTON: I really object to the idea, formulated by post-modernists themselves, that they're saying anything new. Essentially post-modernism is a rehash of the philosophical scepticism that gripped Europe in the 15th/16th centuries. It's a fascinating line, but it's not new!

THE IDLER: What is your view of politically engaged writers?

DE BOTTON: I feel very engaged politically, even though it may not seem it. I'm setting out to change the way we live. This side of my work should assume greater prominence as I get older. I'd like to see a kinder, more beautiful, more equitable world - and hope to reflect these ambitions in my book.

THE IDLER: What is your idea of the Good Life?

DE BOTTON: My ideal life (this is dreaming, I hasten to add) would be one in which I'd have: - a television station, dedicated to documentaries showing the life of ordinary people and the beauty of the world - a small university dedicated to the teaching of the humanities - a small hotel by the sea, designed by me according to my aesthetic priorities.

THE IDLER: What sort of food do you eat?

DE BOTTON: I eat very healthily because I never do exercise: I have avocadoes and tuna fish for lunch almost every day. I drink orange juice and grapefruit juice. Never alcohol.

THE IDLER: Is it hard for you to be so productive?

DE BOTTON: As for difficulty, there's no doubt that writing a book is the hardest of all my activities, far harder than making a TV programme, or teaching or writing a review. Other activities are ephemeral, but with books, one has a shot at creating something that should last.

THE IDLER: How do you write your books?

DE BOTTON: I write from 9am to 7pm, not continuously, but I'm around my desk at this time. I work on a Dell computer, on a vast oak desk that I had especially designed so that no piece of paper would ever fall off it. You can see a picture of it in a photo of me by Harry Borden on my website, if you're curious. The rest of my life goes on on weekends and in evenings. I've fortunately now found a person to settle down with. She saves me a lot of time as I now never need to go out to parties to fish.

THE IDLER: You mentioned television. Do you like television?

DE BOTTON: I generally only watch news and documentaries on TV. I like nothing better than a documentary about the lives of ordinary people - ie. a week in the life of a fireman, or a doctor or a farmer. I like some pop music, in particular Bruce Springsteen and Natalie Merchant.

THE IDLER: Was doing a television show based on The Consolations of Philosophy a good experience for you?

DE BOTTON: In Britain, it attracted 3 million viewers and was a huge success. Unfortunately, US TV never broadcast my programme; which is sad for me.

THE IDLER: Have you ever adapted one of your novels for film or television?

DE BOTTON: Twelve different producers have approached me over the last decade to try to turn works of mine into films. Of course, nothing came of it - but I did manage to acquire a pathological fear/resentment of the film industry in the process.

THE IDLER: Are there Jewish themes in your work?

DE BOTTON: Being a Jewish has been a minor theme throughout my life, never a major one. That said, it has influenced me slightly. Living in Britain, one is conscious of being 'different' in a way that one wouldn't feel in the US - a feeling which can be rather useful as a writer, however awkward it is for the whole human being. Also, it is part of the self-image of the Jew to feel reverent towards books - and this is something that was inculcated in me from an early age.

THE IDLER: Don't you come from an exiled Egyptian Jewish family?

DE BOTTON: I was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1969. My mother was a Swiss Jew from St. Gallen. My father was a Jew from Alexandria, who had left Egypt as a young man after Nasser's expulsion of the Jewish population of Egypt. They were both incredibly driven and incredibly anxious people - loveable and maddening in equal measure. They gave me a sense that the world is an unstable place, that books are important and that you always have to try harder. Egypt doesn't play a large role in my consciousness. Really it's an imaginative link to my father. I wrote the chapter on Flaubert in a way as a tribute to him - he and I had both enjoyed reading Flaubert's account of his journey. As for the rest of my schooling, I attended a French school in Zurich till the age of 8, then moved to a series of English schools in England, and graduated with a degree in history from Cambridge university. In general, I feel my education was very boring and I learnt most things outside and around it.

THE IDLER: Who has been the greatest influence on your life?

DE BOTTON: Perhaps my greatest influence was my father, who was never satisfied with me nor with himself - in a good way. Being a melancholic, restless and very intelligent person, he constantly saw the glass half empty. He had a sense of possibility; he had great energy, and a high sense of responsibility. He most respected books, but - like Goethe or Montaigne - understood that the life of the mind is best combined with action too.

THE IDLER: Your new book is entitled 'Status Anxiety.' Is this issue related to your father?

DE BOTTON: I can't neatly link my father's problems to my own sense of insecurity. I think the greatest cause of my adult insecurity is being a writer - which is in many ways a wretched job, where one's expectations always outstrip one's achievements. I spend much time fantasising of opening a small bakery.

THE IDLER: Have you ever been psychoanalyzed?

DE BOTTON: I've never been analysed - but am fascinated by therapy.

THE IDLER: Have you read Freud's Moses and Monotheism?

DE BOTTON:. I haven't read Moses and Monotheism - from what I'd heard about it, it seemed strange and a bit frightening. But I'm sure I'll get around to it. Clearly, I've been heavily influenced by Freud, we all have been - though in fairly unspecific ways.

THE IDLER: Do you have a personal way that you view the world?

DE BOTTON: Like many people, I think we are creatures dominated by certain passions which reason has the role of controlling and interpreting. It's the image of a ship with a sail (reason) on a storm tossed sea (the passions). Reason is the rudder type thing that keeps us afloat (just).

THE IDLER: And what is the boat? Is this why you wrote about travel?

DE BOTTON: The boat is the self - and might be made out of wood. The travel metaphor was unintentional.