Towards a Psychogeography of the Long-Haul Flight: Part 2

Travel writing tends to the exotic. It seeks out the exotic and it creates the exotic. Its focus is on the destination, rather than the means of getting there. Whether a guide book, magazine or newspaper pull-out section, the destination is viewed in terms of the "new" - an exclusive discovery or a unique encounter. Travel writing avoids travel-itself. Travel-itself is ignored because it is boring. It is not directed to some exotic finale, but is the stuff of common experience; the commute to work, the packed train, the long flight, the isolated car. A psychogeorgraphy of the long-haul flight would turn to this underrepresented and basic human experience. The banality is precisely the subject. A psychogeography of the long-haul flight will exchange the exotic for the banal. The exotic is an escape, but the banal is a confrontation.