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Beatdom Travel

(This page is still under construction. The ideas expressed here are in their earliest stages of composition. Please e-mail at the usual address with any suggestions. Most importantly, we need a name for this magazine...)

Whenever I travel I always find that the travel guides and the books of supposedly reliable information fall terribly short of describing the reality of my impending situation. The problem, as I see it, is that the authors of these books are concerned entirely with presenting facts without heart.

I believe that facts are fine and good in and of themselves, but that they needn’t be presented so coldly. Never have I arrived in a destination and found that the Lonely Planet or Wikitravel or tourist board guide had offered me a sufficient picture of the destination.

When I went to America for the first time it was after I’d spent several years studying the geography, history and culture of the American West. Yet, when I arrived I found that the only accurate reflections of the place that I’d found had been in works of fiction or creative non-fiction – artistically drawn portraits of the people and landscape, rather than the dull, fact-based guides offered in the most popular books and websites.

I found that On the Road, although well dated, was a pretty accurate guide to the West. Kerouac captured something that too many guidebooks have failed to present to the prospective traveler. The same could be said for a number of other authors, poets and artists. They aim to gather the soul of a place and put it into the mind of another as perfectly as possible. They don’t care about train times, hotel prices or the quality of the three course meal.

Of course, these things are of use. I don’t want to overlook them, but I think they can be blended well with a soulful and considered presentation of the destination.

I also find it irritating when guidebooks focus entirely on the positive aspects, or try to justify the negative when there is no need. That detracts too much from truth of the place. When I first came to Korea I was told Koreans were “curious” and “friendly”, when that simply isn’t true. Undoubtedly there are some curious and friend people in Korea, but I think the authors were looking for terms like “vicious” and “unpleasant”, but were too afraid to use them.

Travel isn’t always a series of picture postcards depicting the perfection of the planet. Sometimes things go horribly wrong, and often these are the stories worth reading.

What I want to do is start a literary travel journal. I want the best writing about the most exotic places, whether the story is positive or negative. I want my writers to be well read and well travelled, making advances in both literature and the understanding of the world. When an article is read I want people to be impressed by both the writing and the location.

For submissions I am looking for great writers with interesting and well researched portraits of exotic places. It could be a whole country or a small fishing village. Either way, I want the article to be between 2,500 and 5,000 words. Payment will be negotiated based upon the word length and quality and will only be paid via PayPal.

Please e-mail me at editor@beatdom.com to discuss ideas.