VideoNight in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East byPico Iyer. Hardcover book published by Bloomsbury 1988, 376 pages.
“When
Pico Iyer began his travels, he wanted to know how Rambo conquered
Asia. Why did Dire Straits blast out over Hiroshima, Bruce
Springsteen over Bali and Madonna over all? If he was eager to learn
where East meets West, how pop-culture and imperialism penetrated
through the world’s most ancient civilizations, then the truths he
began to uncover were more startling, more subtle, more complex than
he ever anticipated. Who was hustling whom? When did this pursuit of
illusions and vested interests, with its curious mix of innocence and
calculation, turn from confrontation into mating dance?”
In my
younger years I backpacked my way through parts of Asia on more
than one occasion (…you may recall my Camel comments in a previous
blogpost). I loved it. There was something about traveling for a
longer period of time outside of one's own comfortable, safe and
secure life, that really left an impression on me. Somehow
adventuring through alien places made me feel a little more grounded.
It also gave me a different view of the world to the one i'd known
and views and ideas that I still mostly hold today. It was the best
thing I ever did... or nearly the best thing.
Before
traveling, I had never read a travel book. Why would I want to read
about other people traveling in places that I had absolutely no
interest in at all. Sure, it might be interesting to those that had
adventured forth and then scribbled down their tales of far off lands
and diarrhea, but pre my own adventures I had absolutely no interest
in reading about other peoples 'interesting' times. And then all of
sudden, somewhere in India, I developed an interest. From memory I
was somewhere where there was a limited supply of books in English
and what they had was a disproportionate amount of travel. One of
those books was Video Night in Kathmandu. I bought it. I read it. I
liked it.
Back at
home and being a keen secondhand book buyer, I stumbled upon and
eagerly bought a lovely hardcover copy, which is fortunate as my
previous copy had been traded or ditched somewhere in the wilds of
The Rann of Kutch a number of years beforehand. A few years after
buying this book for a second time, I had the great opportunity of
meeting Mr Iyer at a forum of travel writers... yes my complete
disinterest had evaporated and now I was even wanting to hear travel
writers talk. I cornered Pico in the foyer and asked if he would
sign my book, which he agreed to do. When I pulled out my hardcover
copy he gasped, exclaiming that he hadn't seen a hardcover copy in
many many years. We had a very brief conversation, he signed the
book and it still sits in pride of place on my shelf to this day. He
seemed like a nice guy.
I don't
know if Video Night in Kathmandu is still popular, but when I saw
this copy I figured I can't be alone in my appreciation of Pico's
work and surely someone else would have read my paperback copy, where
ever it is, and would now also like a nice hardcover copy.
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