The Fourth World

Tim Rich is a talented writer and always has a poignant word to get you thinking. This post on his blog, 66,000milesperhour resonates with the concept of No Fixed Abode. It's an excerpt about the notion of the Fourth World, from the author Jan Morris's Trieste, and the Meaning of Nowhere a city of perpetual wanderers that has changed hands and changed countries countless time. Trieste is a place that is at home everywhere and yet nowhere. Don't take my word for it, read Tim's full post.

From Trieste, by Jan Morris (Faber & Faber)

— 

There are people everywhere who form a Fourth World, or a diaspora of their own.

They are the lordly ones! They come in all colours.

They can be Christians or Hindus or Muslims or Jews or pagans or atheists.

They can be young or old, men or women, soldiers or pacifists, rich or poor.

They may be patriots, but they are never chauvinists.

They share with each other, across all the nations, common values of humour and understanding.

When you are among them you know you will not be mocked or resented, because they will not care about your race, your faith, your sex or your nationality, and they suffer fools if not gladly, at least sympathetically.

They laugh easily. They are easily grateful. They are never mean.

They are not inhibited by fashion, public opinion, or political correctness.

They are exiles in their own communities, because they are always in a minority, but they form a mighty nation, if they only knew it.

It is the nation of nowhere.

—

No adventure ever came for the asking

"No adventure ever came for the asking...they come upon our complacency unawares...as unbidden guests are apt to do, they often come at inconvenient times."

Josef Conrad
The Mirror of the Sea

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SECOND EDITION From: New Orleans, Louisiana To: the Făgăraș Mountains of Romania

October 2014

A reminder. Rosanna told us of her tip-swapping trip to New Orleans ending at the House of Dance and Feathers, and her newfound fascination with the city's Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs. Charlotte entertained us with tales of her trek across the mountains of Romania with one of the countries eminent film directors, and convinced us that raw onions and pig fat can make a fine dinner. Lizzy and Daniel swapped an illustrators take on drawing Copenhagen and other cities with their mind-blowing sketchbooks. And we decided a trip was in order.

HERE'S A READING LIST

NEW ORLEANS
Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death and Life in New Orleans, Dan Baum
Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas, Rebecca Solnit & Rebecca Snedeker

ROMANIA
Between the Woods and the Water, Patrick Leigh Fermor
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West
Along the Enchanted Way, William Blacker
Clear Waters Rising, Nicholas Crane

FIRST EDITION From: Box Elder County Utah To: San Juan, Puerto Rico

September 14

A reminder. Anthony showed images from his recent road trip, a photographic survey around the Southwestern states of the U.S. to document Box Elder County, Utah, where railway heritage, obsolete mining and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty meet. Jorge gave us an insider's take on his native Puerto Rico and his AA experiments using the islands rum distilleries to inspire architectural practice. And we learnt of The Machete Project's escapades to Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Burma, and wondered just how do you bring so many machetes home on the plane? There goes the first edition.

Machete #65 Khanigaun, Nepal
The Machete Project, V Ahlsborn

Travel Writing Reading List

We can't take much credit for this.
It's a list compiled by Hugh Thomson, the travel writer for a course with Arvon.
We've thrown in a few extras for good measure.
Not exhaustive, but a good place to start 

Classics
Peter Fleming, Brazilian Adventure
Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana
Evelyn Waugh – funny and underrated travel writer Try 90 days
Eric Newby – short walk in the Hindu Kush
Graham Greene – Lawless Roads, the Power and the Glory, Our Man in Havana
Norman Lewis – Naples ’66
Laurie Lee – As I walked out one Midsummer morning
George Orwell – Homage to Catalonia

Modern Literary
Bruce Chatwin – In Patagonia, Songlines
Jonathan Raban – Passage to Juneau, Coasting
William Dalrymple – City of Djinns on Dehli
Sarah Wheeler – All good
WG Sebald – The Rings of Saturn
Ruy Costa – Rio de Janiero: Carnival Under Fire
Jan Morris – Venice
WIlfred Thesiger – Arabian Sands
John Steinbeck – Travels with Charley
Claudio Magris – Danube
Iain Sinclair – London Orbital, Hackney that Rose Red Empire

Natural History
Robert Macfarlane – Wild Places, The Old Ways
Roger Deakin – Wildwood
Peter Matthiessen – The Snow Leopard

Comic
Bill Bryson
Tahir Shah – Trail of Feathers
Chris Stewart – Driving over Lemons
Clive James – Postcards from ...

Gonzo
Richard Rayner – Los Angeles without a map
Will Self – Pyschogeography
Geoff Dyer – Yoga for people who can’t be bothered to do it

Adventurous
Kari Herbert – The Explorer’s daughter
Benedict Allen – Mad White Giant
Claude Levi Strauss – Triste Tropqiues
Katie Hickman – A trip to the Light Fantastic

Publications
We like...
Granta: American Wild, Japan, Britain, The Best of Young Brazilian Novelists, Pakistan
Wherever Mag