2006.07.19: July 19, 2006: Headlines: Figures: COS - Malawi: Writing - Malawi: LA Weekly: Susan Zakin writes: Paul Theroux is most unwilling to let Greene be Greene
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Malawi:
Special Report: RPCV Paul Theroux:
Paul Theroux: Newest Stories:
2006.07.19: July 19, 2006: Headlines: Figures: COS - Malawi: Writing - Malawi: LA Weekly: Susan Zakin writes: Paul Theroux is most unwilling to let Greene be Greene
Susan Zakin writes: Paul Theroux is most unwilling to let Greene be Greene
As Theroux points out, a writer intimate with a place will write one book; a writer enthralled by the shock of the new will produce another. Just as the expansion of global trade, including the slave trade, produced a commercialization of the exotic in the 18th century, so the current wave of globalization has produced a similar fad for the exotic in our time. Only now the exotic must have the stamp of authenticity. It is not enough to be a weedy British fellow traveling in Africa. One must have the inside dope, or better still, be African oneself, whether white or black. Author Paul Theroux served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi in the 1960's.
Susan Zakin writes: Paul Theroux is most unwilling to let Greene be Greene
Not-So-Innocent Abroad
Rediscovering Graham Greene’s lawless roads and mapless journeys
By SUSAN ZAKIN
Wednesday, July 19, 2006 - 12:00 pm
A new generation has become familiar with Graham Greene’s fiction because of the recent films based on his novels The End of the Affair and The Quiet American, but his nonfiction has just as much profundity and panache. This summer, Penguin reissued two works of nonfiction by Greene, both of which in certain respects feel more contemporary than his fiction. Journey Without Maps is an account of the first trip Greene made to “a blank spot on the map,” in this case, the West African bush. The Lawless Roads is about his next adventure, to southern Mexico in the 1930s after the government had outlawed Catholicism.
[Excerpt]
Paul Theroux is most unwilling to let Greene be Greene. With the didacticism of the Peace Corps volunteer he once was, Theroux accuses Greene of clinging to boys’ adventure stories in his rendering of West Africa. “This fanciful supposition of the heroic-romantic in a pith helmet, that l’Afrique profonde contains glittering mysteries, is one of the reasons our view of Africa has been so distorted,” he complains in his introduction to Journey Without Maps.
Yet it is Theroux himself who seems prey to a boy’s idea of adventure. He mocks Greene for traveling to West Africa with his 24-year-old cousin Barbara, who made it through the grueling trip in fine health and decent spirits. Worse still, he accuses Greene of choosing Barbara either because he was having an affair with her or because a male companion might have pointed out his inadequacies as an expedition leader. As if a woman wouldn’t?
In fact, what’s refreshing about Greene in our era, in which the hairy-chested tale of adventure remains a publishing staple, is that he remained the awkward boy who shirked “sport” at public school. His sensitivity serves him well as a not-so-innocent abroad. In Journey Without Maps, Greene’s portraits of his Sierra Leonean porters are true in their detail and deeply touching, made more so by his acknowledgment of the sometimes-cruel mistakes he made because of his inexperience.
As Theroux points out, a writer intimate with a place will write one book; a writer enthralled by the shock of the new will produce another. Just as the expansion of global trade, including the slave trade, produced a commercialization of the exotic in the 18th century, so the current wave of globalization has produced a similar fad for the exotic in our time. Only now the exotic must have the stamp of authenticity. It is not enough to be a weedy British fellow traveling in Africa. One must have the inside dope, or better still, be African oneself, whether white or black.
Greene himself wrote a preface to accompany the second edition of Journey Without Maps after he had returned to live in Sierra Leone while working for British intelligence in the 1940s. His feelings about the country had changed, he noted, and he expressed some misgivings about his portrayal of the place, but he noted that fallacies arise just as prolifically from a close acquaintance with a place. He let the earlier work stand.
It seems ironic that rigid adherence to political correctness emphasizes the differences between people, sometimes to the exclusion of the common experience of being human. Greene was a good enough writer, and a good enough reporter, to render both with art and precision. At the end of Journey Without Maps, he wrote: “But what had astonished me about Africa was that it had never been really strange... The ‘heart of darkness’ was common to us both.”
When this story was posted in July 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
 | Bush nominates RPCV Ron Tschetter to head PC
President Bush has nominated Ron Tschetter to serve as Director of the Peace Corps. Tschetter, 64, is the president of D.A. Davidson & Co., an employee-owned investment firm based in Montana who first got involved with the Peace Corps in 1966, when he volunteered with his wife to work as family planning advisers in India. He is a former Chairman of the National Peace Corps Association.
PCOL Comment: Congratulations to the Bush administration for an inspired choice for Peace Corps Director. Ron Tschetter is not only an RPCV but was Chairman of the NPCA. Best wishes to Mr. Tschetter on his future tenure as Director of the Peace Corps. |
 | Changing the Face of Hunger
In his new book, Former Congressman Tony Hall (RPCV Thailand) says humanitarian aid is the most potent weapon the United States can deploy against terrorism. An evangelical Christian, he is a big believer in faith-based organizations in the fight against hunger. Members of Congress have recently recommended that Hall be appointed special envoy to Sudan to focus on ending the genocide in Darfur. |
 | PC will not return to East Timor in 2006
Volunteers serving in East Timor have safely left the country as a result of the recent civil unrest and government instability. Latest: The Peace Corps has informed us that at this time, the Peace Corps has no plans to re-enter the country in 2006. The Peace Corps recently sent a letter offering eligible volunteers the opportunity to reinstate their service in another country. |
 | Chris Dodd considers run for the White House
Senator Chris Dodd plans to spend the next six to eight months raising money and reaching out to Democrats around the country to gauge his viability as a candidate. Just how far Dodd can go depends largely on his ability to reach Democrats looking for an alternative to Hillary Clinton. PCOL Comment: Dodd served as a Volunteer in the Dominican Republic and has been one of the strongest supporters of the Peace Corps in Congress. |
 | Vasquez testifies before Senate Committee
Director Vasquez testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on his nomination as the new Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture replacing Tony Hall. He has been the third longest serving Peace Corps Director after Loret Ruppe Miller and Sargent Shriver. PCOL Comment: Read our thanks to Director Vasquez for his service to the Peace Corps. |
 | Interview with a Hit Man
RPCV John Perkins says that for many years he was an "economic hit man" in the world of international finance whose primary job was to convince less developed countries to accept multibillion dollar loans for infrastructure projects that left the recipient countries wallowing in debt and highly vulnerable to outside political and commercial interests. In this exclusive interview for "Peace Corps Online," Colombia RPCV Joanne Roll, author of Remember with Honor, talks to Perkins about his Peace Corps service, his relation with the NSA, "colonization" in Ecuador, the consequences of his work, why he decided to speak out, and what his hopes are for change. |
 | Peace Corps stonewalls on FOIA request
The Ashland Daily Tidings reports that Peace Corps has blocked their request for information on the Volkart case. "After the Tidings requested information pertaining to why Volkart was denied the position — on March 2 — the newspaper received a letter from the Peace Corps FOIA officer stating the requested information was protected under an exemption of the act." The Dayton Daily News had similar problems with FOIA requests for their award winning series on Volunteer Safety and Security. |
 | PCOL readership increases 100%
Monthly readership on "Peace Corps Online" has increased in the past twelve months to 350,000 visitors - over eleven thousand every day - a 100% increase since this time last year. Thanks again, RPCVs and Friends of the Peace Corps, for making PCOL your source of information for the Peace Corps community. And thanks for supporting the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps. Stay tuned, the best is yet to come. |
 | History of the Peace Corps
PCOL is proud to announce that Phase One of the "History of the Peace Corps" is now available online. This installment includes over 5,000 pages of primary source documents from the archives of the Peace Corps including every issue of "Peace Corps News," "Peace Corps Times," "Peace Corps Volunteer," "Action Update," and every annual report of the Peace Corps to Congress since 1961. "Ask Not" is an ongoing project. Read how you can help. |
 | RPCV admits to abuse while in Peace Corps
Timothy Ronald Obert has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a minor in Costa Rica while serving there as a Peace Corps volunteer. "The Peace Corps has a zero tolerance policy for misconduct that violates the law or standards of conduct established by the Peace Corps," said Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez. Could inadequate screening have been partly to blame? Mr. Obert's resume, which he had submitted to the Peace Corps in support of his application to become a Peace Corps Volunteer, showed that he had repeatedly sought and obtained positions working with underprivileged children. Read what RPCVs have to say about this case. |
 | Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger
When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: LA Weekly
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Malawi; Writing - Malawi
PCOL33779
91
