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Grand Tours Pt 2: Bat on the Narrow Road

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What’s the difference between being a passive tourist and a wayfarer?

Follow the 17th-century footsteps of Matsuo Basho to interrogate the gap between curated tourist destinations  and the open-ended, ego-stripping realities of true travel. By contrasting the lush, internal landscapes of L.M. Montgomery with the skeletal prose of classical Japanese travel sketches, we ask: Can we ever truly encounter a sovereign landscape, or do our books merely wrap the earth in a comforting postcard illusion?

Along the way, we look at the haiku in its haibun form and use Martin Heidegger’s classic distinction between ‘Earth’ and ‘World.’ Can Basho’s haiku lessons rescue us from our egos. Maybe, but 400 years later, other writers have their own responses to him!

Episode 7.02 –
Grand Tours Pt 2: Bat on the Narrow Road
Readings & Resources:
  • Bashō, Matsuo. The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches. Translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa.
  • Montgomery, L. M. The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career. 1917.
  • Montgomery, L. M. The Blue Castle. 1926.
  • Downer, Lesley. On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: Journey into a Lost Japan, 1989
  • Flanagan, Richard. The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Knopf, 2014.
  • Goldberg, Natalie. Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku, 2020.
  • Merton, Thomas. The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton, 1973.
    • Glossary:

    Wayfaring: A mode of travel in which the journey itself becomes the destination and concept of home, characterized by a constant, open-ended wandering rather than arriving at a fixed point. 

    Haibun: A traditional Japanese literary form that intricately blends prose and haiku poetry so that the two distinct modes of writing interact and illuminate each other. 

    Noncompletion: An ongoing, unresolved state of existing “between” spaces or ideas, embraced by the wayfarer as the permanent, true condition of a journey that has no final destination. 

    Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions
    1. When you observe a natural setting, how have books influenced your conception of it?
    2. Consider the difference between a destination that promises modern amenities and an open-ended un-curated route with no final stop: how does the presence or absence of structural comforts affect your attitude?
    3. In tracking your own neighborhood’s daily life, how might an ordinary object to become a site of specific poetic meaning rather than clutter?
    4. How does treading a travel guide affect your ability to sit with the silent, un-responding aspects of a foreign town?
    5. If you strip your travel history of its status landmarks and souvenirs, what remains?

      6. Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges 1:  The Grand Tour – PDF Download

       

      Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/

       

      CHAPTERS

      00:00    Where We’ve Been

      01:12     Field Notes and the East
      07:20     Intro Theme
      07:55     Wayfaring and The Bat
      15:26     Earth vs World in the Haibun
      23:41     Reversing the Narrow Road
      28:11     Closing Credits

       

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      Transcript and Full Bibliography:  https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-02-Grand-Tours-2

       

      New to Literary Nomads?

      Check out my introductory episodes (0.1-0.3) to find out what’s going on here! I’ve got an episode for readers, for teachers, and for students: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/waywords-podcast/

       

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      Literary Nomads is the main program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.

      Visit us for expanded resources for guests and the Waywords community, for other programs and writing, and for opportunities to support our goal to expand reading. Resources available can include full bibliographies of material referenced, full and partial texts, annotated editions, supplemental and expanded episodes, fictional explorations, teaching and learning resources, additional essays, and online courses.

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      CREDITS:

      Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)

      Chapter headings by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski

       

      USING THIS WORK:

      This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.

       

      MLA CITATION:

      Chisnell, Steve. “7.02: Grand Tours Pt 2: Bat on the Narrow Road,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 26 June 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/

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      Waywords Studio Full SlateBy Steve Chisnell