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Literary Nomads episodes
- Ghost in the Garden – Dark Montgomery Pt. 1
What if Anne of Green Gables wasn’t just an escapist daydream, but a calculated strategy that saved its author’s life?
Today we find the divide between L.M. Montgomery’s sunlit public fiction and her claustrophobic domestic reality. From hidden kitchen-table writing under an autocratic grandfather to a decade-long legal battle against a predatory Boston publisher, we explore how her idyllic landscapes served as a fortress of psychological survival and an engine for economic sovereignty.
Resources:
- Heilbrun, Carolyn G. Writing a Woman’s Life, 1988.
- Montgomery, L. M. Anne of Green Gables. L. C. Page & Co., 1908.
- Montgomery, L. M. “Min.” Short Stories 1902 to 1903, 1903.
- Montgomery, L. M. The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, 1917.
- Montgomery, L. M. The Blue Castle, 1926.
- Montgomery, L. M. “The Closed Door.” Faded Page, 1934.
- Rubio, Mary Henley. Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings, 2008.
Episode 7.09 –Ghost in the Garden - Dark Montgomery Pt. 1GlossaryDouble Escape – A dual strategy where a female author uses pseudonymity to protect her private identity while creating characters who openly defy social constraints.
Curated Narrative - A simplified, sanitized representation of an author’s life or landscape that edits out historical friction, trauma, and economic conflict for public consumption.
Economic Sovereignty – The intentional use of creative output and legal assertion to secure financial independence from restrictive domestic or corporate manipulations.
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- What mental blind spots do we create when we choose to focus on an author’s characters rather than their personal struggles?
- How does the physical layout of a room—its doors, locks, or visual boundaries—influence our psychological perception of safety and freedom?
- In what ways does the act of assigning a new name to a person, place, or experience alter our sense of control over it?
- How do cultural restrictions and business practices shape the kinds of stories marginalized authors are permitted to tell?
- What happens to our appreciation of a literary work when we recognize its broader history of creation and publication?
Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges:- The Grand Tour - PDF
- Packing Lists - PDF
- Author Footprints - PDF
- Mapping Dreams - PDF
- Building Fantasies – PDF
- Dark Montgomery - PDF
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
CHAPTERS00:00 The Closed Chamber
06:01 Intro Theme06:38 Cages12:30 Shields17:12 Closed Doors30:00 Exercising Our Skepticism32:48 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-09-dark-montgomery-1
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/
Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag
===
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.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
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. “Ghost in the Garden - Dark Montgomery Pt. 1.” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 18 Sept. 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
35 min - Temporary Delay Announcement
Hey, everyone!
Thanks for your patience during this unexpected episode delay! A few tech challenges while I upgraded my studio this summer put me a few weeks behind.
But this little announcement proves that I’m back up and running, so we’ll continue our Literary Tourism journey very soon, and I’ll likely drop a few episodes closer together to make up for our lost late summer.
Next we dig into author Lucy Maud Montgomery’s own life to see how our little Anne of Green Gables may have mirrored it! Spoiler: We’re calling these next two episodes “Dark Montgomery.”
Thanks again for your support and patience. I’ll be back soon!
===
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.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
CREDITS:
Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)
1 min - Building Fantasies
How does the map overwrite the physical territory it claims to represent?
Today we look at literary simulations, from the bedroom of Victor Hugo to the Orlando welter of parks and rides. Guided by the semiotics of Umberto Eco, the simulation theory of Jean Baudrillard, and the urban critiques of Sam Jacob, we investigate the social construction of experience environments and what creates our preference for them over the raw experience.
Resources:
- Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation, 1994.
- Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project, 1999.
- Eco, Umberto. Travels in Hyperreality: Essays, 1986.
- Jacob, Sam. “Vriesendorp Syndrome.” Perspecta 41: Grand Tour, 2008.
- MacLeod, Nicola E. Literary Fiction Tourism: Understanding the Practice of Fiction-Inspired Travel, 2021.
- Melton, Jeffrey Alan. “Keeping the Faith: Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad.” South Atlantic Review, 1996.
- Montgomery, L. M. The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, 1917.
- Montgomery, L. M. The Selected Journals of L. M. Montgomery, 1985-2004.
- Twain, Mark. Roughing It. American Publishing Company, 1872.
- Tuan, Yi-Fu. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. Columbia University Press, 1990
Episode 7.08 –Building FantasiesGlossaryThe Absolute Fake: An engineered, hyperreal reproduction or simulation that seeks to completely replace reality, offering a polish that works to eliminate the traveler’s desire for the messy or difficult original.
Touristic Faith: The psychological suspension of disbelief where travelers willingly dismiss their own skepticism and actively collude with the tourist industry to pretend they are gaining an “authentic” experience.
Vriesendorp Syndrome: The construction of spaces where the sheer number and juxtaposition of cheap, mass-produced replicas separates our idea of place from its physical reality, turning place into a frictionless, standardized “flavor.”
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- When we look at a clean replica or model, what do our minds do to judge it more informative than a weathered original?
- How does the metaphor of a map “generating” a territory change how we think about our expectations for a space?
- When we observe a reflection or a photo of a landscape, how does that visual frame change our view of the physical environment behind it?
- In what ways do curated soundscapes, scents, and climate controls shape our willingness to accept an artificial room as a valid space?
- How does remembering a past journey alter what we experienced in the physical moment?
Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges:- The Grand Tour - PDF
- Packing Lists - PDF
- Author Footprints - PDF
- Mapping Dreams - PDF
- Building Fantasies – PDF
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
CHAPTERS00:00 Leaving the Road Behind
06:49 Intro Theme07:25 All the Flavors17:49 Lake Tahoe on Fire22:46 Pilgrim Exercises Pt 524:31 Montgomery’s Lost Island30:17 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-08-building-fantasies
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/
Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag
===
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.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
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. “7.08 Building Fantasies. ” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 07 August 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
32 min - Mapping Dreams
How do we navigate the space between the curated tourism experience and the raw concrete of the world beneath it?
We investigate the “imaginative geographies” we project onto other lands, examining how Italo Calvino’s semiotic cities, Arthur Conan Doyle’s romanticized London, and Mathieu Kassovitz’s brutalist Paris reveal the ethical tensions of the traveler’s gaze. We look into our habit of cropping out infrastructure and ask whether reading the raw city makes us better travelers or something worse. Bloomsday in Dublin and Iain Sinclair’s London Orbital are also considered.
Resources:
- Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities, 1974.
- Doyle, Arthur Conan. “A Study in Scarlet,” 1930.
- Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change, 1989.
- Joyce, James. Ulysses, 1922.
- Kassovitz, Mathieu, director. La Haine, 1995.
- Said, Edward W. Orientalism, 1978.
- Sinclair, Iain, and Chris Petit, directors. London Orbital, 2002.
- Sinclair, Iain. London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25, 2002.
Episode 7.07 –Mapping DreamsGlossaryImaginative Geography: The thought process, according to Edward Said, where we build a mental conception of a foreign landscape through literature, art, and personal or cultural desire long before we physically arrive, pre-determining and replacing the actual physical geography with a commodified myth. See Edward Said’s Orientalism, 1978.
Staged Authenticity: The socio-spatial phenomenon where tourism operators construct aesthetically controlled “front stages” (such as curated landmarks or replica villages) to satisfy the consumer/tourist’s desire for an authentic encounter, even while actively concealing the “back-stage” realities of local labor, economic extraction, and physical infrastructure.
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- When you crop a travel photograph to remove a power line, parking lot, or trash can, what reality are you trying to erase?
- How does Sherlock Holmes’s cocaine addiction or Leopold Bloom’s alienation ruin the versions of London and Dublin sold by tourism?
- How has Edward Said’s “imaginative geography” worked on your travel expectations in the past?
- Do you watch fictional films or read books about urban decay or poverty? For what reasons?
- Which of the two Calvino cities featured most resonate with you, Tamara or Zaira? Why?
Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges:- The Grand Tour - PDF
- Packing Lists - PDF
- Author Footprints - PDF
- Mapping Dreams - PDF
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
CHAPTERS00:00 PEI and Tamara
04:26 Intro Theme05:03 My PEI Failures13:49 The Unhandy Embrace20:51 Some Skeptical Exercises (Pt 4)23:37 Zaira and Hard Spaces36:45 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-07-mapping-dreams
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/
Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag
===
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.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
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. “7.07 Mapping Dreams. ” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 31 July 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
39 min - Author Footprints Pt. 2 – The Aracataca Paradox
What happens to a real, working community when a fictional landscape is physically constructed on top of it?
We discover the socio-economic friction behind literary travel, contrasting the magical ideals of Gabriel García Márquez’s Macondo with the unpaved streets of Aracataca, Colombia. Behind the “front stage” of tourist attractions are bulldozers, evictions, and even a violent army. We learn about the history of PEI National Park expropriations, the 1928 Banana Massacre, and how to critically read tourist destinations beyond the gift shop facade.
Resources:
- García Márquez, Gabriel. One Hundred Years of Solitude, 1967.
- Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space, 1991.
- Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Avonlea, 1909.
- Montgomery, L. M. The Selected Journals of L. M. Montgomery, Volume V: 1935–1942, 2004.
- Steele, Fiona, host. “Painting the Gables ‘Green’.” The Hidden Island, Season 3, Episode 5, 12 Sept 2022.
Episode 7.06 –Author Footprints Pt. 2 - The Aracataca ParadoxListener’s Guide Reflection Questions- When you encounter a perfectly preserved historical landmark, what omissions or missing community details must you ignore to maintain your feeling of nostalgia?
- How does the presence of a corporate licensing agreement or trademark boundary alter an author’s legacy?
- When local residents invent fictional anecdotes or point to fake historical spots for visiting pilgrims, who is truly controlling the performance of the tourist site?
- In what ways does buying a mass-produced souvenir act as a buffer against the uncomfortable economic disparities of the places we visit?
- If every tourist destination is a manufactured “front stage,” what active choices can a wayfarer make to step off the guided path and read the real location?
Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges:- The Grand Tour - PDF
- Packing Lists - PDF
- Author Footprints - PDF
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
CHAPTERS00:00 A Quick Review
00:38 A Broader Context00:03 Intro Theme03:52 The Magic and the Austerity09:19 Plenty of Masks to Go Around21:51 The Earth Paved Over32:09 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-06-author-footprints-pt-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/
Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag
===
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.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
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. “7.06 Author Footprints Pt. 2 - The Aracataca Paradox. ” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 24 July 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
34 min - Author Footprints Pt. 1 – Aura & Reliquary
Why do we drive thousands of miles just to touch the wooden beams of an author’s birthplace?
From Poe’s Baltimore to PEI and Waywords’s own Waterford, MI, we consider what it takes to build a literary destination and how this works to undermine the very real need for we travelers to cross the threshold from the literary into the physical. Is there a way to thwart the hucksters of simulations? Perhaps!
Resources:
- Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space, 1969.
- Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” 1969.
- MacLeod, Nicola E. Literary Fiction Tourism: Understanding the Practice of Fiction-Inspired Travel, 2024.
- Montgomery, Lucy Maud. The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, 1917.
- Tuan, Yi-Fu. Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values, 1990
Episode 7.05 –Author Footprints Pt. 1 - Aura & ReliquaryGlossary:Topophilia: The real and physical human desire to meet authentic space and map our emotions onto the physical earth.
Heterotopia: A specially-created “other space” or place of difference that exists wholly outside of ordinary daily life. In the context of literary tourism, an arranged, static attraction designed that offers the idea of a flawless, isolated world in contrast to our own.
Aura: The unique, irreplaceable physical presence and authority of an original work/art that is weakened by mass reproduction.
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- When you feel a sudden wave of awe while standing inside a historical building, are you emotionally connecting to the long-dead occupant, or are you reacting to the architectural cues—the lighting, the placards, the quiet—designed to trigger a posture of reverence?
- Consider the threshold of a museum’s velvet rope: how does the act of cordoning off a mundane everyday item (like an author’s writing desk or an antique bookcase) alter your perception of its value compared to an identical item sitting in a thrift store?
- If our internal imagination requires us to ground ourselves in physical landmarks to feel a text’s “authenticity,” what does that suggest about the limitations of our minds to hold abstract ideas without a concrete, material anchor?
- Reflect on the psychological role of the gift shop at the end of an historic tour: how does buying a plastic replica or a themed postcard serve as a physical mechanism for our emotions?
- Think about your own home or neighborhood using the metaphor of a flawless diorama: what details, chores, or structural flaws would you have to entirely censor or rope off to make your daily space look like an arranged attraction for an outside visitor?
Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges:
- The Grand Tour - PDF
- Packing Lists - PDF
- Author Footprints - PDF
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
CHAPTERS00:00 Genuine Impulse
07:29 Intro Theme08:06 Blueprint of a Shrine18:19 Simulating Simulations23:05 The Decay of Aura30:00 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-05-author-footprints-pt-1
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/
Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag
===
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.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
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. “7.05 Author Footprints Pt 1 - Aura & Reliquary. ” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 17 July 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
32 min - Packing Lists Pt. 2 – Stalwart Women
Who carries the weight of our leisure?
Some readings from the past by thoughtful and resilient women! Take in some early writing of place and circumstance, journals and reflections which reflect the jarring collisions between our travel expectations and the realities we meet. More, we learn that an adaptable attitude and skeptical eye are essential tools.
Readings from:
- Dorothy Wordsworth - “The Highland Hut” from Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, A.D. 1803
- Mary Seacole - Chapter III from Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands, 1857
- Sei Shōnagon - “182. The House Had a Spacious Courtyard,” from The Pillow Book, c. 1002
Episode 7.04 –Packing Lists Pt. 2 - Stalwart WomenOther Resources:- MacLeod, Nicola E. Literary Fiction Tourism: Understanding the Practice of Fiction-Inspired Travel, 2024.
Glossary:Compartmentalized World: A theoretical concept from Frantz Fanon which describes how the colonial world is divided into two distinct species: the wealthy, secure sector of the colonizer and the impoverished, exploited sector of the colonized. In the context of travel, we ask who is permitted to move safely through a space, and who is forced to serve as manual labor, landscape, or a prop for the comfort of others.
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- When you examine your expectations which you pack for a highly anticipated trip, what do they suggest about the kind of difficulties or travel challenges you most dislike?
- Consider the physical metaphor of a curtain: if your travel planning and packing keep the “raw” destination apart from you, what boundaries have you created between your leisure and local survival?
- From Dorothy Wordsworth’s smoky chimney-corner to a modern climate-controlled resort lounge, how has our idea of safety changed and why?
- Consider when a text presents you with an offensive historical slur or an ugly, uncomfortable truth: does that sudden friction cause you to see the history more clearly or does your mind want to censor and buffer that discomfort away?
- If “roughing it” or traveling “close to the ground” is also a stylized, performative lifestyle choice, what signals do we project to those who observe us?
Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges:
- The Grand Tour - PDF
- Packing Lists - PDF
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
CHAPTERS00:00 Where We’ve Been
01:20 Stalwart Women03:02 Intro Theme03:38 Dorothy Wordsworth: “The Highland Hut”08:07 Mary Seacole: The Chaos of Cruces22:02 Sei Shonagon: “The Exorcism”28:39 Sovereign but Skeptical29:45 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-04-packing-lists-pt-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/
Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag
===
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.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
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. “7.04: Packing Lists Pt. 2 - Stalwart Women,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 10 July 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
32 min - Packing Lists Pt. 1: Dreams and Dirt
Did your horse throw ya, buddy?
We investigate what we hope to achieve by literary travel . . . and why our packing cannot prepare us for it!
While the global tourism industry spends billions to shape our eager expectations, what is it that we’re actually so anxious to see? And whatever it is, how likely are we to find it? In this first of two parts, we ask if what we pack in anticipation is to better guarantee our success or to ward us from disappointment. As an example, we read an excerpt from Isabella Bird’s 1879 travelogue, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains. And we hear from philosopher/critics Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger along the way. Will we find an answer? Maybe not, but we will be better prepared to understand the questions.
Episode 7.03 –Packing Lists Pt. 1: Dreams and DirtReadings & Resources:- Bird, Isabella L. A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains. 1879.
- Montgomery, L. M. The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career. 1917.
- Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project. 1999.
- MacLeod, Nicola E. Literary Fiction Tourism: Understanding the Practice of Fiction-Inspired Travel, 2024.
Glossary:The Broken Tool (Zuhandenheit): Martin Heidegger’s term explaining how we remain unconscious of our protective equipment and infrastructure—our constructed “World”—until the moment it fails us, forcing a sudden encounter with raw nature, or the “Earth.”
The Comfort Trap: A psychological defense mechanism in which a reader or traveler seeks “comfort,” “tidiness,” or “closure” to avoid intellectual or moral discomfort. We passively accept a safe, frictionless experience—or a text’s status quo—specifically to avoid confronting nuance or complication in a situation and one’s own possible complicity in it.
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- When you look at the very bottom of your daily commuter bag or travel pack, what do you discover that you find most intolerable?
- Consider the physical metaphor of a “portable fortress.” How accurate is this to describe your approach to travel?
- In tracking the transition from a 19th-century carpetbag to a modern multi-compartment backpack, what has changed in our definition of what an adventure is supposed to feel like?
- Think about when some gear or device failed you. How did you respond: the “stripped gear in the brain?” Or did you see the physical earth more clearly? Why?
- In our travel behavior and packing lists, who are we performing for?
Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges:
- The Grand Tour - PDF
- Packing Lists - PDF
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
CHAPTERS00:00 The Infrastructure of Dreams
05:22 Intro Theme05:58 Industrialized Travel13:57 Isabella Bird & the “Ill-Found” Expedition22:50 Skeptical Pilgrim Exercises: Counter-weights28:11 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-03-Packing-Lists-1
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/
Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag
===
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.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
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. “7.03: Packing Lists Pt. 1 - Dreams and Dirt,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 3 July 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
30 min - Grand Tours Pt 2: Bat on the Narrow Road
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 RoadReadings & 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- When you observe a natural setting, how have books influenced your conception of it?
- 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?
- In tracking your own neighborhood’s daily life, how might an ordinary object to become a site of specific poetic meaning rather than clutter?
- How does treading a travel guide affect your ability to sit with the silent, un-responding aspects of a foreign town?
- If you strip your travel history of its status landmarks and souvenirs, what remains?
Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges 1: The Grand Tour - PDF Download
Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/
CHAPTERS00:00 Where We’ve Been
01:12 Field Notes and the East07:20 Intro Theme07:55 Wayfaring and The Bat15:26 Earth vs World in the Haibun23:41 Reversing the Narrow Road28:11 Closing Credits===
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/
Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag
===
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.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
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/
30 min - Grand Tours Pt 1: The Postcard Illusion
Are we consuming an authentic place, or are we willingly participating in a beautifully staged performance designed around our own expectations?
In this opening episode of Journey 7, we begin our exploration of literary tourism. When we travel to the places that inspired our favorite books, whose landscape are we actually stepping into? Today. we cross the eight-mile concrete expanse onto Prince Edward Island to investigate the massive, multi-million dollar infrastructure designed to capitalize on Anne of Green Gables. Along the way, we unpack our collective urge to buy raspberry cordials and straw hats.
Along the way, we discover the strange history of the historical Grand Tour, and we investigate the “tourist gaze” and how the global tourism industry packages our favorite books into easily consumed souvenirs. If you love travelogues, literary history, or exploring the real-world histories behind famous books like Anne of Green Gables, this episode will challenge the way we view our next vacation destination.
Episode 7.01 –Grand Tours Pt 1: The Postcard IllusionReadings & Resources:- Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of Green Gables. 1908
- Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne of the Island. 1915
- Montgomery, Lucy Maud. Anne’s House of Dreams. 1917
- Montgomery, Lucy Maud. The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery. Edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston
- Montgomery, Lucy Maud. The Story Girl. 1911
- MacLeod, Nicola E. Literary Fiction Tourism: Understanding the Practice of Fiction-Inspired Travel. Routledge, 2024
Glossary:Grand Tour: A traditional, multi-year journey across continental Europe that served as a mandatory educational rite of passage for upper-class, wealthy young men from the 17th to the mid-19th centuries. Officially intended to complete a gentleman’s classical education by exposing him to the art, architecture, and polite society of the Old World, it also provided a socially acceptable escape from parental control to pursue worldly pleasures and construct an elite “martial masculinity.”
Tourist Gaze: How travelers view and consume a destination, shaped by what guidebooks and the tourism industry have conditioned them to expect to see.
Skeptical Pilgrim: A traveler who deeply loves a literary work or historical destination but adopts a critical, questioning posture, refusing to passively accept the fictionalized, manufactured reality that a tourist destination attempts to sell them.
Listener’s Guide Reflection Questions- When you select a specific souvenir from a location, how does that physical object alter or secure the memory of the real space you left behind?
- Consider the texts you choose to read versus the places you choose to visit; what makes a comforting historical fiction preferable to a reality of contemporary labor?
- In analyzing your own home, what is the process of selection behind the display pieces on your shelves, and how do they perform an identity for visitors?
- How does the presence of a guidebook or a digital travel route affect your ability to notice the un-curated, raw elements of a new place?
- If you map your immediate neighborhood purely through your senses rather than visual landmarks, how does that shift your understanding of who owns and occupies that space?
Skeptical Pilgrim Challenges 1: The Grand Tour - PDF DownloadComplete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/literary-tourism/CHAPTERS00:00 Field Notes & Trailhead 0:00:0.000000
05:35 Intro Theme06:11 Montgomery and Two Worlds10:53 The Grand Tour and the Invention of the Gaze17:57 Tourist Gazing25:40 Skeptic Pilgrim Challenges28:28 Screens and Modern Escapes32:54 Closing Credits===
Transcript and Full Bibliography: https://waywordsstudio.com/general/transcript/7-01-Grand-Tours-1New 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/
Have a Question? Want to Comment? Literary Nomads Mailbag===
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.
Website: https://waywordsstudio.com
Newsletter: https://waywordsstudio.kit.com/
Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and BlueSky: @WaywordsStudio
===
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. “7.01: Grand Tours Pt 1: The Postcard Illusion,” Literary Nomads. Waywords Studio, 19 June 2026, https://waywordsstudio.com/project/le-guin-omelas/.
35 min
About Literary Nomads
From the publisher's feed
Join me, Steve Chisnell, as we find and lose meaning across modern and classic tales, through ancient and distant verse, atop everything in our many cultures which might be read. For teachers,…
students, and lovers of reading, we will discover new paths to understanding!