The Art of Travel

by

Alain De Botton

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Traveling Places Term Analysis

This is De Botton’s term for spaces inhabited by those in transit, from the roadside rest stop he visits between London and Manchester to the planes, ships, and trains that travelers use to reach foreign lands. He argues that such liminal (in-between) spaces can offer the excitement of anticipated travel as well as a poetic, comfortable loneliness, in which a traveler is surrounded by other people who feel the same isolation and an atmosphere that mirrors that sentiment.

Traveling Places Quotes in The Art of Travel

The The Art of Travel quotes below are all either spoken by Traveling Places or refer to Traveling Places. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Familiar and the Foreign Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

The twenty-four-hour diner, the station waiting room and the motel are sanctuaries for those who have, for noble reasons, failed to find a home in the ordinary world—those whom Baudelaire might have dignified with the honorific poets.

Related Characters: Alain de Botton (speaker), Charles Baudelaire , Edward Hopper
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:
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Traveling Places Term Timeline in The Art of Travel

The timeline below shows where the term Traveling Places appears in The Art of Travel. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: On Traveling Places
The Familiar and the Foreign Theme Icon
Expectations vs. Reality Theme Icon
...something it moves de Botton, who begins to think of “other equally and unexpectedly poetic traveling places —airport terminals, harbours, train stations, and motels.” (full context)
The Familiar and the Foreign Theme Icon
Expectations vs. Reality Theme Icon
Art, Travel, and the Search for Happiness Theme Icon
...realm.” Baudelaire also flocked to “harbours, docks, railway stations, trains, ships, and hotel rooms,” transient traveling places that filled him with the nostalgia and thrill of departure. (full context)
Expectations vs. Reality Theme Icon
In addition to traveling places , Baudelaire also loved “machines of motion,” and especially ships, which he found a technological... (full context)
The Familiar and the Foreign Theme Icon
Art, Travel, and the Search for Happiness Theme Icon
...the rigours, the cold abstinence, the selfish ease of ordinary society.” De Botton agrees, seeing traveling places as an alternative to the routine drudgery of contemporary everyday life. (full context)