This is a
wonderful piece about the travails of travel writing,
made all the better by the fact that the writer is dealing with one of the nation’s top magazines. The writer,
William Georgiades, struggles to get a piece done
about a Greek town, and gets the run around. Anyone who has ever dealt with the big glossies (and even some newspapers)
knows the drill and will sympathize immediately with the writer’s frustration and the mocking, but self-deprecating
tone in dealing with editors. To wit:
She kisses the space that dangles a quarter inch away from my right cheek, and I put my lips on her left cheek—my
too full lips—and I leave an imprint of gum disease and tooth decay and raw fish residue on her left cheek, inches
away from one of her pigtails.
If any of you out there plan to make a career of travel writing, I urge you to read this article and perhaps to
reconsider…or at least, keep your day job.