Keeping my promise to the CBC Core Team (and being a fanatic cars enthusiast), I started to research the role that automobiles played in literature. Inevitably, my search took me into a broader spectrum: The literature, of all sorts, written linking together road, man and machine.
Whether or not we are actually on a road, life remains a fascinating journey. However, in an actual car or motorcycle this journey becomes much more exciting.
Literature related to journeys and travels has been there since ever .
The first examples that could come into ones mind are Homers Iliad and Odyssey. Although it does not qualify as a "normal" road trip however the Odyssey might be the first solid example of Journey Literature. The epic poem mainly describes the 10 years trip that Odysseus embarks on to reach his hometown Ithaca after the Trojan Wars. At the mean time his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus have to fight all the suitors that attempt to approach the beautiful queen. Everybody believes that Odysseus is dead except for Penelope. To escape his suitors without much confrontation she promises them she will choose among them upon finishing sewing a pullover. All through the day she worked on it and all through the night she undone her daily work. The ten years just passed like that!
For the full text of the Odyssey: http://www.mythweb.com/odyssey/
Very informally and without any organization or methodology, I decided to discover more authors and novels all related to Journeys, Roads and Cars/other means of transport. Some will readily come to mind like "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac and for others the connection will be more obscure like the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I will leave the pavement and embark on my own journey and I hope you guys enjoy..
