Talk:The Old Patagonian Express

Significance

I think if a travel book gets into an encyclopedia, this is a fair challenge. Did the travel book inspire people to travel where its author did? Inspire them to write still more travel books, on the author's subject or any other? I bet this is measurable. One could (although perhaps not easily) count the number of books whose authors cite this book.

The Old Patagonian Express sure inspired me to travel in Latin America. Still does. It's dated: nobody cares about Central America now, unless you generously imagine China cares about a ditch in Nicaragua. And it's incomplete, though that is perfectly understandable: a diversion into Brazil, say via Bolivia to Corumbá, would only have lengthened the mission without changing the ending, plus the mission itself benefited from the coherence of all-Spanish-all-the-time. Brazilian trains are an incoherent story all their own. Theroux was wise to skip it. But his book made me wonder all the more about it. Jahutter (talk) 14:18, 26 January 2014 (UTC)