Page 49 - teyxos_13

in contrast I n A Week at the Airport, de Botton pi-
to the lots us on an incredible flight around
overwhelming the magical world of airports. Gate-
majority of other ways to the world, cultural crossroads, successfully in his book. In it, short stories
travellers, de and places emotionally charged with
BOTTON often the joy of reunion, the poignancy of farewell
hopes his flight and the expectation of getting away, mod-
will be delayed ern airports exude the charm and mystery of
a thrilling microcosm. The groundbreaking
idea for this account of the airport experience
came from Heathrow itself. In the summer of
2009, the airport’s management invited the
renowned author of books such as The Art
of Travel and How Proust Can Change Your
Life to become the first writer ever to live at
the airport and write a book in public about
the newly unveiled Terminal Five. Sitting on a
raised platform in the departure hall with his
laptop connected to screens so that passengers
could see what he was writing, de Botton ac-
cepted the challenge and set out to decipher
the mysterious allure of the famous airport
in his own unique way.
In an interview with 2board just after the book
was published in the UK, he did not hide his
enthusiasm for the unique opportunity he had
been given: “They contacted me and told me
their idea for an unusual literary experiment.
They suggested that I become the first writer
in residence at an airport, to be inspired by
the place, gather material and write my book
freely without the slightest restriction on its
content, but in full view of the public.”
The challenge was irresistible since the writer
adores airports. He confesses in his book that
in contrast to the overwhelming majority of
other travellers, he often hopes his flight will them, and his stories display his customary
be delayed so that he can spend more time at
the airport: “I have even wished for a delay so
severe that I would be offered a meal voucher
or, more dramatically, a night at an airline’s
expense in a giant concrete kleenex box with
unopenable windows, corridors decorated
with nostalgic images of propeller planes and
foam pillows infused with the distant smells
of kerosene”, he writes.
The experiment was a triumph, as he records
of travellers from all over the world are in-
terwoven with those of the people who work
at Heathrow: from air traffic controllers and
cabin crew to the cleaning staff. Together
with renowned documentary photographer
Richard Baker, de Botton has put together
an extraordinary meditation on space, time
and everyday life, with text and photographs
that shed light on this familiar yet unknown
starting point for our travels. Indeed, the
two men put every aspect of life at the air-
port under the microscope. They focus with
the same interest on the outlandish and the
ordinary, on personal and on collective expe-
riences, and on relations between passengers
and employees, to arrive at a new way of see-
ing a place that we know so well but retains
its mystery. Because, like all airports, Heath-
row (which takes its name from Heath Row, a
15th century village located, as we learn, un-
der the short-stay car park) is a non-place. It
is somewhere that is constantly being left by
the people who come there, a destination of
departures. At the same time, however, it is
also a window onto unknown and unfamil-
iar worlds, by virtue of the thousands of peo-
ple from all over the world who pass through
it every day.
The Swiss-born writer’s tenth book is sure to
please his many fans. It is a small masterpiece
created from the unlimited access he was giv-
en to make contact with people and talk to
combination of intellect and wisdom.
It will undoubtedly occupy a special place on
the bookshelves of anyone who loves travel,
and we are pleased and proud to announce
that in the next issue of 2board, the last page
of the magazine will have extracts from Alain
de Botton’s latest book.
49