# 282: BOOK OF THE WEEK — “Curiosity Kept Me Striving”
Story behind the Book Choice
It is a challenge for people like us to not get on a plane for more than a year. Yes, of course, some people still travel all the time. For them, Covid hardly exists anymore. Still, I decided to not travel from the beginning unless I absolutely have to. And this compulsory aspect of “having to…” needs to be determined by some outside reason, not by my own inner urge. This is what I decided and so far, I am sticking to it. I just think that it is a good exercise — kind of like meditation. When you start meditating, you also think that you have to move or have to think because you just have to.
No, you do not, and you learn that as you grow.
Still, travel is an urge that is inside me. It is part of me and I am also aware that by not traveling for such a long time, I am neglecting part of myself. As long as this happens consciously, it is still o.k. The more I refrain from travel, the more I appreciate — even cherish— its effects. Well, “effects” is not the right word. It sounds very technical. For me, travel is a spiritual practice and this is what is really important — the practice of it, the being in travel.
No wonder one of the tattoos on my arms says “tirhaal” (Arabic: wondering, going away, travel).
One of my most memorable trips took me to Yemen more than ten years ago. It was not a touristy trip. Still, it was a journey. It was not even two months that I spent there but they were some of the most crucial ones in my life. Part of the reason for this has nothing to do with Yemen in particular. And the other part indeed is linked to Yemen because it is one of the most fascinating countries on earth. Yes, you can say that about every country in the world but not every country in the world is in so much trouble as is the case for Yemen. It is among the five poorest countries in the world and it is also, in many parts, mostly untouched by the impact of Western civilization. Yes, that is indeed part of the reason why many people are poor and sick there. Still, it also leads to the fact that their culture and the artefacts of this culture — especially the architecture — have survived.
I remember that one of my acquaintances from the embassy gave met his book about Helfritz as a gift. It had just come out, I think. I had no idea about Hans Helfritz at the time and the same largely held true before I picked up the book yesterday. Now that I am increasingly missing the Arab World so much, including visual images of the desert and the people there, I remembered that I still had that book somewhere between my travel book collection. It is introduced as a “travelogue” by Helfritz, one of the many that he wrote. In case you do not know what a travelogue is, I checked my dictionary of literary terms and the concept that comes closest to it is “travel book”:
“A neglected and much varied genre of great antiquity to which many famous, more or less professional o ‘full-time’ writers have contributed, but which has also been enriched by a number of occasional writers. For the most part these have been diplomats, scholars, missionaries, soldiers or fortune, doctors, explorers and sailors. The genre subsumes works of exploration and adventure as well as guides and accounts of sojourns in foreign lands…” (Cuddon 937)
Of course, you will find the term “travelogue” online and the definitions will probably tell you that nowadays, travel blogs fulfil the above-described function. Still, I like this comprehensive historical summary about travel literature as literature because it exactly reflects Helfritz. It makes me aware of the fact that the search for a name for this kind of “profession,” which probably is more of an obsession, has no name. As you will read in the first passage I have chosen for today, Helfritz was many things at a time — many things that cannot simply be summarized by the simple term “artist.” So, I guess, ‘traveler through life’ is what you can call this. This also reminds me of my own fate, of course. As my friend Tati in the U.S. once said:
“You are a nomad.”
1. Occupations and Places
The short bio at the beginning of the book gives you a very concise overview of the man behind the pictures and the text. The book, which was written as the catalogue of an exhibition and edited by the German Embassy, has all text passages in three languages: German, Arabic, English. I love that. I have not read more works of Helfritz, neither have I read his biography. Just the very few lines at the beginning, however, make me become curious to read more about his life. I guess, the keywords are “pioneer and explorer.” Before, it is stated that he fell in love with the Middle East and Arab culture — no matter how general and culturally-essentialist this may sound.
This made me think about how we, the “explorers,” do have a special affinity towards a certain part of the world. Yes, you do travel elsewhere, sometimes even across the entire globe. But I strongly believe that there is a “home away from home” that feels more like home than all other places. For Helfritz, this was the Middle and Far East and especially Yemen. Otherwise, he would never have made several trips there at a time when travel was far less of a piece of cake than today. Yes, he was somewhat driven by the motivation to find the Biblical city of Sheba. Still, even such an aspiration would not totally account for the fact that he traveled across the entire country so often and documented the life and arts of the people in this comperensive way.
What I find quite striking is the diversity of his activities listed in these paragraphs. As is the case with most travelers, we return with the urge to share our experiences — knowing that words, even pictures — will never entirely be able to express what we have in our hearts and minds. Still, he obviously turned his experiences into a “business” by lecturing and publishing about it. Then, and that is quite interesting, he was also open to using his skills as a tourist guide on cruise ships. No doubt, there must have been commercial reasons behind this but it also tells me that for him, travel and the region were more important than any kind of artistic or intellectual reputation. That is rare and it makes the man appear even more interesting.
2. Aden
Actually, I never made it to Aden when I was in Yemen. I wanted to and was already on my way there when the bus broke down right after we left Sanaa. Since it was only a short weekend and I somehow did not feel that adventurous anyways on that day, I decided to not wait until the bus would get fixed and spontaneously canceled the trip. I never made a second attempt, there was simply no time left. So, it became one of these things that you postpone “for your next visit.”
Well, given the desolate state of the country and the fact that nobody can enter it right now, this “next time” has not happened yet. It might never happen…
In any case, I, of course, had heard many things about Aden, especially by the expats who had been living in Yemen for many years. Aden was the escape city on the weekends and kind of like the getaway to other places, including Egypt via the sea route. Aden is in the South which mean that a different, supposedly more “liberal” culture, is ruling there. That is also related to the more recent history of the country and the fact that the South was more Socialist. But I do not want to go into the political details of Yemen here.
What I simply want to explain is why this passage resonated with me. The fact that Helfritz liked the city because it was his arrival and departure gate. The things he described about the rare luxuries he got there are something that every real traveler will recognize. Yes, we have no trouble abstaining from luxuries such as high-quality food and running water for a long time, we even embrace it because it is part of the cultural experience. Still, there are also many hardships connected to this kind of life and if this goes on for many months or even years, you just feel like breaking free sometimes. Usually, this is connected to a feeling of shame towards the locals because they cannot simply go somewhere to a hotel and afford running water. But that is the way it is and I am simply describing here how this makes me empathise with Helfritz.
The same feeling is attached to the “romantic” relationship you develop to these places; not only with respect to the activities they offer but the temporality. Departing somewhere or arriving somewhere in a particular location endows the place with special meaning for the entire story that follows afterwards or that has already been “written” in a way. For me, these places are usually connected to airports but in the old days of Helfritz, ports represented these places — the gates to different worlds that come with a certain cosmopolitan culture immanent to such places. Whether or not this is a “stepstone to hell,” as the passage suggests, is probably more the result of the people shaping the place and the images they have of it than of the place itself.
3. Music
Yes, people will freak out because of the way Helfritz uses the word “Primitive” here but if you look more closely at the passage, he is actually praising the way the local people, especially Arabs, are using music for so many things that people in Europe and the West in general have hardly any access to anymore — even back then. Music as part of daily life and work and as a constituting element of tribal identity has so much cultural significance that anything you listen to on the radio nowadays, which is fabricated according to some fashion and market demands, does not even deserve the name “music” anymore.
I know that people who really enjoy listening and producing music — no matter which kind — will disagree with my harsh assessment. I accept that because I know that people who really are into music do understand the large-ranging cultural function and power of music, despite the commercial aspects that have to be part of spreading music and making it known. But they also — at least many of them — understand the spiritual dimension of it. That is actually something that Helfritz reveals here. The fact that he mentions the vibrations of the instruments and their psychological effects shows how deeply he was into the people and objects he was observing.
I just wish that there will always be people like this
People who not only travel but write and reflect on it.
Maybe I am too much of a wishful thinker . I do not know.
What I definitely know is that I will go back to Yemen one day
— with my inborn curiosity and my camera.
“He who doesn’t remain inquisitive ends up failing much
earlier in life, and ends up losing his love for life.” index (hanshelfritz.de)
Reflection Questions
1) What does travel mean to you?
2) Can you understand people who never settle — neither in one location nor in a profession?
3) Does music have a psychological function for you? In how far?