You can also find out more about When James Joyce In 1904, when he first travelled to Trieste from Dublin, he passed through Paris, Zurich, Ljubljana. Zurich, because he mistakenly believed a job to be awaiting him there, and Ljubljana because – groggy after the night train – he thought they’d pulled into Trieste. The train was already gone by the time Joyce realized what had happened. He and Nora Barnacle, his partner, had to spend the night in the streets without money.
The invitation to become writer-in residence at the James Joyce summer school I was in Trieste and wondered if it would be possible to follow Joyce’s footsteps. Repair work is underway on Austria’s Tauern Tunnel I was unable to take the exact route. The TGV rips through France today at 200mph compared to the 25-60mph speeds that Joyce would have used in Switzerland and Austria. It’s just as good to spend a night in Milan.
As I traveled from London to Trieste and then on to Ljubljana (by bus), I thought of the lineage writers who traversed Europe 100 years ago in this manner and how different the aesthetic, physical and psychological experiences they must have had. Importantly, I wondered what they might have seen. What we see from trains – and how we see it – reflects a century of profound social, economic and environmental transformation. Trains represent progress as much as they ever have, but – today – a different sort of progress.
Eurostar delayed my journey due to a cable theft in Lille. Around 600 metres copper cable was taken from the high speed line overnight. We arrived at Gare du Nord in Paris on time, a testament to France’s rail workers. Joyce penned this letter to his brother in a station that he described as having its own “strange poetry”: the sounds of footsteps and distant steam engine whistles, along with the sudden clanging sound of the signal bell. Today, instead of the sounds of coal shovelling and steam whistles, or bells ringing, or currencies changing hands, we have beeping ticket gates, digital chimes and polylingual announcements. Fake bird sounds are heard throughout the Gare de Lyon to calm people down. Instead, they make them search for the trapped birds.
Today, instead of illustrated posters from the Belle Epoque, Liam Gillick’s artwork depicts climate change equations on the walls of the Gare du Nord metro. The Logical Basis, commissioned in 2015 for the COP21 Climate Conference held in Paris. Gillick’s work was criticized because it did not explain the equations. This kept the simple and crucial facts about climate changes from the general population.
We still don’t seem to understand the impact we have on climate change. We can travel on electrified trains with only a fraction the carbon footprint compared to air travel. When I can, I find other ways to travel. Less mental and moral gymnastics are required when travelling by land or sea – especially while temperatures break all records. So trains are simply more relaxing … except financially.
Virginia Woolf, a 24-year-old who traveled alone from London to Turkey on a train at the age of 24, wrote: “A traveller knows that even though they are half asleep, they must look out of the window because, if not, he may never again see the town, the mule cart, or the woman in the field.” Never mind You can also find out more about us here. Women, to See You can also find out more about the following: A person in the fields is not likely to be seen from a window of a modern train. We have urban sprawl, suburbanisation and a lack of vibrant villages. This would be unimaginable to Woolf. The fertilised pastures for animal agriculture, and the vast expanses of land that are used to produce animal feed have replaced the diverse cereals and crops of a hundred years ago. This has had a wide range of consequences, including changes in weather patterns, temperature, soil degradation, air pollution, waterways and biodiversity. To know just how much the landscape has altered in a few decades, is to understand what it could change to.
Water power was developed in the Alps extensively during the early 20th century. The construction of reservoirs and dams has fundamentally changed alpine hydrology. It’s created the artificial lakes and dams we know today, as well as power lines and industrial equipment. Reforestation has undoubtedly been one of the most positive changes in the last 100 years. And while those forests are generally commercial – with about 80% classified as “forest available for wood supply” – natural forests and meadows are almost instantly possible with a shift towards a plant-rich diet, as just one example. Solar or wind farms could replace pastures. There may be something useful in seeing We need to know where our energy comes, in order to understand its impact. Hydroelectric revolution gave writers courage: they could reach the Alps via train. The hydroelectric revolution represented modernity, progress and independence.
Rail became militarised for a time, and trains were rerouted to accommodate troop movements and deportations. Civilians faced extreme delays, rationing, and danger. Joyce fled Trieste, then part of the Austro Hungarian Empire, during the First World War because he was deemed an enemy alien. He narrowly avoided arrest at Feldkirch Station in Austria. He narrowly escaped arrest at Feldkirch station in Austria. Later, he told his biographer he felt “at Feldkirch Station” that the fate of Ulysses had been decided. Many writers and artists used Europe’s railway network during the Second World War to escape the Nazis.
I was asked by police to show my passport, which bags belonged to me, and why I was traveling. When they asked, “The James Joyce Summer School,” I responded, “Propping up my own travels.” Books Upstairs Tote bag, and nodding to Ulysses that was on my tray. This made me look like a bad spie. Passports and visas in Western Europe were rare before the First World war. After the war this changed and border checks were much longer and more frequent.
If Joyce had a British passport in 1904 he would have been classified as a British Subject. It surprised me to find out that Joyce rejected multiple opportunities to obtain an Irish Passport after independence. From reading his writings, I knew that he rejected narrow nationalism and embraced a cosmopolitan European modernism. Rejecting an Irish passport would have limited his freedoms. Samuel Beckett’s Irish passport enabled him to stay and take part in resistance in France. They both identified strongly as Europeans, having spent most of their lives on this continent. Europeanness is surely defined – even today – more by train travel than by anything else.
Frantz Fanon’s book, despite brilliantly immortalising an incident of racism on a train that occurred in France, is still a classic. Black Skin, White MasksRail travel has provided a safe haven from racism in Europe for many. Claude McKay The following are some examples of how to get started: poet Langston Hughes. Hughes wrote about the lack of segregation on Soviet Union trains: “No Jim Crow in the trains of Soviet Union”. He travelled to south central Asia on the Moscow-Tashkent express, a journey which Russia’s war on Ukraine prevents today – largely cutting off the entire eastern world from Europeans who don’t fly.
Many artists have used trains as a way to escape and as a form of belonging. The trains are communal, they’re sustainable and they make us more considerate. There is a comforting quietness to trains after Covid. It’s not always quiet. But writers spend so much time in caves with their characters, it is a good thing to remember real people, who eat tuna and take off their shoes.
The class segregation in carriages is much less pronounced today than it was during the first, second and third classes of the 20th century. Seat size, phone charging facilities and cufflinks are the main differences between first and second class carriages today. Instead of Edwardian velvet and decadent dinner cars, we now have easy-to-clean, scratchy synthetic interiors and minimalist dining cars filled with Dutch teenagers. Writers – barring those with patrons or trust funds – can generally be found in the cheap seats.
Train travel is still a philosophical experience that is enlightening and uplifting in the 21st Century: it allows you to observe life and landscape, participate in a sustainable infrastructure, and enjoy the novelty, education, and privileges it offers. It makes you think of “all the worlds moving at once”, as Joyce said. Undoubtedly, air travel has facilitated untold advances. However, progress is subjective. Always, there is a hidden or untold story. Slow travel allows for a longer-term perspective. The ability to see our past and future could be very useful.
Caoilinn Hughes latest novel is The Alternatives, published by Oneworld (£9.99). Order your copy to help support the Guardian and Observer at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery Charges may Apply
