The world is not so small. As long as people are dissimilar in thoughts, we can find ourselves strangers. London was able to, or at least tried to, enter the mind of different cultures and show us the world through their eyes. Sometimes it made white Western culture look petty and silly, sometimes it made the tribal characters seem that way. There are certainly enough different mind sets in the world today that a journey through them can still seem alien and shocking. I can imagine London taking us into a Saudi terrorist’s home life, or through the libertarian religion-of-capitalism of a Texas oil man, just as he once portrayed the oligarchical white landowners of late nineteenth century Hawaii. Much of London’s stories revolved around the point where cultures meet, where history is a force more powerful than those swimming in it. Then, he wrote of industrialization of America and Europe, and the spread of the Western way over the tribes of Alaska, Yukon, Hawaii and the South Pacific. Today he might tell tales from an oil field in Nigeria, or the multinational tech hubs of Silicon Valley or Singapore.
Think of the most exotic place you’ve visited. Consider the major forces at play in that spot. What could be the saddest story of someone caught in those forces? Now write that story! For your next comment!
We thank you!