travelling was almost like conversing with men of other 
centuries, a point of view quite unknown before his time. For 
those who cherish such quaint experience, it is necessary today 
to go back very many centuries by the art and archaeology 
route. Professor Boorstin seems unhappy that so many 
Americans travel so much and are changed by it so little. He 
feels that the entire travel experience has become “diluted, 
contrived, prefabricated.” He is not concerned to find out why 
the photograph has done this to us. But in the same way 
intelligent people in the past always deplored the way in which 
the book had become a substitute for inquiry, conversation, 
and reflection, and never troubled to reflect on the nature of 
the printed book. The book reader has always tended to be 
passive, because that is the best way to read. Today, the 
traveller has become passive. Given travellers cheques, a 
passport, and a toothbrush, the world is your oyster. The