Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/24995
MATTHEW FLAMM TALKS WITH ALEX GAR D AUTHOR OF THE BEACH definitive novel of what the British call "traveler culture." that ingrown. self-regarding world of young Westerners more or less permanently on the roa d. and he has roamed through Thailand. Vietnam. India . China. Indonesia and the Philippines. But Alex Garland. an intense twenty-six-year-old Londoner. would still prefer that you not call him "a traveler." When the author of the acclaimed first novel The Beach (Riverhead Books. $23.95). takes his annual jaunt. he would rather be thought of as "a tourist." "The traditional difference [between traveler and tourist] would have something to do with how much money you have and how long you stay away. and also a whole bunch of what I consider to be completely shallow and fatuous ideas about how well you get to know the country' " Garland explains. "Irs an ongoing debate: Clearly. the debate goes on in his own head. though with more at stake than showing the cool crowd he has no use for them. The Beach. which has' been described as Lord of the f'lies meets Heart of Darkn ess. tells the story of a group of young backpackers who find their way to a secret island paradise in a Thai marine park. This is the travel ers' fantasy come true: a beach reserved for their own kind of elite. one that will never show up in a Lonely Planet guidebook and become one more spoiled place. The only problem is that the Westerners who have been on the island for years sti.1l don't belong there. And their obsession with their privileged status. coupled with the usual cultural blindness, leads to murder and mayhem in The Beach. "I'm describing people who essentially want one big experience in their life before they go back to doing whatever." Garland says. As innocent as their pastime seems. these visitors "unconsciously do a lot of harm. The sort of harm that bothers me is not the destruction of local culture via Western influence: it has more to do with the screwing up of the local economy." Travelers start price wars by haggling over guest house rates, or contribute to opium addiction among residents in Thai villages where they come to get stoned. . Judgmental though he is, Garland plea ds guilty to many of the sins he complains about-including the misplaced protectiveness his characters feel for their island home. The young author has spent part of every year since he was 18 on a tiny island in the Philippines. where he now has a small group of Filipino friends. He won't divulge the name of the island: he claims it's too small to be worth men tioning. A bit more prodding brings the admission that on his summer visits he "lived in fear of its turning up in the Lonely Planet." "It wasn't my place to feel protective of it." he admits. and flashes a rare smile. "But if I'd seen a guy with a backpack. I would have killed him."