HONORS 345:
Pilgrimages and Idle Travels: A Workshop
Taught by Frances McCue
Fall 2013
This piece was an experiment of the senses. When I travel, I seldom go to the typical touristy sites. I want to go where the locals go: the hidden alleyways, the dirty-looking food carts that sell the most delicious delicacies, the supermarket filled with fish guts and exotic fruits. I wanted to readers to feel uncomfortable as they are reading this narrative - squirming on their chairs, drooling on the sides of their mouths, wheezing almost as if they were suffocating in the heat of Hong Kong's humid air. I wanted to overload the reader's pallet with bolus amounts of sensory details and dialogue in order to portray the truest and purest form of travelling to an unfamiliar place.
This piece is about Joe, an morbidly obese man, and his first experiences in Hong Kong. Through the eyes of Joe and his childhood friend, Melarie, the various faces of Hong Kong, both good and bad, reveals itself.
This piece is about Joe, an morbidly obese man, and his first experiences in Hong Kong. Through the eyes of Joe and his childhood friend, Melarie, the various faces of Hong Kong, both good and bad, reveals itself.