The Trans-Siberian Fantasy

During our first two classes we have read a long poem written by Blaise Cendrars. As you can tell by the title, my first impressions about this poem define it as a very good fantasy. Knowing Cendrars' character and his imaginary life full of lies and fabrications, my impressions get even stronger. He takes this trip which is supposedly from France to Russia (or vice-versa) by a train. Somehow, during that trip, the whole world and all worldwide cultures got involved even though he wasn’t passing through all of them (i.e. Mongolia). Even though this poem supposedly “travels” across countries, cultures, events, and people, I was able to draw a line between the poem and myself. The traveling poet makes the world look so small and reachable while imaginatively passing through various countries including Germany, China, Sweden, United States, Spain etc. I also get this sort of a “traveling effect”. When I’m in an airport, looking at the big screens which show various cities of different places, I get the feeling that none of those cities are far away and that all of them can be reached easily. Furthermore, the contrasts and the great mixture of different things also grabbed my attention. The poet tends to compare and contrast objects which have no relation between them whatsoever but nonetheless, he managed to make the poem attractive and mind-catching.