Review of The Voices of Marrakesh by Elias Canetti
Originally published on Goodreads on July 28th, 2022
★★★★★
Canetti had a very different experience of Marrakech than the one I had – especially since some 5/6 decades passed between our two visits – but I think a lot of the feelings were shared. It was very difficult to be in the city. On one hand, visiting Marrakech is a reenactment of colonialism, to have the upper hand in a power dynamic you perhaps didn’t expect to play. On the other hand, empathy and curiosity are exploited and taken advantage of in a split second. In coming from so much privilege, it is a shockingly alien experience to enter a world in which possibility and priority and so completely foreign, and it is a painful experience to learn your temporary role in this place.
Canetti writes very honestly, cruelly, sadly about the things he sees. Some of it is decidedly hopeful and often religious in tone and subject, despite the author not being a practicing theist (at least, so it seems from the essays). Some of it is also mere observation of the place as an invisible bystander. But much of it is a pitiful look at the expats, elite, and natives who call Marrakech home.
This book, more than anything else, has made me realize that good travel can consist solely of observation, although action is not contrary to that goal. The essays are a little outdated, which is to be expected, but at the same time they feel timeless.