When is an explorer an explorer?

Thanks to everyone who took the time to write in and give their views about this matter (see below, for my discussion of this recently). Here are two letters I'd be delighted to share. I'm very happy to receive your views - don't feel you have to be complementary, although it's always nice!

Subject: when is an explorer not an explorer?

Dear Benedict Allen
I am not sure if you still want thoughts on this, but here are mine in case you do. I think that the desire to explore is a symptom of human curiosity, to constantly want to push back boundaries and see what can be found. These boundaries are certainly not simply geographical, but boundaries of our own experience. The Victorians didn't discover anything that the ingenious populations hadn't already found, but they did discover places that their own cultures had not experienced before. Through your programmes we see cultures, environmental conditions and ways of life that we have never experienced before, you are exploring the world so that we can experience it. That is why I feel that to simply define an explorer as someone who discovers new lands is illegitimate and narrow-minded. Those that do are not open to the real possibilities of exploration in (what I think) is it's true sense, going beyond known boundaries, of any kind to experience new things. Therefore you are an explorer Q.E.D... and now I had better get back to work!
Yours sincerely
Esther O'Sullivan

And the second letter:

Subject: When is an "adventurer" an explorer? And what is an explorer anyway?

I am a trainer and practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming - which you may or may not have heard of. We have our own School in Lancashire. Basically NLP is the study of how people are able to do what they do, and relies on the NLPer to be completely open and curious in his/her quest to find out what is happening on the inside with an individual. This also relies on the NLPer to put aside all previous knowledge, ideas, beliefs, understandings, and approach the individual as being in completely unknown territory. This is my idea of being an explorer - either exploring your own unchartered internal territory, or enabling another to explore their's. All learning needs to be a form of exploration, since new information lies outside our known experience. To be a learner, we have to be confident and comfortable about not-knowing, enjoy confusion and wait - sometimes for some time - before we are able to make meaning. Unfortunately most 'learners' prefer to stay safe in their familiar known worlds. So having exemplars like yourself giving practical descriptions and offering physical metaphors to the process of going into the unknown is fabulous and inspiring - adding credibility to the idea that not-knowing is the only place where our growth as an individual will come from. In these times of constant change - we need to live as learners and discover the joys and sanity of exploring. We need to live as explorers.
Best wishes
Fran Burgess
The Northern School of NLP
Tel: 01254 824504 Web: www.nlpand.co.uk

When is an "adventurer" an explorer? And what is an explorer anyway?

You might have realised by now that I feel strongly that exploration shouldn't be seen as the thing done in the past - by Victorians, say - and I've stubbornly insisted on calling myself a professional explorer, because of the things I have recorded for the first time - like the Niowra "crocodile" initiation ceremony in New Guinea. Likewise, I've tried to emphasise the role of, for example, scientists across the planet who are making discoveries in all fields, pushing frontiers of knowledge everyday.

But, of course, the use of the word still does tend to sound surprising - even silly - nowadays, and in a Telegraph review of my Faber Book of Exploration travel writer Stanley Stewart attacked me for (among other things) applying it to myself. Although somewhat taken aback by the bitterness of his overall tone - I've always been so nice about his Mongolian book! - in this particular regard, he of course reflects the common view of what An Explorer is. To most people, exploration is still about geographical discovery - in which case, explorers are almost extinct as a species.

Any thoughts on this from any one? To dodge the issue, I usually introduce myself as an author and adventurer. 8/7/03