Spalding Gray

Spalding Gray’s style of writing is captivating, humorous, and relatable. Although I often find myself, for some reason, growing restless when I read a book without chapters to divide the reading, Gray’s conversational flair made the whole reading affair of Swimming to Cambodia an effortless blur. The book, as well as his article in Rolling Stone is the Gonzo-esque stream-of-consciousness, which allows the reader enormous insight not only into the thoughts of the author, but also his thinking process.

Gray’s mind, from what I gleam from his writing, works much in the way you might expect a self-professed “aging hippie wanderer’s” would. As he recalls his journey filming The Killing Fields Gray is often interrupted by off-topic ramblings on his opinions or vignette-like short story tangents on related characters or events. Despite his rampant ADD, he managed to more than captivate me by revealing his own enlightened sense of reality. As interesting as his journey in Thailand is in itself, I found that it was really his uniqueness as an individual that kept me reading, and the fact that his quirks are odd enough to be funny but still sane enough to be relatable.

One of his idiosyncrasies was the need to experience the “Perfect Moment” when vacationing. His conscious search for a moment that deeply moved him was at once funny and thought provoking. When he eventually finds the perfect moment, it sneaks up on him. Reflecting upon my own travel experiences, those moments tend to come when least expected.

His actual moment, which occurred while swimming far out from shore in the Indian Ocean, is surreal. He speaks of becoming part of the ocean, and feeling an “enormous disconnection from Mother Earth.” This quazi-spiritual connection with his surroundings lies in stark contrast to his actions upon returning home to the United States to see his girlfriend Renee, where he describes himself as whiney, uninspired, and unhappy.

Although I’m not sure if there is a message meant to be extracted from this, I think perhaps he was unintentionally commenting on the way American culture can, at times, be a soul crushing experience. While in Thailand, he lived a life of true freedom. His expenses were covered by the film more or less, he was provided with room, board, and booze (not to mention mushrooms and pot), and any sort of sexual fulfillment he desired was at his fingertips. Although this sort of life style is anything but sustainable in the long run, it offered him a stress less environment in which he was open to having such spiritual revelations. Ironically, he attributes his ability to let go his “theory of Displacement of Anxiety,” where he worries about his money getting stolen on the beach over getting eaten by a shark in the ocean.