A thought or two on migration, in honor of James Joyce's birthday
Most populations tend to migrate from east to west, at least that's how it appears to me. (I'm going to ignore south to north migrations for now as well as the pre-history migrations over the Bering Strait land bridge). Witness the forced migrations of the slave trade, predominantly from Africa to North and South America; the great migrations of Europeans to the New World; the great westward expansion across North America; and more recent migrations from eastern and central Europe to western Europe.
From a literary and historical standpoint, however, most traditions embrace movement to the west as towards death. The ancient Egyptians lived on the east shore of the Nile, and yet the final voyage of the pharaohs was west across the Nile to the west shore. All the tombs were located on the west shore. In James Joyce's short story "The Dead," the characters talk about moving to the west. At first read, I thought this was hopeful, given the place that westward migration has had in the history of North America, but given the cultural meaning of westward migration, now I wonder if it was really a nod towards death and dying.
On the anniversary of James Joyce's birthday, 2 February, 1882.