Christoph Ransmayr's "Forms of Storytelling". In "The Confessions of a Tourist," Christoph Ransmayr transforms conversations conducted for journals such as "Der Spiegel," "Neue Zürcher Zeitung," "New York Times," "London Times," "Corriere della Sera," or "Le Monde" into a fictional interrogation that inquires about history and adventure, politics, literature, criticism, and disappearance. And always, an author responds who does not wish to speak as a writer or poet, but rather as a traveler, indeed as a calm, angry, or perplexed tourist. "Whoever asks wants to hear stories. Whoever answers tells them. Storytelling requires imagination, empathy, and demands the same from readers and listeners - and rawness, political or religious ignorance, dogmatism are, in part, a tremendous lack of imagination.".