Throughout the ages, people have wanted to \”leave everything and go.\” I want too, more and more these days. But what do we want then, thinks Rönkä
It’s been about a year now since I started spending significantly long periods of time on Airbnb, a website where private people offer their homes for rent to travelers. I type in the search field some remote and unreal place, such as \”Huippuvuoret\ \”Yellowknife\” or \”Akureyri\ and I’m left staring at pictures of log cabins buried in snow, looming under the aurora sky.
Klein took full advantage of the phenomenon and published a photo book *Cabin Porn: Inspiration for Your Quiet Place Somewhere* (2015). It became a New York Times bestseller, and a sequel *Cabin Porn: Inside* was released in 2020.
However, what is essential in the cabin porn culture is that you don’t *really* plan to get or rent a cabin. When browsing the Airbnb site, I’m not really considering a trip to Alaska or even Lapland.
The domestic classic of hermit’s dreams is Impivaara of the *Seven Brothers*, where the katras ran away from the demands of the locksmith and the rest of society. \”Let’s move to the forest and throw away the roar of this world,\” reads Lauri’s well-known declaration. However, there is no open peace waiting in Impivaara; soon the sauna will be back on, the food will run out and you have to sneak home with the wolves on your heels.
The cabin is an excellent place if you want to stay in cabins. But if you want – like me and Kive’s brothers and sisters and all the hundreds of thousands who read Klein’s book – just \”somewhere away\ then what do you really want?
Maybe then you just want to be here and look at beautiful pictures. From cottages. To think of faraway places you will never visit and forget yourself. Maybe when you forget yourself, you can really get away.
*Antti Rönkä*
*The author is a writer.*
*The column can be discussed on 2.3. until 23:00.*