It’s a phrase you’ve heard since you were five. The land of faraway. It sounds like a fairy tale, right? Something tucked between the pages of a dusty Brothers Grimm collection or a Disney storyboard. But honestly, if you look at how we talk about distance, escapism, and the human psyche, "faraway" isn't just a literary trope. It’s a psychological destination. We’re obsessed with the idea of a place that isn't here.
Distance is weird.
In the modern world, where Google Maps can zoom into a literal blade of grass in a suburban backyard in Ohio, the concept of a "land of faraway" should be dead. It isn't. If anything, our digital hyper-connectivity has made us crave the idea of the unreachable even more. We call it "off-grid living" now, or "digital nomadism," but it’s the same old yearning for the horizon.
The Geography of the Impossible
Most people get this wrong. They think the land of faraway is a specific coordinate. It’s not. It’s a shifting boundary. For a merchant in 14th-century Venice, the Silk Road was the land of faraway. It was a place of silk, spices, and terrifying rumors of monsters. Today, we look at high-resolution photos of the Martian surface and feel that same tug.
The "faraway" is defined by the limits of our current reach.
Take the Kerguelen Islands. Look them up. They’re often called the "Desolation Islands." Located in the southern Indian Ocean, they are one of the most isolated places on Earth. There’s no airport. To get there, you have to take a ship from Réunion, and it takes nearly a week of smashing through some of the roughest seas on the planet. For the scientists who live there, Paris or New York isn't just a different city; it’s a different reality. That is a modern land of faraway. It exists, it’s physical, but it’s mentally siloed.
Why our brains need a "Somewhere Else"
Psychologically, we aren't built to be "everywhere" all at once. The constant stream of TikToks and Instagram Reels gives us the illusion of proximity. You feel like you know what a cafe in Tokyo looks like. You’ve seen the steam rising from the ramen. But you aren't there. This creates a weird friction in the brain—a sort of "digital FOMO" that actually deepens our sense of isolation.
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The land of faraway serves as a pressure valve.
It’s the place where our responsibilities don't exist. It’s the "if I just moved to a cabin in the woods" fantasy that keeps people from quitting their corporate jobs on a Tuesday morning. Researchers often point to the "restorative environment" theory, which suggests that our brains need the idea of vast, distant spaces to recover from the cognitive load of urban living. Even if we never go, knowing it’s there matters.
Folklore, Fiction, and the Branding of Distance
We’ve been branding the land of faraway for centuries. Tolkien called it Valinor. C.S. Lewis called it Narnia. In the 19th century, explorers like Sir Richard Burton or David Livingstone were basically the influencers of their day, sending back dispatches from places that felt like alien planets to the folks back in London.
These stories weren't just entertainment.
They were maps of the human spirit. When we read about a protagonist traveling to a distant, magical realm, we’re actually processing our own growth. The "crossing of the threshold" is a staple of Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth for a reason. You can’t become a hero in your own living room. You have to go to the land of faraway to face the metaphorical dragons.
- The Silk Road: Not just a trade route, but a cultural exchange that felt like magic.
- The Deep Sea: We’ve mapped more of the Moon than our own ocean floor. The abyss is the ultimate faraway right under our feet.
- Deep Space: The Voyager probes are currently in the interstellar medium. They are the only human objects truly in the "faraway" now.
What Science Says About Escapism
Is it healthy to constantly dream of being somewhere else? Honestly, it’s a bit of a toss-up.
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Psychologists sometimes talk about "maladaptive daydreaming." This is when the land of faraway becomes more real than your actual life. You spend hours imagining a different world instead of doing your laundry or paying your bills. That’s the dark side. But in moderation, "prospective emotion"—the act of imagining future or distant events—is actually a sign of high intelligence and emotional maturity. It’s how we plan. It’s how we innovate.
Elon Musk’s obsession with Mars is basically a billion-dollar version of a kid dreaming about the land of faraway. He’s just trying to build a bridge to it.
The Death of Mystery?
Some people argue that because of GPS and satellite imagery, the land of faraway is dead. They’re wrong. Mystery doesn't live in the unseen; it lives in the unexperienced. You can see a 4K video of the Amazon rainforest, but until you feel the humidity that weighs like a wet blanket and hear the deafening roar of cicadas, that place is still "faraway" to you.
We’ve traded geographical mystery for experiential mystery.
Finding Your Own Land of Faraway
You don't need a passport to find it, though it helps. Sometimes, the land of faraway is just a state of mind you reach through meditation, deep work, or a really good book. It’s any place where the rules of your daily "grind" don't apply.
Here is how you actually find that sense of distance in a world that feels too small:
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1. Practice Radical Disconnection
Turn off the phone. Not for an hour, but for a weekend. The "faraway" feeling returns the moment you stop being reachable. When no one can find you, you are, by definition, in a distant land.
2. Seek "Micro-Adventures"
Alastair Humphreys, a British adventurer, coined this term. It’s about finding the unknown in your own backyard. Take a train to a random stop you’ve never heard of. Walk in a direction you’ve never turned. The land of faraway is often just two miles off the main highway in a forest you never bothered to enter.
3. Lean Into the Uncomfortable
The reason the land of faraway feels so potent in stories is because it’s dangerous. I’m not saying go fight a lion, but do something that makes your heart race. Join a class where you’re the worst person in the room. Travel somewhere where you don't speak the language.
4. Read Long-Form Narrative
Brief snippets of information (like this article!) are great, but they don't transport you. To get to the land of faraway, you need to inhabit a world for hours at a time. Pick up a 600-page novel. Let your brain build the sets.
The land of faraway isn't a myth. It’s a necessity. It’s the horizon line that keeps us moving forward. Without the idea that there is something "out there" beyond our current peripheral vision, life becomes a very small, very stagnant room. So, keep looking at the horizon. It's still there, waiting.
Next Steps for the Curious Traveler:
- Research "Inaccessible Poles": Look into the Pole of Inaccessibility—the point on land furthest from any ocean. It’s a real-world "faraway" that few will ever see.
- Audit Your Screen Time: Identify how much of your "travel" is digital. Replace one hour of scrolling with one hour of planning a physical trip to a place that intimidates you.
- Explore Local History: Sometimes the most "faraway" place is the same spot you’re standing on, but 200 years in the past. Visit a local archive and see how much the "here" has changed.