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3cef4e0
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What a wonderful thing to be an American!" he said impetuously. "Yes," said Dyar automatically, never having given much thought to what it would be like not to be an American. It seemed somehow the natural thing to be."
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Paul Bowles |
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d889aa7
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The rest of the world was there for her to take at any moment she wished it, but she always rejected it in favour of her own familiar little cosmos.
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Paul Bowles |
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4d3e77d
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Tangier is a one-horse town that happens to have its own government.
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Paul Bowles |
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7488758
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The Hindus are busy letting themselves be seen riding in Cadillacs instead of smearing themselves with sandalwood paste and bowing in front of Ganpati. The Moslems would rather miss evening prayer than the new Disney movie. The Buddhists think it's more important to take over in the name of Stalin and Progress than to meditate on the four basic sorrows. And we don't even have to mention Christianity or Judaism.
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Paul Bowles |
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adad2ea
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You want us all to be snake-charmers and scorpion-eaters," he raged, at one point in their conversation ... "Naturally," Eunice replied in her most provoking manner. "It would be far preferable to being a nation of tenth-rate pseudo-civilized rug-sellers."
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Paul Bowles |
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d68598c
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You know, everyone here's got some little peccadillo he's hoping to hide.
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Paul Bowles |
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e492d87
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But there was never any knowing or any certitude; the time to come always had more than one possible direction.
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Paul Bowles |
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b67bbbb
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He still felt coreless - he was no one, and he was standing here in the middle of no country. The place was counterfeit, a waiting room between connections, a transition from one way of being to another, which for the moment was neither way, no way.
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Paul Bowles |
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0a5ba8c
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Amar was made conscious in an instant of a presence in the air, something which had been there all the time, but which he had never isolated and identified. The thing was in him, he was a part of it, as was the man opposite him, and it was a part of them; it whispered to them that time was short, that the world they lived in was approaching its end, and beyond was unfathomable darkness. It was the premonition of inevitable defeat and annihi..
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muslims
islam
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Paul Bowles |
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306d2fa
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the Istiqlal was powerful, which did not at all coincide with his conception of it, nor with the picture the organization painted of itself: a purely defensive group of selfless martyrs who were willing to brave the brutality of the French in order to bring hope to their suffering countrymen.
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Paul Bowles |
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7a8b49b
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how could any young man merely sit back and wait for divine justice to take its course? It was asking the impossible.
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Paul Bowles |
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e0ffcc3
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There could be nothing, he reflected, to equal a government which was simply the honest enforcement, by means of the sword, of the laws of Islam.
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Paul Bowles |
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80685f8
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That was one of the troubles with the Istiqlal, with all politics: you talked about people as though they were not really people, as though they were only things, numbers, animals, perhaps, but not really people.
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politics
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Paul Bowles |
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9ec8f0c
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nothing would have meaning, because the knowing was itself the meaning; beyond that there was nothing to know.
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meaning
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Paul Bowles |
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d132a3b
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If Moroccans are dying in Indo-China, if it rains too much or not enough, if there is no work, if one's wife is sick and penicillin is expensive, or if the French are still in Morocco, it is all the fault of America. She could change everything if she chose, but she does nothing because she does not love the Moslems.
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Paul Bowles |
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6ac36f3
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Ogniqualvolta si trovava in viaggio da un luogo all'altro, era in grado di valutare la propria vita con un po' piu di obiettivita del solito. Spesso, proprio durante un viaggio i suoi pensieri divenivano particolarmente lucidi, e prendeva decisioni cui non poteva arrivare quand'era fermo in un luogo.
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Paul Bowles |
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d1458c0
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When they had gone the Moungari fell silent, to wait through the cold hours for the sun that would bring first warmth, then heat, thirst, fire, visions. The next night he did not know where he was, did not feel the cold. The wind blew dust along the ground into his mouth as he sang.
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Paul Bowles |
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0e51b0b
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Every little thing makes a difference, whether you decide it yourself or whether it's pure accident. So many people have had the whole course of their lives changed by something perfectly simple like, let's say, crossing the street at one point instead of another." "Yes, yes, yes, I know," Stenham said with exaggerated weariness. "As far as I'm concerned that's just as boring, and a lot more false, by the way. The point I'm trying to make i..
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french-morocco
western-dominion
koran
western-civilization
morocco
modernism
imperialism
relativism
way-of-life
culture
modernity
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Paul Bowles |
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46f2874
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Only then did he understand that he really wanted to know nothing about El Ga'a beyond the fact that it was isolated and unfrequented, that it was precisely those things he had been trying to ascertain about it.
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Paul Bowles |
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9b28ecc
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The insistent drums were an unwelcome reminder of the existence of another world, wholly autonomous, with its own necessities and patterns. The message they were beating out, over and over, was for her; it was saying, not precisely that she did not exist but rather that it did not matter whether she existed or not, that her presence was of no consequence to the rest of the cosmos. It was a sensation that suddenly paralyzed her with dread. T..
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drums
observer
subjectivity
meaning-of-life
message
the-other
existentialism
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Paul Bowles |
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2ec7b90
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Here we say that life is a cliff, and you must never turn around and look back when you're climbing.
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Paul Bowles |
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f8cfbb3
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There's a little war in progress here. There won't be anything left of the place if it goes on at this rate." (But it's hard to feign innocence if you've eaten the apple, he reflected.) "And it looks to me as if it is going to go on, because the French aren't going to give in, and certainly the Arabs aren't, because they can't. They're fighting with their backs the the wall." "I thought maybe you meant you expected a new world war," he lied..
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independence
judgment-day
uprising
unrest
eden
paradise-lost
morocco
innocence
french
revolution
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Paul Bowles |
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c180902
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Another important difference between tourist and traveler is that the former accepts his own civilization without question; not so the traveler, who compares it with the others, and rejects those elements he finds not to this liking.
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Paul Bowles |
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4d6c171
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The key question, it seemed to him, was that of whether man was to obey Nature, or attempt to command her. It had been answered long, long ago, claimed Moss; man's very essence lay in the fact that he had elected to command. But to Stenham that seemed a shallow reply. To him wisdom consisted in the conscious and joyous obedience to natural laws, yet when he had said that to Moss, Moss had laughed pityingly. 'My dear man, wisdom is a primiti..
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nature
wisdom
francis-bacon
dominion
tao
primitive
knowledge
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Paul Bowles |
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421a818
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There have been times, what with this and that, when the whisper of words was not enough. On some shelf of memory lies a misplaced summer, one not stored away for later savoring. Surely it ended early, with unexpected fogs, with the wind sliding past through unmeasured darkness.
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Paul Bowles |
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b21be8e
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La humanidad es todos salvo uno mismo. Entonces, ?Que interes puede tener para nadie?
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Paul Bowles |
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d2d72b5
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Tunner's presence created a situation, however slight, which kept him from entering into the reflective state he considered essential.
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Paul Bowles |
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9c8af70
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Africa was a big place and would offer its own suggestions
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Paul Bowles |
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13576da
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For God's sake, sit down. You look like a Calvinist rector telling his flock about Hell.
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Paul Bowles |
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a544c16
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Every second, ten stars set behind the black water in the west.
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Paul Bowles |