A Distant Episode

by Paul Bowles

A linguistic professor arrives in Ain Tadouirt seeking to study the local dialects. Confident, condescending and culturally aloof, he is led that night to a quarry and left there. He begins to descend. Met with horror upon horror as his journey continues, he is stripped of dignity, humanity and worth. In this dark short story, language takes a central role as Paul Bowles vividly consigns the Professor to his fate amidst evocative smells, haunting sights and lurking sensations. Incisive and commanding, it is an exploration of the definition of identities, cultural differences and the shifting natures of cultural supremacy.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literature, Africa, Literary Fiction

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Paul Frederic Bowles grew up in New York, and attended college at the University of Virginia before traveling to Paris, where became a part of Gertrude Stein's literary and artistic circle. Following her advice, he took his first trip to Tangiers in 1931 with his friend, composer Aaron Copeland.

In 1938 he married author and playwright Jane Auer (see: Jane Bowles). He moved to Tangiers permanently in 1947, with Auer following him there in 1948. There they became fixtures of the American and European expatriate scene, their visitors including Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal. Bowles continued to live in Tangiers after the death of his wife in 1973.

Bowles died of heart failure in Tangier on November 18, 1999. His ashes were interred near the graves of his parents and grandparents in Lakemont, New York.

Reviews

[Dmitry Berkut · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story A Distant Episode, which gives its title to the collection, is one of the most brutal and piercing works by Bowles I read during my trip to Tangier. At first it looks like an ethnographic sketch: a linguistics professor arrives in a Moroccan town, steps into a café, exchanges a few phrases with a waiter. He takes offense at something like a child, makes impulsive decisions — everything seems almost mundane, slightly absurd. But gradually the narration shifts: the professor finds himself among the Reguibat nomads, and what had once been the subject of his scholarly interest suddenly turns into a reality where his life has no value. Bowles shows the fragility of cultural bridges: a man accustomed to relying on knowledge and familiar order suddenly becomes a faceless creature, deprived of language and the right to explain himself. Scenes of violence are rendered in the driest way, without moralizing, almost ethnographically. It is precisely this detachment that makes the story terrifying. There is no authorial judgment, only the cold record of someone else’s will. The professor is turned into a toy for the Bedouins’ amusement, almost into an animal — and it is his “scientific curiosity” that has led him into this trap. He never fully grasps the irreversibility of what is happening, but it is shown with frightening clarity. This is a story about the illusion of Western control. Bowles leads the reader from light irony to absolute horror without ever raising his voice. Reading it, you feel that the world is vast and indifferent, and that knowledge of language or the habit of observing will not save you when you find yourself on foreign ground.

[Edita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frightfulness is never more than an unfamiliar pattern.

[Tim Weed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upon finishing The Sheltering Sky, I was reluctant to leave Bowles’ deeply engaging northern Africa behind, so I read his story, “A Distant Episode,” thinking I would take advantage of the opportunity to contemplate the differences between short stories and novels. It was a good call, I believe, because the story is a reprisal of a plot line present in the novel: a traumatized foreigner is captured by sinister nomads and transported into an exotic desert world, losing her/his identity for a long period, only to recover it momentarily as part of a final plunge into complete insanity and/or despair.

A happy little fugue Bowles liked to play out! But to get to the point, the striking difference between the short story and the novel is, not surprisingly, character development. In “A Distant Episode,” the protagonist (the “Professor”) is sketched only in outline—we never find out what he looks like, and we know very little about him other than that he is a linguist, that his scientific bent allows him to feel that he can maintain an amused distance from the culture he’s in, and that he sometimes behaves impulsively. Although these tidbits of character are important, the story takes on an admirable breakneck momentum that has little to do with character, and everything to do with pure narrative tension, or dramatic conflict. How does Bowles do it?

Here's my analysis: http://bit.ly/1cuiy1Y

What do you think?

[Olivia's Bookish Places & Spaces]

Read this in English but I could only find the Italian version on here (I don't know why). This book is interesting in that it does given some insight into the then Arab-French political situation in places in North Africa.

[Sharon Keely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man oh man. The horror in some of these tales, particularly the ones set in Morocco, a place I like to visit but on whose streets I don't always feel completely at ease. Had I read these first... I'd still have gone, but would have jumped out of my skin at every untoward advance. And would not have gone out at night. Bowles had some imagination. And likely smoked some very strong hash.

[Roman Louche · Rating 4 out of 5]

lyrically lovely abjection

[Padma Baliga · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like its emphasis on language and memory but dislike its highly orientalist perspective

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in North Africa, a dark and violent story highlighting cultural differences.

[Chris Corpora · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of shorts from across the many places PB lived, but mostly Morocco. Bowles has a great way of putting the reader properly in the place of an authentic experience of the foreign -- not always a place, and often a state of mind. Those who have spent significant time as an expatriate will recognize many of the feelings -- if not the dated landscapes -- exposed in this collection.

[sedge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bowles is dry and mean as bone; these stories are extraordinary, and upsetting, and really pretty amazing. "Pages from Cold Point" is, hands down, the most upsetting story I've ever read. In a fiction workshop back in NYC, I brought it to class when it was my week to choose the selection.

[Scott Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bowles is a genre unto himself - largely formulaic (westerners in exotic lands), bleak and surreal, with a minimalist touch. If he has a project at all, I'd describe it as exploring the outer boundaries of civilized society, or something like that. This is arguably Orientalist, which is not wrong but also reductive in my view. By all means read The Sheltering Sky first, and soon, but this was a very intriguing collection to pick through regardless.

[Matthew Sadowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A style that won’t be for everyone, but is worth trying. Like being led down a slow relaxing lazy river, which at any moment could turn red.

[Geoff from · Rating 4 out of 5]

Previously cynical of the short story form; thinking nothing of any real depth or power could be formed within them; thinking they could be little more than entertainment for the attention-deficient.

How wrong I was. In capable hands and compiled thoughtfully, a - well, this - collection of stories is a pure joy that reflects and meditates on the human condition as well as any novel might.

The writer invites us to share in the lives of the dispossed, the possessed and those who possess, in equal measure; to empathise where we shouldn't; to explore the dynamic of (unequal) social relations.

This is done throughout via the interaction between the familiar and the fantastic; a fantastic canvas that allows the familiar to develop and adapt - or attempt to - as befits this environment and/or situation. Wherever we are, we are always there, and many of these stories illustrate that beautifully.

Yes, at first, I was sceptical and, after the first three tales, I thought I was in for a collection of much-the-same: maybe fine as stand-alone stories but, within a collection, a little too alike in their structure, style and approach.

Then, little by little, by 'Pages from Cold Point', things change, where we empathise with ... no, I won't say, but, by the time I'd finished 'Pastor Dowe at Tacate', I found myself seduced by each story.

All of them feel of perfect length; you are neither wanting more nor less. They drive along to their own conclusions, exactly as a short story should.

In short, I highly recommend this collection of strangely charming tales.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great and often overlooked American writers, particularly of short stories. Bowles spent most of his adult life outside the United States, much of it in Muslim north Africa, and many of these tales depict the clash of the western "colonial" with the native cultures of Africa and Central America. His use of violence is almost biblical -- it just happens in nature's course, as a function of God and humanity, and his narrative tone is completely disinterested. Fascinating, searing stuff.

[Jeremy Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

About halfway through this short story collection, the roots of Paul Bowles's brilliance hit me: He always knows right from the beginning what he wants to say with a story. Or, maybe it's more accurate to say that when he encounters or imagines a story, he unerringly understands what that story has to say to the universe. As a result, his short stories are little meaning machines.

[Nils Samuels · Rating 5 out of 5]

The distinctive, dark style to Bowles's stories make them feel like no one else's. The twisted emotions that they explore and generate have stayed with me for twenty years. Recommended to those displaced from home, wherever that home may be.

[Gabrielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some awesome bizarro stories in this collection. If you can figure out what happens between father and son in the bed scene in 'Pages from Cold Point,' please let me know. Does what I think happens, happen?

[life form · Rating 5 out of 5]

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, WHEN THE PROFESSOR STOOD AT THE EGDE OF THE PRECIPICE,LISTENED INTENTLY LIKE A CHILD,I FELT THAT A GUST OF WIND EVEN BLEW THROUGH MY HAIR.

AWESOME ANTHOR WHO COULD BRING TALE INTO LIFE IS ONE OF MY FOVOURITE WRITERS.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a similarity to Bowles' stories: a descent by its characters to doom of some sort, usually in an exotic Latin American or Saharan locale. I haven't finished it, and will probably come back to it later, but the Library wants it back for now. I read up to "Mejdoub".

[Corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been a staple of my library for years. I pick it up every so often to reacquaint myself with it's beauty and wonder. It is of the best short story collections I've read.

[Fritz Misteli · Rating 4 out of 5]

short fiction. a bit raw

[Colin Hinde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly dark stories, often involving foreigners suffering in Morocco. very interesting stuff, but can be depressing to read more than one at a time.

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like of all of Paul Bowles Books, I find them intriguing, other worldly and engaging.

[Lua Limaverde · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meu comentário sobre esse livro aqui:
http://lualimaverde.wordpress.com/201...

[Guille · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Bowles no tienen una gran opinión del género humano, al menos eso es lo que se desprende de los cuentos incluidos en este volumen. No seré yo el que le contradiga ni ponga en duda las atrocidades que aquí se relatan.

“… andas preguntándome cómo la humanidad puede ser tan bestial. Yo creo que la humanidad está bien”

Algo de agradecer en un libro de relatos, como es este el caso, es la variedad. Hay varios cuentos sobre el choque entre culturas, no siempre dramático: a veces el protagonismo se lo lleva la fascinación que provoca un mundo en los habitantes del otro («Merienda en la montaña»). Otras veces el choque sí es bestial, como en el famoso cuento que da título al libro, elegido por Richard Ford en su «Antología del cuento norteamericano», en el que un occidental se adentra en un mundo de pesadilla. También la crueldad puede provenir del mundo supuestamente civilizado («En Paso Rojo»). Hay cuentos en los que la violencia es consustancial al ser humano y surge de forma natural, como parte del destino al que sus protagonistas se dirigen inevitablemente («Junto al agua», «Mil días para Mojtar», «Delicada presa» o «Bajo el cielo»). En todos estos cuentos, la violencia, la crueldad, la brutalidad se describe sin elevar el tono, como algo ordinario, lo cual aumenta el poder perturbador del relato. Hay una fábula («El escorpión») y un relato fantástico («El Atlájala»). Hay cuentos en los que predomina una atmósfera enrarecida que parece trastornar a sus protagonistas («El eco», «Parada en Corazón» o «Páginas de Cold Point») y uno en el que el trastorno es evidente desde el inicio («Tú no eres yo»). También la soledad y el abandono tiene su parte protagonista («Cuantas veces a medianoche»).

Solo dos cuentos no fueron de mi agrado, «El señor Ong y el señor Ha» y «El pastor Dowe en Tacaté», culpables de la media estrellita que le falta, si bien, la calidad es tan alta en todos que no puedo si no redondear al alza.

[Pieter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Distant Episode ~ ★★★★★
The Echo ~ ★★★★
Call at Corazón ~ ★★★★
Pages from Cold Point ~ ★★★★
The Circular Valley ~ ★★★
The Delicate Prey ~ ★★★★
At Paso Rojo ~ ★★★
Pastor Dowe at Tacaté ~ ★★★★
Señor Ong and Señor Ha ~ ★★★★
The Frozen Fields ~ ★★★★★
He of the Assembly ~ ★★
The Time of Friendship ~ ★★★★
Mejdoub ~ ★★★
Allal ~ ★★★★
Tapiama ~ ★★★★
The Little House ~ ★★★
Here to Learn ~ ★★★★
Rumor and a Ladder ~ ★★★
In the Red Room ~ ★★★★
The Eye ~ ★★★
An Inopportune Visit ~ ★★★
In Absentia ~ ★★★★
Tangier 1975 ~ ★★★
Unwelcome Words ~ ★★★★

[Mike Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Paul Bowle’s short stories. He reminds me a bit of JG Ballard, but Bowles is a little less obtuse. Don’t care for his longer works, read sheltering sky and tried to read Spider’s House but didn’t like at all. Hemingway’s like that for me, novels so so but love his short stories. I’ve got Bowles autobiography up next to read. I’ll let you know how it is just leave your number and I’ll text you.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I bought this Kindle edition on Amazon I assumed from the page count (over 300) that it was a full length novel or story collection. However, it turned out just to be this short story, about 20 pages, although it's difficult to tell with Kindles.

The story itself is entertaining enough, something of a morality tale, a warning about being careful who you trust when travelling!

[Ryland Quillen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite stories: A Distant Episode, Call at Corazón, Pages from Cold Point, The Delicate Prey, At Paso Rojo, Pastor Dowe at Tacaté, Mejdoub, Allal, Here to Learn, In the Red Room, In Absentia, Tangier 1975.

[Geert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaah, what a pleasure! One of the first books I bought in new york at 4$. I had absolutely forgotten I had this jewel. Not for the light hearted, although I think a contemporary writer would make even darker endings. It takes me all over the world and make me drean in vivid colors.