A Distant Episode is a famous and acclaimed short story by Paul Bowles. It was first published in the Partisan Review (January-February, 1947) and republished in New Directions in Prose and Poetry, #10, 1948.
The story is a fictional account of a Professor of linguistics (likely an ethnic and national French citizen) traveling through what is likely Morocco in the late 1940s. The nation is never, however, specifically mentioned and the cities that are referred to appear to be entirely fictional. Only references to local languages and tribes (especially the Reguibat and Ouled Nail) suggest that the events take place in Morocco, Algeria, or possibly Western Sahara.
Extremely short, the piece is a study of many things, most notably the cultural divisions between Europe and the North African Islamic world, the role of language (emphasized viscerally) in defining identity and narration, and the various and shifting natures of cultural supremacy.
Among twentieth century short stories, it has a strong reputation and is a favorite of authors such as Tobias Wolff and Jay McInerney. Francine Prose mentioned Bowles's work and A Distant Episode specifically as some of the strongest short fiction work of the twentieth century.
Read more about A Distant Episode: Synopsis, The Power of Language
Famous quotes containing the words distant and/or episode:
“Only the sound remains,
the distant thump of the good elephants,
the voice of the ancient lions
and how the bells
trembled for the flying man.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)