Thursday, July 06, 2006
Interlude
I am too tired and there is a terrible constipation of tales that need to be written.
So instead, I am going to copy and paste an excerpt of a book I'm (still) reading - In Xanadu. On page 163, William Dalrymple is speaking to an Iranian surgeon, Nazir, who works in Pakistan.
'... Sometimes I wonder if God has forgotten me.'
'It can't be as bad as that.'
'It is. Maybe it is worse. I have a little surgery in the desert south of Quetta. The people are Baluchis and always they kill each other. Always they are giving grenades to each other's houses. To be a surgeon in the desert south of Quetta is a terrible thing. For me they are dark days.'
'Well, why don't you stay in Iran?'
'Iran is worse than Pakistan. In Iran I was sent to the front and made to - how do you say - amplify?'
'Amputate?'
'Yes, I was made to amputate. They say to me - "Nazir you must take this finger, or Nazir you must remove noise. So all day I am cutting noises and always there are more noises to cut. And all the time the guns are going BAM BAM BAM, and my scalpel trembles. I would perfer to die alone without wife and without issue in Pakistan than to stay at front. But either way my life it is lived in shadow.'
Nazir poured out his heart until well after noon. He was like a character escaped from a terrible nineteenth-century German novel: the sort of manic who totters from disaster to disaster through books one, two, three and four, only to commit suicide on page nine hundred and eighty-seven.
Dalrymple's writing can give insight into a dramatic situation one minute, but paint it over with such satirical humour in the next that it saves the reader from depression while leaving an unforgettable nonfiction lingering in your mind.
So instead, I am going to copy and paste an excerpt of a book I'm (still) reading - In Xanadu. On page 163, William Dalrymple is speaking to an Iranian surgeon, Nazir, who works in Pakistan.
'... Sometimes I wonder if God has forgotten me.'
'It can't be as bad as that.'
'It is. Maybe it is worse. I have a little surgery in the desert south of Quetta. The people are Baluchis and always they kill each other. Always they are giving grenades to each other's houses. To be a surgeon in the desert south of Quetta is a terrible thing. For me they are dark days.'
'Well, why don't you stay in Iran?'
'Iran is worse than Pakistan. In Iran I was sent to the front and made to - how do you say - amplify?'
'Amputate?'
'Yes, I was made to amputate. They say to me - "Nazir you must take this finger, or Nazir you must remove noise. So all day I am cutting noises and always there are more noises to cut. And all the time the guns are going BAM BAM BAM, and my scalpel trembles. I would perfer to die alone without wife and without issue in Pakistan than to stay at front. But either way my life it is lived in shadow.'
Nazir poured out his heart until well after noon. He was like a character escaped from a terrible nineteenth-century German novel: the sort of manic who totters from disaster to disaster through books one, two, three and four, only to commit suicide on page nine hundred and eighty-seven.
Dalrymple's writing can give insight into a dramatic situation one minute, but paint it over with such satirical humour in the next that it saves the reader from depression while leaving an unforgettable nonfiction lingering in your mind.
// posted by sakit @ 12:52 PM 
Comments:
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Yeah I liked the book a lot too, seems like a great adventure. My biggest critism is his condescending and "racist" approach to the "inferior" peoples and tacit comparison to Britain... as you said though he does brush it up with satirical humor so you keep on reading and are able to overlook that part. :)
I couldn't agree with you more on the racist part, Digs. It makes me cringe at times.
One of the interesting qualities of this book, however, is that it is intertwined with historical anecdotes as well as the present-day conversations with the people he meets. I think it's still a unique and interesting read for that reason. (Can't believe it's taken me this long!)
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One of the interesting qualities of this book, however, is that it is intertwined with historical anecdotes as well as the present-day conversations with the people he meets. I think it's still a unique and interesting read for that reason. (Can't believe it's taken me this long!)
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