The Walking Dead

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One of my most recent television addictions is AMC’s The Walking Dead. The show is set just outside of Atlanta and explores the lives of the few people who survive a zombie apocalypse thus far. Throughout every episode the viewer explores the high anxiety situations each character is faced with while trying to survive living in an absolute wasteland with little food, and no truly safe place to take shelter.

                There have been plenty of zombie movies within film history. However as of recent, most of them have heavily involved the inevitable apocalypse as well as mass populations being turned into thirsty cannibalistic creatures due to an unknown epidemic. In The Walking Dead, for example, no one knows why exactly everyone started turning into zombies after their death all that is known is bites transfer the disease.

                Another example of this was in the movie I Am Legend, a movie about a scientist who is the sole person left in New York City after nearly the entire earth’s population died from receiving a vaccination that was supposed to be a cure for cancer. Some of the population however, turned into rabies-infected zombie-like creatures who ended up killing any survivors.

From NYTIMES

                Perhaps this recurring theme of the apocalypse is now present in pop culture due to the whole “Mayan calendar 2012” myth. There are many people who truly believe—or at least suspect--that the world will end very soon. The only problem is, if it is supposed to happen, no one is at all sure how. The most plausible way I can think of is something weather oriented and natural, or perhaps there could even be a widespread uncontrollable disease. A zombie apocalypse is definitely the last thing on my mind…or at least it was.

                Hollywood writers could simply be using the fear of the apocalypse as a way to insert other ideas in our heads because it keeps us interested in the possible outcomes of the world ending, and it’s working. Over the summer for example, there were quite a few random stories in the news of cannibalism and rabid behavior from the “cannibals”. It turned out that these individuals were in fact smoking bath salts, but for a short period of time, people were running around with the idea that a zombie apocalypse was set to begin.

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                So the question is, are TV shows and movies such as The Walking Dead, I Am Legend and 28 Days Later reflecting our paranoia towards the idea of how or when the world will end? Or are these stories the reason why we have this looming anxiety about the apocalypse? 

A Distant Episode

I really enjoyed all of the fantastic sensory details in A Distant Episode by Paul Bowles. The author described everything so intricately that I felt as though I were there, accompanying the professor on his wild journey. There were quite a few details of the setting that I found very interesting and important. For example, when the sky is referred to as “red”. This is noted in the very beginning and near end of this story. Perhaps this is stated to exhibit the contrast of the beginning from the end. Also, the use of the word “red” to describe the sunset may be symbolic of the blood shed in the midst of the text. Nevertheless, this recurring description of the color of the sky gives the story a somewhat circular ending.

When the professor revisits the café, he comes to find out that his friend, the original owner, is deceased. The arrogant professor is shaken with this news and, at that point, the story starts to take an ominous turn. Hassan Ramani’s death signifies the professor’s severed connection with the foreign land. This also indicates that the things the professor thought he knew of the land may have drastically changed. Upon being seating in the backroom of the café, the professor hears dogs barking in the distance. I find this to be quite an important foreboding detail as well. Later on in the story, the professor encounters the dogs he had heard from the café—and their violent owners.

Another very critical detail is the fact that the professor is a linguist. To be specific, an arrogant linguist who seems to have no interest in relating to the culture of the people he wishes to study. He basically regards the people as being primitive and does not respect their opinions. Because he is not attuned to the foreign land, his trip takes a rather dreadful turn. It’s somewhat ironic that the professor, who studies language/speaking, loses his tongue. The loss of the professor’s tongue could symbolically suggest that one should not rely solely on verbal communication. The truly connect with foreign people, speaking their language is not enough—it is necessary to learn about their culture.

Identifying “the other” in this story is a bit complicated for a couple of reasons. Initially, one might regard the foreign people as “the other” being that we are seeing things primarily from the perspective of the professor. However, as the story goes on, the reader is disconnected from the thoughts and feelings of the professor as he is violently stripped of his ability to properly function. At this point, the reader can no longer relate to the professor and begins to connect with the newfound realm of the Reguibat. This shift of “the other” is made clear in the way Bowles starts to depict the professor after he is abused. The following quotation suggests that the professor is now the foreigner: “When they emptied the Professor out of his sack, there were screams of fright, and it took several hours to convince the last woman that he was harmless” The story transitions from a man’s mission to tame a foreign land, to the foreign land taming a man.

The landscape definitely has some connection with the problems the professor faces. For example, the path he takes as he is guided by the qaouaji makes him feel very uneasy inside. He is quite concerned and nervous as he takes the curious journey into the desert. The professor encounters another internal conflict when he reaches the edge of the cliff and looks down into the dark abyss. He questions his own, complicated bundle of feelings. The professor is torn, wondering whether he should proceed or turn around and go back to town. The professor ventures forward, down the cliff, and, upon reaching the bottom, is thrown into a rather brutal conflict. This change of landscape, from the town to the dark abyss lying below the cliff, sets the stage for the professors gruesome fate.

         I think we have probably all behaved similarly to the way the professor does in the beginning of the story. I'm sure most people have, at some point,  felt confident of something only to be shown otherwise. One instance in which I felt that I knew all there was to know, was in high school. To be more specific, I felt I had a pretty good understanding of the art world and now that I’m in college, I realized that the old me had no idea. I’ve learned so many new things and discovered that there was so much more than I had originally thought. The professor in this story was extremely arrogant though and thought he was superior to everyone else. In contrast, unlike the professor, I’ve always been fascinated with foreign culture and like to learn about the traditions and lifestyles of other people.

         Oh, and one more thing, I was thinking a bit about the title of the story, “A Distant Episode”. Does anyone else think maybe the title refers to the end of the story? I thought maybe the title comes from the “episode” the professor had when he maniacally out of the town into the “distance”. Perhaps “A Distant Episode” describes what the French soldier observes of the professor’s crazy, frantic entrance back into the desert. 

P.S. This story kind of reminded me of the show Locked Up Abroad 

National Geographic's Locked Up Abroad

A Distant Episode

The short story, A Distant Episode by Paul Bowles had potent imagery that made me feel as if I were there. This helped me understand the story in a great way. The setting of this story, even though extremely descriptive, seem very fictional. Of course, one of the most vital and illustrative moments in this literature was when Bowles describes the visuals of the sky and smells during the bus ride while driving west. He states, " Now facing the flaming sky in the West...air which began to smell of other things besides the endless ozone of the heights: orange blossoms, pepper, sun baked excrement, burning olive oil, rotten fruit." While reading this, I literally began to smell the things described. The Professor, and protagonist washes his face once he arrives at his hotel with the description, "...began to wash the grit from his face and ears." This gave me an idea of the terrain and how rough his travels might have been.

Imagery of a Sunset Desert

Professor seems to be traveling to this place, seemingly like Morocco, with a guide, the cafe keeper, who at first we believe to be familiar to him. With this visual and descriptive aid that the author gives us, we are able to quickly catch on to the rapid downfall that the professor faces in this unknown and unfamiliar city that seems far from home. He and this waiter go on this mission to find these camel udder boxes that the professor is interested in. During this journey, Bowles begins to use harsh commentary, clueing us in that things are beginning to go wrong. He talks about how there is an "odor of human excrement" and an attack from a three legged dog.

"The other" could be the Professor in this story. He is an outsider. He doesn't fit in to this world and seems clueless to a lot around him. He is asking questions a lot that need work to be answered. He stands out culturally and always seems significantly out of place. He seems confident at first, but gets clear as the story goes on that he becomes more fragile and intimidated within his unfamiliar surroundings.

A Distant Episode

I have felt like Professor at the beginning of the story in the past. I went on a teen tour to Thailand two summers ago. I arrived and had a ton of questions and had certain shopping needs. When I went shopping one night with a group, I got separated from who I was with and began to freak out a bit. Fortunately we did have a meeting spot, but for those ten minutes, all I could do was panic. I had locals trying to speak to me and sell me illegals and I had no idea what to do. I went from being pretty confident in a new country to panicking in my mind from one second to the next. Of course I didn't end up being a slave and carried off into the desert but for those ten minutes, I had this mindset that something really bad could happen.

A Distant Episode, "The Other"

Bowell imagery is extremely vivid as the story rolls in with red September sunsets, “flaming in the west” and the daunting “sharp mountains” looming in the forefront. Bowles artfully utilizes his imagery to set the mood and foreshadow the transformation of the arrogant professor to something almost less than a man through his experiences with the “other.” By looking at specific examples we see how Bowles develops the character of the professor more through his actions, and the atmosphere, than direct description.

The story is set in September, the cold season right before a harsh winter. The Professor travels south, but not just in physical location, but within his mind from a higher state of being to a lower one. This idea reflects deeply with how the professor views himself above the “other.”  Bowles describes the smells most potently as “sun-baked excrement” and “rotten fruit” fill the air showing us the shoddy and filthy conditions.

In the story the aquiji is referred to as the “other,” but when we really think about this, it is the professor whom is set apart from those that surround him. It is only in his mind that the people of the area are “the other.” He childishly is disappointed when more people know the aquiji than him. His arrogance is apparent.

            Looking at specific actions within the story, we see that when the professor originally enters Ramani’s café, the qauaji attempts to have the professor sit in the front, but the arrogant professor decides to sit where he pleases. After placing himself in the room “hazardously out above the river,” we can deduce the purposeful foreshadowing that the professor’s actions are placing him in a position of danger because he does not respect qauaji. 

            I sadly admit that I can relate to the professor at the beginning of the story. In my childish ignorance, I remember traveling to my first large basketball camp at the University of Arkansas. I remember my excitement vividly, as I arrived hardly able to hold back my enthusiasm. In my hometown I was great and I couldn’t wait to show off my skills at a university. My hope were soon not let down, but destroyed, as I swallowed my piece of humble pie and realized that I was not in my small town anymore, but a place where my talents were mediocre compared to all the girls from the big cities. I was the “other” and more so, I was the lesser.