Their Heads Are Green And Their Hands Are Blue eBook Paul Bowles
Download As PDF : Their Heads Are Green And Their Hands Are Blue eBook Paul Bowles 
In the nineteenth century there flourished a peculiar breed of Englishmen—often the second sons of the aristocracy, or ambitious men from a lower class—who as soldiers, consuls and tea planters, were largely responsible for making England a great colonial power.
Save for the fact that he is a staunch anticolonialist, Paul Bowles resembles these men in many respects. Like them, he appears to be happiest away from civilization as we know it; like them, he thrives when the traveling is hardest, the food ghastly or infrequent, water scarce, heat intolerable, or mosquitoes abundant.
This engaging collection of eight travel essays by the author of such noted fiction as The Sheltering Sky and The Delicate Prey deals largely with places in the world that few Westerners have ever heard of, much less seen—places as yet unencumbered by the trappings, luxuries, and corruptions of modern civilization. Except for one essay on Central America, all of these pieces are concerned with remote spots in the Hindu, Buddhist, or Mohammedan worlds. The author is a sympathetic and discerning interpreter of these alien cultures, and his eyes and ears are especially alert both to what is bizarre and what is wise in the civilizations in which he settles. He is also acutely aware of the transitions occurring on the fringes of many of these regions, and he is disturbed and indignant about the corrosive effect of Western culture on the non-Christian way of life.
Above all, however, Paul Bowles is a superb and observant traveler—born wanderer who finds pleasure in the inaccessible and who cheerfully endures the concomitant hardships matter-of-factly and with humor.
These essays provide us with Paul Bowles’s characteristic insightfulness and bring us closer to a world we frequently hear about, but often find difficult to understand.
Their Heads Are Green And Their Hands Are Blue eBook Paul Bowles
A collection of magazine articles and essays make-up Paul Bowles’s reflections of his travels of the world Their Heads are Green and their Hands are Blue, Scene From the Non-Christian World. Derived from a line from Edward Lear’s poem “The Jumblies”. And like Bowles a well-traveled man who reflected his experiences through his writings in a nonsensical manner, especially the ever famous “The Owl and the Pussycat.” All noted in the introduction, “travel pieces, exoticism, strongly against homogenizing force of westernization” (19). Meshed with cultural and traditional observations, Bowles takes readers to the southern bounds of India to the former Ceylon, which is now Sri Lanka. Very vivid descriptions of the landscape-natural resources, climate, diverse people of native Tamils, Singhalese, colonial, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims that breathes Bowles interest within general religious connotations. In addition, he focuses upon the Colombo-Chinese immigrants in the markets, cityscape of the aroma and sights that are depicted in the first 18 pages. Thereafter, Morocco becomes the focal point within the rest of the book and symbolic to Bowles personal journey to understanding traditions outside of his own but much within the lines of a travel log that is formatted with nine separate articles.Well before Bowles finally called Tangier his home in 1952, one can see that he drew a great interest before that with much poetry, metaphysical, philosophical perception of the landscape around him and more so with the sky “arid landscape is the final arbiter. When you have understood that – great trinity of monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam (19). He suggests out of the three religious traditions Islam is the greatest strength upon daily routines. For instance, from rituals and customs that disperses to cultural circles that radiate to the native population of Berbers with their artistic crafts; Moslem paint, abstractions that also influenced writers that played out in the late 1940s and 1950s, ex-patriots that ventured off once again into a brave new world that was different from 30 years before with the Lost Generation when most lived in Europe. Bowles followed that generation that continued to reverberate with common cultural friendships, Bowles established with Gertrude Stein and Beats William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg that traveled and spent time in Tangier, Morocco. One of the interesting chapters in the book comes quite early in “Africa Minor” and the assertion of North Africa as a haven for the beat generation; music-mad, through radio, phonograph and tape recorder, exotic items as congo drummer or American Jazz of Art Blakely (22). These elements comprise of a somewhat hybrid culture of influence that Bowles writes as a roller coaster ride, but acculturation contributes to placing things into perspective of an ancient past of Muslim to European in a country that during the writing of the book still living in the colonial present. Furthermore, the landscapes speak with distinction; the mountains and deserts show a clear window to the country’s past.
In essence, readers may perceive after reading Their Heads are Green and their Hands are Blue, one looking in from the outside and how Bowles takes that stance of the exotic as an alien one worth understanding. And with that the articles and the photographs that are also near the end of the book exhibit parts of a changing world that have preserved their long-lived traditions.
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Their Heads Are Green And Their Hands Are Blue eBook Paul Bowles Reviews
Bowles is a true master of his art. He has traveled to lands that few will ever see. His powers of description are remarkable. His discourse on birds is some of the most hilarious of his writings.
I enjoyed this humorous and insightful description of life in foreign countries in the middle of the last century.
After reading this, you know where The Sheltering Sky came from!
Essential reading as background; I wish I wanted to actually travel there.
I like this book better than some of Mr. Bowles' longer fictional efforts. He is good at relatively short accounts, where his rich life experiences are related through highly descriptive prose. Bowles captures the abnormal psychology of the planet itself moreso than that of the individual, which is better left to Camus or Faulkner. Also, he is able to find some humor and meaning in the Western-Arab relationship, which helps relieve some of the strain of our current showdown, which Mr. Bowles foresaw. Especially funny to me is an account by Bowles of finding a filthy rag at the bottom of a pail of murky water he and his Arab travelmate had been using for drinking water. They up and left the "hotel" (and town) that day.
Also of interest are chapters on Ceylon.
Bowles seems to be more capable writing about real people and events than he is when functioning in the only slightly altered world of his fiction. I think it has something to do with him being an emotional loner. Like Sartre, he is more of an observer, more of a thinker, than a writer, so his fictional characterizations are, like Sartre's, often wooden and unconvincing (to me at least). To this viewpoint, he would strongly object I think. But, notice I refrain from calling him a moralist or a philosopher. If he were a painter, I would classify him as a post-impressionist like Matisse (great colorist, intriguing designs, romantic, but limited by "decorative" priorities.) And, like Matisse, he never really shocks me like a true Fauve because, no matter how gruesome the details of the narrative, his narrative voice is always too cultivated. He can't help it; he's from New England. For his fictional style to match the content, his manner would need to be cruder, like Kirchner or Vlaminck. And he is really not a portrait artist like Dickens, Joyce or Faulkner either. Or, maybe it's that his portraits capture places and milieus moreso than individual psyches. In this book, it doesn't matter because he is truly in his element he travels wildly, observes meticulously and remembers creatively.
Disclaimer I am a fan of Paul Bowles. This is a great intro to his travel writing of Morocco. He conveys the feel of being there about 60 to 70 years ago. It's no pretty travelogue but an accurate portrayal of place in its time. Be aware, if you also buy his "Travels, Collected Writings" you will find many of these selections in that book. If you know, and like Bowles, you may be better off skipping this book in favor of collecting his others to avoid duplication.
I first read this book 20 years ago, then forgot about it till recently. Now I love it, but also hate it a little. It is dated in some ways. Very, very eloquently and vividly written, long before "political correctness" cast a pall of blandness over all our discourse. You could read it as a privileged white guy traveling in little-known and often dangerous areas for kicks, or sometimes to collect music. It can also serve as a narrative for what happens when 2 cultures collide, with differing assumptions. Bowles doesn't always insist that his assumptions are the right ones; the best part of the book is his unflinching dissection of his own reactions, and his amateur but penetrating analyses of what he sees as the motivations of "the Other".
A collection of magazine articles and essays make-up Paul Bowles’s reflections of his travels of the world Their Heads are Green and their Hands are Blue, Scene From the Non-Christian World. Derived from a line from Edward Lear’s poem “The Jumblies”. And like Bowles a well-traveled man who reflected his experiences through his writings in a nonsensical manner, especially the ever famous “The Owl and the Pussycat.” All noted in the introduction, “travel pieces, exoticism, strongly against homogenizing force of westernization” (19). Meshed with cultural and traditional observations, Bowles takes readers to the southern bounds of India to the former Ceylon, which is now Sri Lanka. Very vivid descriptions of the landscape-natural resources, climate, diverse people of native Tamils, Singhalese, colonial, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims that breathes Bowles interest within general religious connotations. In addition, he focuses upon the Colombo-Chinese immigrants in the markets, cityscape of the aroma and sights that are depicted in the first 18 pages. Thereafter, Morocco becomes the focal point within the rest of the book and symbolic to Bowles personal journey to understanding traditions outside of his own but much within the lines of a travel log that is formatted with nine separate articles.
Well before Bowles finally called Tangier his home in 1952, one can see that he drew a great interest before that with much poetry, metaphysical, philosophical perception of the landscape around him and more so with the sky “arid landscape is the final arbiter. When you have understood that – great trinity of monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam (19). He suggests out of the three religious traditions Islam is the greatest strength upon daily routines. For instance, from rituals and customs that disperses to cultural circles that radiate to the native population of Berbers with their artistic crafts; Moslem paint, abstractions that also influenced writers that played out in the late 1940s and 1950s, ex-patriots that ventured off once again into a brave new world that was different from 30 years before with the Lost Generation when most lived in Europe. Bowles followed that generation that continued to reverberate with common cultural friendships, Bowles established with Gertrude Stein and Beats William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg that traveled and spent time in Tangier, Morocco. One of the interesting chapters in the book comes quite early in “Africa Minor” and the assertion of North Africa as a haven for the beat generation; music-mad, through radio, phonograph and tape recorder, exotic items as congo drummer or American Jazz of Art Blakely (22). These elements comprise of a somewhat hybrid culture of influence that Bowles writes as a roller coaster ride, but acculturation contributes to placing things into perspective of an ancient past of Muslim to European in a country that during the writing of the book still living in the colonial present. Furthermore, the landscapes speak with distinction; the mountains and deserts show a clear window to the country’s past.
In essence, readers may perceive after reading Their Heads are Green and their Hands are Blue, one looking in from the outside and how Bowles takes that stance of the exotic as an alien one worth understanding. And with that the articles and the photographs that are also near the end of the book exhibit parts of a changing world that have preserved their long-lived traditions.
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