| From the Outback to the Arctic Circle A Fool's Alphabet |
| "travel is glamourous only in retrospect" (Paul Theroux) |
| 4 life |
| 4 me |
| 4 travel |
| 4 music |
| 4 books |
| 4 Alphabet |
| Last updated: Saturday, 26 January, 2003 |
| From A to Z "'I could have told you a completely different set of stories and you would have formed a completely different idea of me�,� he tells her by the time he reaches the destination �X�. ��I mean,� Pietro went on, �I told you about Laura, but I didn�t tell you about Gabriella, did I? I never told you about India or the week I spent in Rio.� I could have been lying, couldn�t I?� he said. �I could have made it all up. I haven�t, of course. But suppose I had told you different things. Even at the age of twenty-six I could have chosen different things. Would you have reached a different diagnosis?� ' I don�t believe in your paradoxical view of things. I could honestly have given you a different story, without lying, just by choosing different things, and you�d never have been any the wiser.� At last Dr Simon was provoked, though it was to laughter. �There is no grand pattern with neat, interlocking junctions, no one truth to a human personality,� she said. �Another version would have been just as good.�� A Fool's Alphabet by Sebastian Faulks |
| inside Ian's Website you will find... life is a real-time autobiography that grows as the years go by me is a name i call myself travel is from the outback to the arctic circle journalist is what i try to do but i can't hack it music is the food of love but you probably think i'm on a pretty poor diet books is what you should be reading and main index is where everything begins a bit like genesis |
| Welcome to the Fool's Alphabet The novel A Fool's Alphabet by Sebastian Faulks is based on the life of news photographer Pietro Russell who tells his story through 26 different chapters from A to Z. Each letter belongs to a place in the world where he has stayed and each chapter reveals a small chapter of his life. �As his memories flicker back and forth through time in his search for a resolution to the conflicts of his life, his story gradually unfolds.� The order of the alphabet is arbitrary. How does one�s life appear differently when set in this order compared with when it is set down chronologically? In this novel you can read a chapter of Pietro�s story, already knowing how problems have resolved themselves, how bad things have turn out fine after all. In other words, you really do have hindsight. There is less suspense of course but it does offer a sense of perspective. During difficult times it helps to imagine five years in the future, already knowing the outcome. Can that philosophical outlook in life be artificially created? |
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| Choose your place, either from A to Z or at random, there is no neat interlocking pattern... |
| 4 Angers 4 Bangkok 4 Childers 4 Denver 4 Exmouth 4 Flam 4 Germersheim 4 Honolulu 4 Istanbul 4 Jaipur 4 Krakow 4 Lebanon 4 Melaka |
| 4 New York 4 Oxford 4 Paris 4 Queenstown 4 Rotaroa 4 San Miguel 4 Thessalonika 4 Uig 4 Vancouver 4 Wittenoom 4 aiX-les-Bains 4 Yulara 4 Zermatt |
| So here we go. This is my version. In every place listed here I have spent at least one night. Some are more interesting than others simply because I have struggled to find a town to fit a letter. But I think I�ve managed it, even if �X� was a bit cheeky! |
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