Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Some wines, it is said, travel better than others, and some people travel better than others. I have always loved travelling and would find it hard to envisage a life in which, like Montaigne, I never strayed from home. Visiting other places and countries is not always an unalloyed joy, though, for it means being confronted with one's own insignificance and running the risk of being thrown off balance.

In another sense, however, I do not travel very well. I find that the further I get from home the less handsome I become. By the time I get to Phoenix or Paris, the face that launched a thousand barges back in the soft Burgundy light has got these self-same barges paddling frantically in the opposite direction. Quite why this should be so I could not say. Is it that the harsh Parisian light is less forgiving, the mirrors more distorted? I suppose I could post a couple of photos of myself in this blog, one taken in Aubigny and the other in Paris, and let my readers judge for themselves. But I don't think I'll do that.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:43 am

    When you next visit Dubai, remind me to put you in touch with some "surgeons". I don't know whether they're any good, but thet're certainly legions (probably easier to find a "surgeon" here, than a GP.)They'll make sure to "freeze" your face in whatever expression you like best! (bring along lots of Aubigny photos.) You'll then be free to travel as handsomely as you wish!
    Love,

    Anon Dubai (I so love being anonymous!)

    PS: take a look at

    http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/theater-talkback-who-wrote-shakespeare-who-cares/

    about the upsides of being anonymous!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do these surgeons of whom you speak in such glowing terms accept credit cards? Can you at least get your money (as opposed to your face) back if it is not frozen to your liking?
    Incidentally, why do the authorities in your neck of the woods look benignly on people who want to "rearrange" their features but throw them into prison if they take substances which alter or enhance their mental faculties?
    Just asking.
    Nice article. Personally, I feel that if Shakespeare never wrote another play I wouldn't mind at all. Some of his films are quite good, though, in particular Julius Caesar. Am I alone in thinking that he makes better films than plays?

    ReplyDelete

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