I can remember reading a novel by Marguerite Duras called L’Amant which detailed an affair between a French girl and a Chinese man.<\/p>\n
The book made me immensely sad as it was about the decline of empire or so it seemed<\/p>\n
A new order replacing the old<\/p>\n
I have always thought well of empire<\/p>\n
Order and infrastructure replacing the void<\/p>\n
Modern thoughts replacing superstitions<\/p>\n
At present I am adrift in the Indian Ocean and am aware that I will find it difficult to dock due to the current pandemic<\/p>\n
But I will have to come ashore at some stage and I know that there will be complications<\/p>\n
In a sense I am trapped in paradise<\/p>\n
My boat is strong and I am well provided for<\/p>\n
I will not perish as I am resourceful<\/p>\n
If anything water is my only problem<\/p>\n
But it rains quite frequently and I collect it carefully.<\/p>\n
On my bed I have several newspapers one of which carries a photograph of two dogs hanging from a pole<\/p>\n
The photograph upsets me as these poor creatures committed no crime and now are being sold for food<\/p>\n
A local woman is seen cycling past the corpses but the pays them no attention<\/p>\n
Diseases including the current one are known to have originated from the consumption of animals<\/p>\n
But it is considered normal in these countries although gruesome and unclean to western eyes<\/p>\n
Did it exist during the days of empire<\/p>\n
I would imagine that it was common practice<\/p>\n
But the world has moved on since then<\/p>\n
Yet nothing has really changed and if anything it has got worse<\/p>\n
I wonder if the girl in the Marguerite Duras novel ever ate dog meat or the like<\/p>\n
My view is that she did not but this is not detailed in the book<\/p>\n
I used to have a copy of L’Amant on board but this fell into the sea due to my carelessness<\/p>\n
Books are my passion<\/p>\n
But I am reduced to reading journals and newspapers<\/p>\n
They report but lack passion<\/p>\n
L’Amant is a passionate and erotic book<\/p>\n
But is also about decay and corrupted youth<\/p>\n
I sometimes think what would it have been like to sail one hundred years ago<\/p>\n
Would things have been that different to what they are today<\/p>\n
I am still trying to answer that question<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Diary entry dated Sunday 19th April 2020 – sent to me by my friend Didier Saul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I can remember reading a novel by Marguerite Duras called L’Amant which detailed an affair between a French girl and a Chinese man. The book made me immensely sad as it was about the decline of empire or so it seemed A new order replacing the old I have always thought well of empire Order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}