Word: slaving
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...with In Patagonia, a stylish piece of travel writing. The Viceroy of Ouidah finds his jeweler's eye playing over 19th century West Africa. The book is a novelization of the life and death of a footloose Brazilian named Francisco Felix de Souza, who flourished as a slave trader under the protection of the King of Dahomey. Chatwin began his research nine years ago in Dahomey and returned in 1977 to find the country named the People's Republic of Benin. "The fetish priests of Ouidah," he notes, "had put pictures of Lenin amid the scarlet paraphernalia...
...fired 29 questions at a newcomer. Among them: "Are you an anarchist?" And the trick question: "Do you have a job?" A few proud would-be citizens could truthfully answer "Yes." But a yes answer raised suspicion that the newcomer was a strikebreaker-or had been conned into a slave-labor agreement...
...when some Asian American students see protrayals of Asian women as whores and of Asian men as slimy undesirables in Harvard theatrical productions our reaction is more than a nervous giggle. We are reminded of our grandmothers, who were prohibited from emigrating to this country and then kidnapped for slave prostitution houses in San Francisco. We are reminded of our grandfathers who were recruited into the brutal jobs of agriculture, mining, and railroad construction--only to suffer lynchings, mob attacks, and discriminatory legislation. We are reminded of the price that our parents and grandparents had to pay in order...
...injustice. He subtly presents a London caught in the grasp of the Industrial Revolution. Lynch's camera tracks through crowded and filthy streets and alleys, where the loud chugging and whooshing of factory machines creates an incessant, maddening clamor. In one night-marishsequence dozens of dirty, sweating, barechested laborers slave over a huge, clanging machine that wheezes black smoke. The process of dehumanization is in full swing, with the appearance of freak shows and the degradation of John Merrick just a small part of the whole. In a world that is becoming ever more cruel, Merrick is one of many...
Instead of highlighting revenge, these stories radiate an innocent acceptance of the beauty and strangeness of life. Metamorphosis is constant; the shapes of people, animals and things can dissolve in an instant. In The Little Shepherd, a maiden tells the hero about her life of late: "Ugly Slave threw me into the well, and I turned into a fish, then into fishbones thrown out the window. From fishbones I changed into a tree seed, next into a tree that grew and grew, and finally into firewood you cut. Now, every day while you're away, I become lovely Bargaglina...