Jottings from a Far Away Place

Ranging on the fringes of imagination and erudition, forming a mosaic of stories, maxims and sketches, at once fragmentary and cumulative, Jottings from a Far Away Place combines the timeless, mannered assurance of the Eastern discursive essay with the experimentation of the Western avant-garde. As the focus shifts between fantastic tales and studies of viciousness, the reader is treated to, among myriad other things, the adventures of a Taoist guitar player, a bloody episode with Countess de Báthory, a recipe for cinnabar sauce, and the story of a man who has been reincarnated as a spoon.

A book that is like a collection of bulletins from the world of dreams.

Contents:

• Observations
• Habitually Dancing
• Showing the World
• Entrusting
• A Ramshackle Village
• Ghost Cave
• Gradual Activity
• Uncommon
• Defilements
• Gesture of Bowing
• Many-Coloured Eyebrows
• Entities
• Maladjustment
• Nothing to Hide
• Slow Amulets
• Irreversibility
• Emerging from a Trance
• Treasures
• Wild Ducks
• Tissues and Banners
• Constant Principle
• Holding Up the Sky
• Red Dalmatics
• Bewilderment
• Sacred Contours
• Giggling Flutes
• Worn-Out Straw Sandals
• Generating Worlds