Stories tagged “impossible places”
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Without Walls
It was in the thirteenth year of my travels that I came to Oulipo. From afar, one cannot imagine it is a city for there are no structures to define it. The steppes on which Oulipo is settled are so vast the Earth falls away at the extremes of vision, c...
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Under Cover
After three days’ journey east, I came to the low gate of Dystosia. The city has bloomed in the desert for many years, growing in rings that spread from a wide and rich oasis flowing with sweet water that nourishes fragrant dates and other wonder...
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Everyplace
In my travels I came to the city of Güzel Kitaplar. Every home a library, every library a home. “What manner of place is this?” I asked. “This place is everyplace,” the people said. And it was. In their books were minarets and ...
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Aloft
Three days from the sea lies the city of Gezze. Gezze has no roads, no alleys, no footpaths. The buildings are squeezed one beside the other, so close together that the sunlight does not reach the ground floors of the homes. The citizens, therefore, do...
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Life Lines
A week’s journey farther down the coast brought me to the city of Coir. Each citizen’s house sits on its own free-floating island. The dwellings are bound together with crisscrossing lines of cord. Any person with a connection to another...
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Into Great Silence
I knew when I left that I would never return. Perhaps this is why I have sought a resting place in the arms of strangers and the dwellings of temporary friends. Without roots I have looked for meaning in things fated to pass. But now I find myself walk...
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Gathering a little moss
I woke up in Fezia. That surprised me, for I had slept, shivering in the lee of my dead horse, in the certain knowledge that my travelling days had come to and abrupt and unfortunate ending. My room was carved directly from the native rock, with a seam...