The Inversion of the House

[Punshhh]

@Astorre

I’d also like to return to this literary image of the “secret Uzbek,” that is, to the very essence of this idea.

In Britain there is the equivalent to this and the secret courtyard. It is known as the English country cottage.

A small house hidden away in the countryside with a beautiful private garden. Where people seek to live a simple traditional life immersed in nature.

[Astorre]

Yes, this is exactly what I was writing about: a house in the center of the plot

[baker]

@Astorre

My goal is to evoke emotion.

Why??

I must ask, to meet the twenty characters limit.

[baker]

@Astorre

I’d also like to return to this literary image of the “secret Uzbek,” that is, to the very essence of this idea.

What caught my attention? It’s the idea of ​​non-identity (although I myself identified this idea as “Secret Uzbek”). The idea of ​​being outside of any narrative whatsoever: neither Western nor Eastern. Being outside.

But people generally (strive to) do this anyway: believing themselves to be beyond interpretation, to be beyond influence, beyond narratives, “to be who they really are”, “to be true”.

I ask myself: is this possible? Or is this just another construct?

I think it’s just another construct; however, the relevant part for human psychology is to take for granted that it isn’t.
It’s naive realism taken to the extreme.

I’ve come across slogans like “rip out your wires.” But what is the possibility of ripping them out, and isn’t this just another idea?

It seems that the residents of such courtyards themselves somehow know this, without calling it by name. They simply live it somehow, and they live a little differently than we are accustomed to.

I’ve seen something similar among the Catholics I grew up with. It’s as if they had a whole other life, apart from their official Catholic one, the two unbothered by one another.

Is it possible not to be an object because you are beyond any objectification or identification?

The pipe dream of every self-help guru and every self-help addict.

It seems the Secret Uzbek has succeeded. (However, this is my opinion.)

Or maybe you’re just romanticizing them …

[Astorre]

@baker

Why??

I just want to

@baker

Or maybe you’re just romanticizing them …

Yes, and I emphasize this. In my opinion, for a deconstructionist forum, it is never a bad idea to speculate a little (so that there is something to deconstruct)

[Ecurb]

@Astorre

Here, the house is a wall, shielding your existence from the outside world with an impenetrable four-sided barrier. Life unfolds there, on the inside. From the outside, there is nothing but an inconspicuous blend of clay and reed.

“Without Benefit of Clergy” is an excellent Kipling story illustrating the isolation of the Eastern inner world. In it, John Holden marries a Muslim woman, who is isolated in the house. Her child dies, then she dies, and, because she had no outside connections, her life is “as if it had never been.” It’s a moving story, and questions Kipling’s reputation as a pro-colonialism poet.

[Punshhh]

The people who chase this dream don’t always find it and when they do, often they bring their own emotional baggage with them. They bring the life they are trying to leave behind them to that place.

The people who do find that idyll, that dream, who do marry the perfect house with their dream have undergone a cleansing within themselves too. You can’t leave the simple happy life until you have reconciled yourself with your conditioning and whatever trauma you carry.

There are also the people who always lived in those cottages for generations and only know that simple life. Here in Norfolk (U.K.) there are still to be found people like this.