ATD: cover Seal

[pynchonoid]

Given a Tibetan seal on the cover -- if in fact that's
what it proves to be -- Lost Horizon (a novel I read
most of while at my friend's in Phoenix, purely
coincidentally, last week).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Horizon_%28novel%29

[...] Robert Conway, a veteran member of the British
diplomatic service, finds inner peace, love, and a
sense of purpose in Shangri-La, a utopian lamasery
high in the Himalayas in Tibet whose inhabitants also
enjoy longevity. Among the book's themes is the
allusion of the possibility of another cataclysmic
world war brewing. It is said to have been inspired at
least in part by accounts of travels in Tibetan
borderlands, published in the National Geographic by
the explorer and botanist Joseph Rock. The remote
communities he visited, such as Muli, show many
similarities to the fictional Shangri-La. One such
town, Zhongdian, has now officially renamed itself as
Shangri La (Ch: Xianggelila) because of its claim to
be the inspiration for the novel.

[edit] Story

The origin of the eleven numbered chapters of the
novel is explained in a prologue and epilogue, whose
narrator is a neurologist. This neurologist and a
novelist friend, Rutherford, are given dinner at
Tempelhof, Berlin, by their old school-friend Wyland,
a secretary at the British embassy. A chance remark by
a passing airman brings up the topic of Hugh Conway, a
British consul in India, who disappeared under odd
circumstances. Later in the evening, Rutherford
reveals to the narrator that, after the disappearance,
he discovered Conway in a French mission hospital in
Chung-Kiang [probably Chongqing], China, suffering
from amnesia. Conway recovered his memory and told
Rutherford his story, then slipped away again.
Rutherford wrote down Conway's story; he gives the
manuscript to the neurologist, and that manuscript
becomes the heart of the novel.

In May, 1931, during the British Raj, owing to a
revolution, the 80 white residents are being evacuated
from Baskul to Peshawur. In the airplane of the
Maharajah of Chandrapore are to fly: Conway, the
British consul, age 37; Mallinson, his young
vice-consul; an American, Bernard; and a British
missionary, Miss Brinklow. But the plane is flown
instead over the mountains to Tibet. After a crash
landing, the pilot dies, but not before telling the
four (in Chinese, which Conway knows) to seek shelter
at the nearby lamasery of Shangri-La.

The four are taken there by a party directed by Chang,
a postulant at the lamasery who speaks English. The
lamasery has modern conveniences, like central
heating, and bathtubs from Akron, Ohio; a large
library; a grand piano; and food from the fertile
valley below. Towering above is Karakal, "Blue Moon,"
a mountain more than 29 000 feet high.

Mallinson is keen to hire porters and leave, but Chang
politely puts him off. The others eventually decide
they are content to stay: Miss Brinklow, to teach the
people a sense of sin; Bernard, because he is really
Chalmers Bryant, wanted by the police for stock fraud,
and because he is keen to develop the gold-mines in
the valley; Conway, because the contemplative
scholarly life suits him.

Conway is given an audience with the High Lama, an
unheard-of honor. He learns that the lamasery was
constructed in its present form by a Jesuit named
Perrault from Luxembourg, in the early eighteenth
century. The lamasery has since then been joined by
others who have found their way into the valley. Once
they have done so, their aging slows; if they then
leave the valley, they will age quickly, and die. The
High Lama is Perrault.

A seemingly young Manchu woman, Lo-Tsen, is another
postulant at the lamasery; she does not speak English,
but plays the piano. Conway and Mallinson fall in love
with her.

In a later audience, the High Lama says that he is
finally dying, and that he wants Conway to lead the
lamasery. Meanwhile, Mallinson has arranged to leave
the valley with porters, and Lo-Tsen, who are five
miles outside. He cannot travel the dangerous five
miles by himself. Conway agrees to go along. [...]



>http://pynchonoid.org
>>"everything connects"


 
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