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Article: Like Hyenas, Like Baudelaire, Like the Angel of the Resurrection.
- Article from:
- American Scholar
- Article date:
- June 22, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Phi Beta Kappa Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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If Christ had refused to touch the lepers and to speak with the Samaritan woman, the former would have remained sick and the latter sinful. The Christian is supposed to be attracted to rotting flesh, like hyenas, like Baudelaire, like the angel of the Resurrection.
--Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
When I awoke--or was awakened--I saw, beyond my feet, a man formed out of light. He stepped through the Sheetrock walls of my father's house as if, like water, they offered some slight resistance to his passage, and he stared in my direction. At the center of cold light, his bright face darkened with a sorrow beyond expression, but I was too afraid to pity him.
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