In the next village something terrible awaits you, all the storm and stress of the village you set out from, and it will take an entire lifetime simply to reach that next village, and yet, something compels you to go there.  You will meet the same people, but in the next village they are refugees from the village you left, having abandoned their families, friends, and belongings to reach the village where they anticipated a better life: there is no going back, for time has run against you, and you’ve brought with you everything in the old village that you hoped to escape.

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Gary Indiana is a writer, film maker, artist and essayist. His novels include Horse Crazy, Resentment, Gone Tomorrow and Do Everything In The Dark. A collection of essays, Utopia’s Debris , was published last year. His new novel, The Shanghai Gesture , has recently been published. He lives in New York.