A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain | The Different Kinds of Knowing
In the following
essay, the author discusses the different kinds of knowing
represented in ‘‘A Good Scent from a Strange
Mountain.’’
Robert Olen Butler’s story, ‘‘A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain,’’ focuses intently on the last phase of an old man’s life. In it, we see a character, Dao, tempted away from the Buddhist beliefs that have determined his actions since he was a young man. Butler takes a piece of history—Ho Chi Minh’s time working in a hotel in London—and uses it as a conceit in the story, making Dao the friend who went to Europe with him. The story unfolds as a long intermittent dream, with episodes of illusion followed by reciprocal episodes of reality. All the episodes are given...
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