I have this terrible feeling of déjà vu

A man was on holiday in Kenya.

While he was walking through the bush, he came across an elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed so the man approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot. There was a large thorn deeply embedded in the bottom of the foot. As carefully and as gently as he could he removed the thorn and the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man and, with a rather stern look on its face, stared at him.

For a good ten minutes the man stood frozen - thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. For years after, the man remembered the elephant and the events of that day.

One day the man was walking through the zoo with his son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to where they were standing at the rail. It stared at him and the man couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant.

After a while it trumpeted loudly; then it continued to stare at him. The man summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder.

Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of the man's legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing, killing him.

Probably wasn't the same elephant.

[via C.]

Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall

Dies war das erste Buch von Waugh, das ich je gelesen habe. Ich glaube, es war so um meine Abizeit, als ein Freund mir einige der weißen Bände aus dem Diogenesverlag auslieh. Viel später habe ich mir bei einem Londonbesuch in einem Anfall von Sammelwut alles gekauft, was es vom Autor als Penguin paperback gab und das meiste davon seitdem nicht mehr aus dem Regal genommen. Aber auch zwanzig Jahre nach meinem Erstkontakt ist Evelyn Waugh immer noch ein Knüller, der den Zeitgeist der "Roaring Twenties" mit Sarkasmus und einem Augenzwinkern vermittelt. Dass sich dann die nostalgische Melancholie des Buches mit der eigenen vermischt, ist der Stimmung durchaus zuträglich.