... the reductive attempts of the `Geographer-Gods' to name and control it. The ones who survive are those who understand that in the desert "a man can hold absence in his cupped hands," and find their way through the sandstorms and heat to the hidden wells. What is absent is the power to name, the drive to constrict meaning within the hollow ... ...

• Word Count: 6215
• Approx Pages: 25
• Grade Level: High School

... his close readings of the histories of Herodotus. In the desert he was his own person, he could become anyone he chose. "A man in a desert can hold absence in his cupped hands knowing it is something that feeds him more than water" (155). This is why the desert was so appealing to him in the first place. The villa became a place ... ...

• Word Count: 1758
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School