Death in Persia

I finally started reading Death in Persia, by Annemarie Schwarzenbach. It´s not exactly the travel book a had expected it to be.

"...because we can only count with other people´s compassion and understanding if our failures can be explained, if our defeats have been courageously fought until the end and if our suffering is the inevitable consequence of these two reasonable causes. If sometimes we are happy without a reason, we can never be unhappy in the same way. And, at such a critical time as the one we are living, one is expected to choose the right enemy and a destiny according to one´s strengths. But the hero of this small book is so far from being a hero that he can´t even name her enemy and is so weak that she gives up on the fight apparently even before his inglorious defeat has been decided."

And further down:

"'- What do you expect from Persia?', Malraux asked me. He knew the ruins of the city of Rages. He also knew about the enthusiasm for archaeology. He thought clearly about human passions, he was inclined to despise everything that had to do with them, apart from what was left from them: suffering. He asked me: '-Just because of the name? Just because it ´s too far?' ".