Intentions
Paul Bowles’ A Distant Episode is a memorable short story. It features a humiliation that feels earned by our protagonist, and the intention was to convey both the profound horror of the story, and also its clownish side.
Execution
The publication was starkly designed in black and white with a single swiss ragged text column throughout. This aggressive formalism visually imparted the horror of the story, supported by the lack of traditional paragraph breaks. This was balanced by a legible 11 word column and 10pt text. Akzidenz Grotesk was chosen because it also balanced; between the quirky monumentality of the cover type and the formalism of the interior. The story is concerned with communication, and deep indents were used for direct speech to highlight this subtext. A font was designed for the cover based on a sign seen in Tangier (where Bowles lived and wrote) during a recent trip. The type had an irregular, alien feel that chimed with place and narrative, and the motif of the setting sun from the back of the book was expanded as counters in the lettering. The play between legibility and illegibility is a key feature of this pamphlet, talking again about communication.