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 designed as a narrow and tall pamphlet, portable and very easy to read with 11 or so words per line. Deep indents were used for direct speech, to highlight when it’s happening (or not). 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. A few letters of this were recreated and the rest of the font was designed to enlarge upon this geometric attitude. The story is much concerned with an inability to communicate, so a degree of illegibility felt important.