We took the morning train to Marrakesh out of Fes through the high-rises of Nouvelle Fes, and then rolled by the disadvantaged burbs: unfinished ravaged apartments, weatherbeaten dwellings with paint peeled away in patches, shantytowns behind low concrete walls looking like they have been created out of landfills. After that, the flat brown landscape parceled into farms, olive orchards, and rows of bushy pomegranate trees.
And once again the absurdity of the Mohammed VI Tower looking like dirigible that has taken a nosedive into the ground. It reminded me of Meles’ silent film classic “Voyage To The Moon” when the rocket hit the smiling lunar face and plunged into its eyeball. (A constant diet of movies over the years, and yet I’ll never forget Meles’ moon men dressed like tribal natives in grass skirts attacking the visiting earthling astronauts decked out in frock coats and top hats.)
As we draw farther away from Fes I think of the arresting images we didn’t capture on camera viz., outside the Blue Gate of Fes the sight of a formidably buxom police woman in black lycra stretch pants patrolling the entrance like she’s just emerged from the labyrinth after taking care of a particularly disagreeable minotour.
Or the nightly rooftop dinners at our Riad interrupted by prayer. Up until then in my imagination I always heard the muezzin from the height of a minaret with the piercing clarity of an a cappella cantor hitting the high notes. I wasn’t prepared for a sudden flatulent bleating noise as if someone were using an elephant tusk as a party favor followed by the garbled amplified distortions of an Arabic dirge.And finally, reflecting on our shopping in the Fes Medina, I feel there’s something to be said about haggling for a deal. It gave me a sense of control missing from the American buying experience where everything is set with a price tag. Of course the bidding back and forth is never going to result in a loss for the seller, but even when I understood I had been taken, I came away pleased that I had the opportunity to exercise power. So it’s the idea of freedom that prevails. Like the idea of beauty sought after in prayer from the squat confines of a shantytown, well-being is a belief.
Brought up with fixed prices I remember the first time I heard about haggling. It seemed unfair and inefficient. Later I realized that fixed prices were not used on important things like houses, cars, wholesale deals, art, auctions, etc, really anyplace but in retail stores. The usually small prices in retail mean that bargaining is not efficient. I wonder how different Prime day dealing is from an Medina market?