“She fixed Angus with a stare. ‘Maybe they had good reason not to want to be called pygmies,’ she said. ‘You’ve never had to worry about that sort of thing, have you? You don’t know what it’s like to be called something belittling.’

‘But they are little,’ said Angus, looking to Matthew for support. ‘You don’t belittle the little by calling them little. What should we call them? Big?’

Big Lou shot Matthew a discouraging glance. ‘They’re not little in their own eyes. Not as far as they’re concerned.’

‘Does it matter?’ asked Matthew. ‘Does it really matter wheter you’re short, like a pyg…like a forest person, or whether you’re tall? Does it matter?’

‘No,’ said Big Lou. ‘It doesn’t.’”

The one and only: Big Lou. Or: Alexander McCall Smith.

Olivia Kühni :: Nov.18.2010 :: Notizen :: 197 Comments »