Example Of At Home Among Strangers, A Stranger At His Own Essay

On the fifteenth February a man was found dead in New York. The only thing that investigators found was dead man’s wallet. There they found an ID card of MIT. At the university no one could say much about his life. No one, but not “nothing”. The dean led investigators to the dead man’s office and they found his diary there. After they had looked through it, as well as examined his dead body, they found out that he was an alien. In this article we present our readers with several facts from his biography, based on notes in his diary. For ethical reasons we cannot name his name.
1504 AD
It is already five years since I am on the Earth. I have experienced a lot. I have travelled through the Europe. It is beautiful, though dirty. Now I look like an ordinary noble. We landed in into the sea: my starship almost drowned into the deep warm water. Later I found out that it was called the Mediterranean Sea. I liked to swim there. All my friends are dead and I do not have any opportunity to communicate with others. I know that some of my comrades are near the Moon and Venus. But I do not have any communicator. Mine is broken and there are no such instruments on the Earth to repair it. I hope, in some year, I will be able to come back to Sinicicus, my home planet in Epsilon Indi.
Today I am going to visit my friend Leonardo. He is a nice man. I teach him a lot. I explained him how human bodies function. Yesterday I was telling him about the history of my planet, the first achievements. He was surprised to hear that we can fly like birds and swim like fish. I showed him some of the oldest devices for flying. Besides, I showed him schemes of some devices that were used by my people several million years ago. Hope these schemes will help him earn some money. Today we will think about his new painting. He is going to paint one woman – Lisa Gherardini. He does not like her husband much. But senior Gherardini pays for the portrait. Leonardo does not have any money. Poor man. He is so talented but no one here can recognize his talent, except for me. But, unfortunately I do not have money to support him.
1625 AD
O, France, the land of kings and queens. The land of intrigues, scandals and interesting life stories. Oh, how I love such countries! People there help me understand them better. Hence, I am turning more into a human being. Now I do not attempt to communicate with my planet. I had to stay here for almost a century and they did not invite anything useful. I should stay here longer and wait. Wait until the technologies are good enough.
I like being in France. I have got acquainted with one nice person – Monseigneur Rubens. He is not as smart as my friend Leonardo used to be, but I like talking to him. Now he is working on his picture Education of the princess. I like it. But I do not like that he is striving so much. I mean, painting the same woman for several years I cannot understand that. In my world, he would be already killed. I had a new woman every day. Having the same woman two days in a row is a crime on Sinicicus. Human beings are strange.
1879 AD
I am getting used to the thought that I will never see my planet again. However, it comes in my dreams. I am still living in France. However, I am going to move to the United States of America. They say it is nice there. I think I should move there to start and finish my work. I have come up with one idea. I have witnessed how epochs and people were changing; I have witnessed how people were born and died. I want to become a professor of art. Who can tell students about Leonardo Da Vinci’s paintings if not me – his close friend? Besides, I am thinking of opening my personal gallery in one of the biggest cities in the North America. It may sound strange, though. But! I can distinguish a fake painting from the real one. I have seen how real ones were created.
Today I have visited one of the most prominent artists of this epoch – Edouard Manet. He was painting Berthe Morisot. She is also a painter. However, I do not like her works. Probably, I am too old fashioned and cannot understand the deepness of impressionism. Time flies. It seems like yesterday I was discussing flying machines with Leonardo in his room. And today people travel to other continents.
Now I sell different stuff for painters. I am really interested in this kind of art and want to be as close to artist as possible. I encounter one problem: every fifty years I have to change the place of living and my name. However, I liked France so much from the very first sight that I could not help but staying here. Yesterday Edouard tried to teach me how to hold a brush and paint a tree. And I managed to do that! Oh, you cannot imagine how happy I was. Since 1500 Ad I was dreaming to be like all my friends. Art is magnificent. It is, probably, the best creation of human mind! Oh, how I regret that I cannot come back home and show my comrades what the Earth art is. I still hope that one day I will be able to communicate with my friend and ask them to take me back.
1911 AD
It took me much time to move to the United States of America. Now I am living in New York. I like this big city. It amazes me. Now I am the professor in one of the art schools in New York. I like being here. Probably, some day I will come back to this school. I got acquainted with Morgan Russell. He is a good painter. However, I do not like his paintings much. They are misunderstood to me. I cannot get a single idea in his paintings. I showed him my paintings. He said they were boring. Obviously! I was painting beautiful ladies that I met when firstly landed on the Earth. But I do not care about his opinion. In some days I will open my personal gallery. There I will introduce people to my paintings, as well as to unknown paintings presented to me by my friends. Everything is different here. I came up to the United States of America eleven years ago. I had nothing but several pictures and some money. I used to rent a basement floor of an old lady – Mrs. Cooper. She was very kind to me. To earn some money, I was drawing people on the streets. When I had enough money to stay home and work for several months, I began to write a book about art and my thesis. I wanted to become a professor. Soon, I got the degree and tried to find a good school to work there. I did not stop painting. I was painting every night. I have tried many different styles until I finally realized that pictorial art is my favorite style of painting. However, I should admit that some of my pictures represent genre art style. I like to show how people behave and their emotions. Now I am going to publish one more book. In this book I will retell the story of French art. I hope people will like it.
There is only some parts of his diary. Doctors say that the dead man’s body did not change in five hundred years. Moreover, his organs are the same as human beings’ ones. He has perfectly simulated human body. Thanks to his diary, historians may fill white spots in the history of art. If we find some new information about this person and his movements in the world, we will let our readers know.