elias canetti--exoticism

''you step into the coolness of the house and close the door behind you ... few windows in these houses look onto the street. sometimes none at all; everything opens onto the courtyard, and this lies open to the sky. only through the courtyard do you retain a mellow, tempered link with the world around you.

''but you can also go up on the roof and see all the flat roofs of the city at once. the impression is one of levelness, of everything being built in a series of broad terraces. you feel you could walk all over the city up there. the narrow streets present no obstacle; you cannot see them, you forget that there are streets. ... the space above the rooftops is peopled with swallows ...

''the first time i went up on the roof of my friends house i was full of expectaions, ... but he started to fidget when tiring of the far off, i became curious as to the near at hand. he caught me glancing down into the courtyard of the house next door, ... "that's not done here' he said "you mustn't do that, i've often been warned against it. it's considered indelicate to take notice of what goes on next door. its considered bad manners. in fact one oughtn't to show oneself on the roof at all, and a man certainly not. sometimes the womenfolk go up on the roof, and they want to feel undisturbed" ...

''"but surely you can sit up on your own roof, cant you? if you see some one on the next roof its not your fault"--"then i must look away i must show how uninterested i am"--"but then one's less free on the roof then one is on the street" i protested. "certainly" he said "one wants to avoid getting a bad name with one's neighbors"
i watched the swallows and envied the way they went swooping at their ease over three, five, ten roofs at a time.''

elias canetti, voices of marrakesh.