title: Slipping into Paradise: Why I Live in New Zealand
author:  Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson 
description: Jeff Masson is one of the worlds most erudite polymaths. He is also a brilliant and original thinker. So, naturally, even in paradise he is restless, but then any paradise devoid of the spice of intellectual quest and moral debate would be tedious. One does not so much slip into Massons paradise as take a razorback ride, full of wit and insight, through his views on culture, national identity, public intellectuals, New Zealand history, New Zealand flora, fauna, and beaches. There is never a dull moment, and I suspect that this book will cause a further surge in the tourist boom to the Land of the Long White Cloud. <br />JANETTE TURNER HOSPITAL, author of <i>Due Preparations for the Plague</i><br /><br />Since arriving in New Zealand four years ago, Jeffrey Masson has traveled widely and met thousands of New Zealanders as part of his quest to better understand his adopted homeland. His book reflects that. Written by someone who clearly loves the country and is prepared to say so, its an effective introduction to anyone who wants to know more about a society on the cusp of new beginnings. New Zealand isnt just a scenic wonderland, or the place that gave us Sir Edmund Hillary and Peter Jackson, and Masson suggests the reasons why. <br />PHIL GOFF, New Zealands minister of foreign affairs<br /><br /><br /><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>
zlib_text: ## Those Who Wait
  
  
  
  
  
  (1971?)
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../Images/ornam1.gif)  
  
  
  
  
  
  Fortunate indeed is he whose range of experience never exceeds that tiny
  segment of Infinity which it is meant that Man should explore and subdue. He
  who steps beyond these borders walks in dreadful danger of life, sanity, and
  soul. Even if he escapes the peril, life can never be the same again—for he
  cannot escape his memories.
  
  
  
  
  
  It is now seven months since I came to the archaic Massachusetts town of
  Arkham, to attend the small but widely-known Miskatonic University. Since
  then, my knowledge has increased in an unprecedented manner, but not in the
  ways I had expected. For me, new worlds have been opened—new worlds containing
  fascinating vistas of wisdom, and also undreamable abysses of horror, in which
  I learned the fatal weakness of the human mind in dealing with forces beyond
  its comprehension.
  
  
  
  
  
  The first few weeks of my attendance at the university were occupied with
  settling myself in the new surroundings