Setting

Published in 1997, the short story “Blink and You Miss It” by Alex Garland is set in the “nineties”, somewhere in South East Asia as indicated by the references to the “guru” (a wise man in Eastern culture) a “Buddhist country” and places like “Goa or Koh Phangan”. Knowing that the author himself has spent time in South East Asia and that his novel “The Beach” is set in Thailand (which is a predominantly Buddhist country), we can assume the events in “Blink and You Miss It” are also set there.

Physical setting

The main physical setting is the beach where the hippies’ community resides:

It was a bright sunny day. No surprise. It was a beach, so if there hadn't been sun we wouldn't have been there. So, sunny day, on a beach, and I was sitting in a circle of people. In the centre sat the beach guru.

The way the community lives in huts and the sandy beach is further described after the police raid:

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Social setting

The social setting depicts life in a hippie community in the early nineties, which was usually attractive for young people from Generation X (those born in the 1960s-1970s). Such communities were usually created in South Asian countries, and people were mostly brought together by music and drugs.

In the short story, the narrator illustrates how drugs and the attractive image of a guru (who was, in fact, only a scam-man, not a genuine spiritual guide) brought people together. The story shows the appeal the guru had on the community that seemed to be fascinated by his figure, which was only just an act.

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