Only those who possess a strong Individuality can feel the Difference.

By virtue of the law: every thinking subject supposes an object, we must posit that the notion of Difference immediately implies an individual starting point.

That such will fully taste the wonderful feeling, who will feel what they are and what they are not.

Exoticism is therefore not this kaleidoscopic state of the tourist and the mediocre spectator, but the lively and curious reaction to the choice of a strong individuality against an objectivity whose distance it perceives and tastes. (The sensations of Exoticism and Individualism are complementary).

Exoticism is therefore not an adaptation; is therefore not the perfect comprehension of an outside oneself that one would embrace within oneself, but the acute and immediate perception of an eternal incomprehensibility.

So let's start from this confession of impenetrability. Do not flatten ourselves to assimilate manners, races, nations, others; But on the contrary, let us stop at never being able; So reserving the loss of the pleasure of feeling the diverse. (This is where this doubt could be placed: increase our ability to perceive the various, is it shrinking our personality or enriching it? Is it stealing something or making it more numerous? No doubt: it is Enrich it abundantly, from the whole universe. it is the enlarged empire of our Spirit on the world.

Victor Segalen , Essay on exoticism, an aesthetic of diversity . Editions Fata Morgana.