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If these girls sold into prostitution had remained in the countryside, they would have gone their whole lives not knowing how to write, never straining to find words to express the beauty of flowers. They would have led lives where flowers were flowers, birds were birds, trees were trees, and that was that. It was a world without flaws but lacking in subtlety, taste, and suggestion. They would have worn rustic clothes and crawled around in muddy rice paddies, working up a seat, till they reached the end of their lives as stooped old women. If there was any benefit in becoming a prostitute, it was only the possibility of becoming literate and discovering the power of words.
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