Episode Four: ”Understatement and Simply Beautiful, Simply Stunning” (Garcia Marquez, Wiesel, Deborah Thomas)

On this episode, the second of three on understatement and its power, death is a theme of the three texts discussed. The first text, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Someone's Been Disarranging these Roses" short story is a beautiful story of friendship and loyalty and those left behind by tragedy. A muted sense of magical realism in the story includes the ghost of a child who died many decades ago in a freak accident as the narrator. Pete also tells the story of Garcia Marquez's magic in writing his Novel Prize winning "One Hundred Years of Solitude." The idea of a person being the sum of his/her experiences and living as that person on a daily basis brings up an allusion to Sandra Cisneros' lovely "Eleven."

Pete recounts the pendulum of emotions felt in teaching Elie Wiesel's Holocaust memoir, Night, for ten years. He focuses on an excerpt in which the absolute doldrums of human dignity is reached, and the atrocities Elie has had to see at the young age of sixteen.

The third text is from Deborah Thomas, a talented writer who worked magic with "There's No Point in Getting Sentimental about It." Pete relays the story of the serendipity of finding out about this story. He then talks about how the story's subtlety grows emotion and empathy and profundity, and he references Delmore Schwartz's "In Dreams Become Responsibilities," with its idea of seeing past experiences, happy and tragic, on a sort of internal film strip.

Authors Mentioned and Allusions Made and Songs Played during Episode:

"Schindler's List-Violin": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWrt0m-cOkU Gabriel García Márquez: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Garc%C3%ADa_M%C3%A1rquez

Article about Garcia Marquez's Process in Writing One Hundred Years of Solitude: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/12/gabriel-garcia-marquez-one-hundred-years-of-solitude-history

Dance of Life • Relaxing Celtic Music for Relaxation & Meditation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiqlZZddZEo&t=4896s

Elie Wiesel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel

Sandra Cisneros' Story, "Eleven": https://www.sps186.org/downloads/basic/777685/Eleven%20.pdf

"There's No Point in getting Sentimental about It," by Deborah Thomas: http://www.paumanokreview.com/4.4/thomas.html

Delmore Schwartz Story, "In Dreams Begin Responsibilities": 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Dreams_Begin_Responsibilities