a very old man with enormous wings by gabriel garcia marquez

the world had been sad since tuesday. apparently, that line meant nothing. or at least that's what i learned from the discussion. but for some unknown reason, i happened to like it. something inside me went mellow when i read the line. i really like it. haha. this is my second encounter with this story, i understand it much better now. the first time i read it was when i was still a freshman who read things both senseless and scholarly on the internet. i was merely entertained. it was not exactly a learning and insightful process. but now i have thoughts on it. haha. was the old man really an angel? i think we cannot say. in the story, an angel was not really defined. and we, we only know that angels have wings, look serene and whenever they appear they normally explicitly state that they were sent by God. but that's our definition. and it can be a far cry from that of the people in the story. we don't really know because there weren't any clear standards set in the first place. who really is to say, right?

i also agree that this is the story of the people, and not of the angel. i think it reflects a lot of things about people, mostly those that aren't particulary commendable. in this story, it is seen that people are indeed fascinated with things that are bizarre. i mean, a lot of people will pay to see the unusual. that's how a lot of circus people survived. the people in the story are also what we filipinos would call chismosas. any controversial piece of information can easily spread over a large area one minute after it is uncovered. also, people tend to like those they can relate to or identify with. that's how fictional characters get so popular these days. and that's also why they liked the spider girl in the story. moreover, i sort of pity the old man with enormous wings. i think he wasn't an angel but he belonged to a different world. or a group that didn't speak their language. suffice it to say that i think he didn't belong with the local populace. he belonged to a different species that supposedly stuck together, like animals. they probably have their own domain and civilization in this world. it's possible because he spoke a different language and he was different from the people.

i like this story :) i particularly like the last line. it's like he gloriously flew away from the monster of a lady in such an in-your-face-but-im-going-away fashion.