THE DEEP ONES: "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel García Márquez
ForumThe Weird Tradition
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1semdetenebre
"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" by Gabriel García Márquez
Discussion begins February 21, 2024.
Written in 1955. First English publication in Leaf Storm and Other Stories (1972).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1373410
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
Gabriel García Márquez: Collected Stories
Angels and Awakenings
The Big Book of Modern Fantasy
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/MarquezManwithWings.ht...
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi7oPw5uSzw
MISCELLANY
https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3196/the-art-of-fiction-no-69-gabriel-...
https://weirdfictionreview.com/2015/01/four-stories-old-man-enormous-wings-gabri...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/09/27/the-power-of-garcia-marquez
https://lithub.com/some-of-gabriel-garcia-marquezs-best-characters-were-dead-peo...
http://tinyurl.com/4fuauucs
Discussion begins February 21, 2024.
Written in 1955. First English publication in Leaf Storm and Other Stories (1972).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1373410
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
Gabriel García Márquez: Collected Stories
Angels and Awakenings
The Big Book of Modern Fantasy
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/MarquezManwithWings.ht...
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi7oPw5uSzw
MISCELLANY
https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3196/the-art-of-fiction-no-69-gabriel-...
https://weirdfictionreview.com/2015/01/four-stories-old-man-enormous-wings-gabri...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/09/27/the-power-of-garcia-marquez
https://lithub.com/some-of-gabriel-garcia-marquezs-best-characters-were-dead-peo...
http://tinyurl.com/4fuauucs
2AndreasJ
I guess this is "magical realism" rather than "weird" already by its author's home continent, but it reminded me at points both of Jeffrey Ford and of Ballard's "The Drowned Giant" (though any influence is from Márquez, of course).
Annoyance or not, overall the angel proved a blessing for Pelayo and Elisenda.
Annoyance or not, overall the angel proved a blessing for Pelayo and Elisenda.
3RandyStafford
It was acceptably short and didn't overstay its welcome. The old man seems an entity into whom people can invest their theories and hopes.
The bit with the spider woman was odd. For a moment, I took her crushing of the old man to be literal instead of just upstaging his appeal.
The bit with the spider woman was odd. For a moment, I took her crushing of the old man to be literal instead of just upstaging his appeal.
4WeeTurtle
I haven't looked at these threads in a while but I caught the title of this one and my local theatre group is putting on a play of this story. Question is, if I go see it, do I read the story first or after?
5semdetenebre
Have another meatball.
It might have been interesting to discover how Elisenda and Pelayo would have rid themselves of a dead angel (something along the lines of the previously mentioned "The Drowned Giant", perhaps?), but then we wouldn't have the story's moral, that sometimes those unruly supernatural (or not) annoyances in life can become "but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea."
>4 WeeTurtle:
It's a very short story. I'd read it first and then see where the theatrical adaptation takes it.
It might have been interesting to discover how Elisenda and Pelayo would have rid themselves of a dead angel (something along the lines of the previously mentioned "The Drowned Giant", perhaps?), but then we wouldn't have the story's moral, that sometimes those unruly supernatural (or not) annoyances in life can become "but an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea."
>4 WeeTurtle:
It's a very short story. I'd read it first and then see where the theatrical adaptation takes it.