Tragedy, Tragedy, by Lídia Gàllego
In
the morning break, Mick talks about the improper use of the word “tragedy” in
newspapers. As an example, he gives the case of Ronnie Meadow, who died of a
heart attack. Concerning this, Bob also has doubts about the use of this word.
Ronnie was a colleague who had a heart-attack driving a fork-lift at work. Mick
thinks that newspapers use the word “tragedy” when they don’t know what to say.
Bob
remembers the moment when the ambulance came and Ronnie’s wife came too. Mercer
was there and said to Mrs Meadow that it was tragic, unknowing what else to
say.
Mick begins a reflexion around the term “tragedy” and tries to imagine how to describe the death of a mountaineer while trying to climb. He thinks the better term to define the situation would be “heroic”, while Bob thinks the adjective could be “mad”. Mick thinks that all mountaineers dream to die climbing a mountain, but, in the other hand, he thinks it’s tragic when a mountaineer dies climbing up some easy-peasy little mountain. Bob can’t understand Mick’s reasoning and decides to ask him the killer question, “why?” Mick give him a quick answer with whom Bob disagrees. But all the discussion causes Bob beginning to think about what can be considered tragic or not. Finally, he realizes that all the thoughts that Mick express were only the expression of his fear.
The discussion ends, and Mick believes his argument has won. But Bob finally understands that people use the word tragic because they can’t use the word they ought to say: comic.
QUESTIONS
-Talk about the characters
Mick
Bob
Ronnie
-The place somebody dies: Do you feel a kind of awe or
respect passing by it? (Remember the bouquets of flowers by the roads)
-Do you think there are “glasses’ faces”, that is
faces where glasses (or earrings or a tattoo, or a haircut, or a lipstick
colour) suit perfectly?
-Do you think that a change in your style of dressing
or in the complements you wear can change your life?
-What is the best way, according to your opinion, to
“quit the fags”? Were you a smoker? How did you quit it?
-What can you tell us about Hamlet? Have you
read or seen the play?
-What do you know about the Lake District?
-What is for you the “killer question” when you want
to decide about a film, a friend, some clothes, a lover, a dish…?
-What do you know about Beano and Dandy?
Did you use to read comics? What was your favourite comic / comic character? Why?
-Are / Were you a newspaper reader? What is your
favourite newspaper?
-Could you really say “comic”, or even think, about
somebody’s death?
VOCABULARY
canteen, half-rims, fork-lift, headline, drumming, lawn-mower,
gasping, mouth off, quit, pallet cover, skirting round, dawdling, fags, nipping
off, daft, wipe, easy-peasy, hankering, killer question, search me, keel over, slumps,
dotted, zonker, talking cobblers, score, scrunched