The Old Dictator and the Sea
Today is a B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. day in Leamington. Beach day.
Ever read "The Old Man and The Sea", by Hemingway? Well, change the Old Man for a neurotic dictator, the Sea for the Bay of Biscay, add a whole crew to the boat, several rifles, and you've got a scene that was apparently quite common to watch during the dictatorship in Spain.
The papers used to exaggerate his fishing deeds. Today's paper gives an account of one of the paper articles of the time. It sounds like a script for a Spanish version of Chaplin's "The Great Dictator".
August 6th, 1959, they found a sperm whale, and the dictator decided that they couldn't miss that hunt. 38 tons, 16 metres long, and it took them 10 hours to capture. The paper says that the Head of State stood on the bow of the boat, directing the whole operation. They caught him with the harpoon, and then basically they had to make him lose strength, without letting him go: "the battle between the man and the beast had started", says the paper (one is not sure who Franco is, the man or the beast...) Just like the Old Man and the Sea, except that the old man was poor, he had no weapons, and it was his last capture.
Well, Franco stood without moving, giving orders without pause. What a heroic vision. They injured the poor thing with four more harpoons, until the dictator lost his patience, took a rifle, and shot the whale 130 times. The paper of course gives the account as if it were a heroic battle deed. Today's paper adds: No, they did not call the Military Police to help out...
The final difference between Franco and Hemingway's Old Man is that Franco's animal was taken to the port and was sold and made into different products.
The Old Man's big capture was eaten on the way back by sharks, and the reader feels it's the old man that's being scavenged.
In the end, he arrives with a gigantic, enormous skeleton.
Franco must be a very very small and tiny skeleton now...
Ever read "The Old Man and The Sea", by Hemingway? Well, change the Old Man for a neurotic dictator, the Sea for the Bay of Biscay, add a whole crew to the boat, several rifles, and you've got a scene that was apparently quite common to watch during the dictatorship in Spain.
The papers used to exaggerate his fishing deeds. Today's paper gives an account of one of the paper articles of the time. It sounds like a script for a Spanish version of Chaplin's "The Great Dictator".
August 6th, 1959, they found a sperm whale, and the dictator decided that they couldn't miss that hunt. 38 tons, 16 metres long, and it took them 10 hours to capture. The paper says that the Head of State stood on the bow of the boat, directing the whole operation. They caught him with the harpoon, and then basically they had to make him lose strength, without letting him go: "the battle between the man and the beast had started", says the paper (one is not sure who Franco is, the man or the beast...) Just like the Old Man and the Sea, except that the old man was poor, he had no weapons, and it was his last capture.
Well, Franco stood without moving, giving orders without pause. What a heroic vision. They injured the poor thing with four more harpoons, until the dictator lost his patience, took a rifle, and shot the whale 130 times. The paper of course gives the account as if it were a heroic battle deed. Today's paper adds: No, they did not call the Military Police to help out...
The final difference between Franco and Hemingway's Old Man is that Franco's animal was taken to the port and was sold and made into different products.
The Old Man's big capture was eaten on the way back by sharks, and the reader feels it's the old man that's being scavenged.
In the end, he arrives with a gigantic, enormous skeleton.
Franco must be a very very small and tiny skeleton now...
posted by Teresa at 10:44
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