Star-Crossed Love
This American Life
Well, I’m not one prone to being enthusiastic about Valentine’s Day. It’s not really my “cup of tea,” if you will. However, I found this week’s edition of This American Life interesting (actually, I enjoy every single episode and am a subscriber to their weekly podcast through iTunes). This story here drew my attention due to the unlikelihood of such a romance, that actually being the point of this edition of the programme, which saw fit to highlight three rather unorthodox relationships.
You need to click on the link above and go to the 10 February episode called "Star-Crossed Love." Personally, I recommend listening to the whole episode, though I only have questions written about the first story, which starts around minute 7 and ends at minute 33 or thereabouts. Yes, it’s a bit longer than I like the listening to be, but you have a long weekend coming up, so what the heck! So enjoy listening to an Armenian, Shant Kenderian, in the Iraqi army, who was caught and held as a prisoner, talking about how he fell in love with an American soldier.
1. What is “drafted”?
2. What was the soldiers’ greatest hope while on the boat and why?
3. What was Shant most impressed about when seeing the American soldiers?
4. What was assumed about Shant?
5. What were Shant’s friends baffled about with regard to the American’s interactions with Monica?
6. How did Monica contrast with her surroundings?
7. When did Shant realize he had feelings for Monica?
8. What gave him some tenuous hope that she might like him back?
9. What did he mean by “the stakes were very high”?
10. After she gave him a hug, he said “I let _____ _______ _______.” What did he mean by that?
11. How many days left before his transfer did Shant have when he saw Monica again?
12. What did he say about their relationship in the end?
Article: A Veteran’s Love Story: Valentine’s Day 2007
by Shepherd Bliss
Here is another soldier, but from a different war and a slightly different perspective. Read his "love story" and answer the following questions.
1. What word in paragraph one is used to mean “to appear or come into view / to come to the surface”?
2. A mole is a small animal which digs and lives underground. Why did the author describe himself that way in the story?
3. What’s the significance of the phrase “now a seasoned veteran at the age of nineteen”?
4. Explain his question “Is she the enemy?”.
5. In your own words, why do these war veterans join together to write?
6. In your own words, explain why Shepherd calls this a love story.
7. What words does he use to say that he took various stories and made them into one?
8. What word does he use to mean “personal faults or failures”?
6 comments:
I often wondered why one focus so much on "doomed loves" of the past - I think it's the recurring thought of the possibility of it ever working, no matter how hopelessly headed to failure it was in the first place...
I must say - managing to dodge the euphemism and clichés of the "fabricated" season... Well done!
Well, we all have a piece of us that is touched by the hope of love while at the same time disappointed when it doesn't quite work out as we had envisaged.
Thanks for the comment. I tried :)
I liked this comment in M's answer and hope you (M) don't mind me quoting:
Here in Portugal, these is a long running "gag" from a film about the Colonial war (if it can so be called in English) in which a man, kneeling down and desperate, screams "Why didn't anyone tell me that this, this would stay forever?!?". I think "war is hell" is an understatement, and that these men and women, having witnessed horrors, and done the unthinkable to survive, seek solace in writing and sharing these traumatic experiences that they can't put aside - and since they all saw war, much of what they repress and/or can't get themselves to tell their their own families, can sometimes be understood without words by any other Veteran. I think that is the reason they come together, eager to end war at last...
and this one from Cláudia:
Shepherd calls this a love story because the atitude of the girl was honest and remarkable. Instead of being afraid of him since he was the enemy and could hurt her, she felt compassion and helped him above all, which gives a speacial meaning to life.
I like that point that it's in the small gestures that we show love and compassion for others. That's a lesson we can take with us, be it at war or in tmes of peace. . .
A self-promotion for a cable channel had background song I'd forgotten that made me think a bit about this quiz and what was written.
The song is "Unintended" by Muse, an English band that has been pushing the envelope with each record. This is one of their most "contained" and simple songs, but its' perfect in it's own little way.
[The link leads to a very high quality videoclip of the song in YouTube]
It could be said it relates to Shant's story closely... Here are the first few lines of the song:
You could be my unintended
Choice to live my life extended
You could be the one I'll always love
You could be the one who listens to my deepest inquisitions
You could be the one I'll always love
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