Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Send a Question for the Book Club or a Story Request
"...people of the frontier—restless souls who no sooner had hewn fairly habitable homes out of the wilderness and attained to that degree of prosperity which to-day we should call indigence than impelled by some mysterious impulse of their nature they abandoned all and pushed farther westward, to encounter new perils and privations in the effort to regain the meagre comforts which they had voluntarily renounced."
So many of us reach our goals, only to set out and repeat the cycle: finally got that promotion or house? Well, it must be time to change jobs or get a new house? But what if you were one of the few, who stayed put. In this Ambrose Bierce tale, narrator Rae Wilson invites us to explore that very question.
No Way Out - by David Robson
"Sneaky Snitch" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
______________________________________________________
Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0 License
Country Sounds https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★In the oral tradition of storytelling, Echoes in the Dark, delivers classic works of gothic fiction weekly. Hosted and curated by Ms. Rae (an award-winning educator, actor, and literary analyst) the collection of stories spans popular works by authors like Edgar Allan Poe as well as lesser known works by authors such as Guy de Maupassant. Each story is followed by a literary analysis.
If you’re looking to enjoy more classic literature, struggle to find the time to read, hate reading, or just love listening to stories, then this podcast is for you.
A Note on Content: While these stories are generally appropriate for listeners aged 12 and up, classic Gothic literature frequently explores themes of murder, romantic affairs, and "tortured souls." Stories are performed exactly as written in their original historical context.
If you are looking to learn more ways to boost your literary analysis visit:
Speaker: Welcome to Echoes in the
Dark, a podcast dedicated to the
oral
Speaker: tradition of storytelling.
Speaker: If you're looking to enjoy
more classic literature, struggle to
Speaker: find the time to read, hate
reading, or just love listening to
Speaker: stories, then this podcast
is for you.
Speaker: At the end of each story,
I'll share my analysis on the
story's
Speaker: deeper meanings.
Speaker: The Boarded Window by
Ambrose Bierce is a short story that
was
Speaker: originally published in
1891 in the San Francisco Examiner.
Speaker: Bierce wrote some 90 short
stories throughout his career.
Speaker: The entire story combines
first person and third-person
narration.
Speaker: If you want to follow
along, you can get a copy on my
website,
Speaker: better essaywriting.com.
Speaker: The Boarded Window by
Ambrose Beer.
Speaker: In 1830, only a few miles
away from what is now the great city
Speaker: of Cincinnati, lay an
immense and almost unbroken forest.
Speaker: The whole region was
sparsely settled by people of
Frontier.
Speaker: Restless souls who no
sooner had hewn fairly habitable
homes out
Speaker: of the wilderness and
attained that degree of prosperity
which
Speaker: today we should call
engineers.
Speaker: Then impelled by some
mysterious impulse of their nature,
they
Speaker: abandoned all and pushed
farther westward to encounter new
perils
Speaker: and privations in the
effort to regain the meager comforts
which
Speaker: they had voluntarily
renounced.
Speaker: Many of them had already
forsaken that region for the remoter
Speaker:settlements.
Speaker: But among those remaining
was one who had been of those first
Speaker:arriving.
Speaker: He lived alone in a house
of logs surrounded on all sides by
the
Speaker: great forest, of whose
gloom and silence he seemed a part,
for
Speaker: no one had ever known him
to smile nor speak a needless word.
Speaker: His simplest wants were
supplied by the sale or barter of
skins
Speaker: of wild animals in the
river town.
Speaker: For not a thing did he grow
upon the land, which, if needful,
Speaker: he might have claimed by
right of undisturbed possession.
Speaker: There were evidences of
improvement.
Speaker: A few acres of ground
immediately about the house had once
been
Speaker: cleared of its trees, the
decayed stumps of which were half
concealed
Speaker: by the new growth, that had
been suffered to repair the ravage
Speaker: wrought by the axe.
Speaker: Apparently the man's zeal
for agriculture had burned with a
failing
Speaker: flame, expiring in
penitential ashes.
Speaker: The little log house, with
its chimney of sticks, its roof of
Speaker: warping clapboards weighted
with traversing poles and its
chinking
Speaker: of clay, had a single door
and directly opposite a window.
Speaker: The latter, however, was
boarded up.
Speaker: Nobody could remember a
time when it was not, and none knew
why
Speaker: it was so close.
Speaker: Certainly not because of
the occupant's dislike of light and
air,
Speaker: for on those rare occasions
when a hunter had passed that lonely
Speaker: spot, the recluse had
commonly been seen sunning himself
on his
Speaker: doorstep if heaven had
provided sunshine for his need.
Speaker: I fancy there are few
persons living today who ever knew
the secret
Speaker: of that window, but I am
one, as you shall see.
Speaker: The man's name was said to
be Mlock.
Speaker: He was apparently seventy
years old, actually about fifty.
Speaker: Something besides years had
had a hand in his aging.
Speaker: His hair and long, full
build were white, his grey,
lustreless
Speaker: eyes sunken, his face
singularly seamed with wrinkles
which appeared
Speaker: to belong to two
intersecting systems.
Speaker: In figure, he was tall and
spare, with a stoop of the
shoulders,
Speaker: a burden bearer.
Speaker: I never saw him.
Speaker: These particulars I learned
from my grandfather, from whom also
Speaker: I got the man's story when
I was a lad.
Speaker: He had known him when
living nearby in that early day.
Speaker: One day, Murlock was found
in his cabin dead.
Speaker: It was not a time and place
for coroners and newspapers, and I
Speaker: suppose it was agreed that
he had died from natural causes, or
Speaker: I should have been told and
should remember.
Speaker: I know only that.
Speaker: With what was probably a
sense of the fitness of things, the
body
Speaker: was buried near the cabin,
alongside the grave of his wife, who
Speaker: had preceded him by so many
years that local tradition had
retained
Speaker: hardly a hint of her
existence.
Speaker: That closes the final
chapter of this true story.
Speaker: Excepting, indeed, the
circumstances that many years
afterward,
Speaker: in company with an equally
intrepid spirit, I penetrated to the
Speaker: place and venture near
enough to the ruined cabin to throw
a stone
Speaker: against it, and ran away to
avoid the ghost, which every well
Speaker: informed boy thereabout
knew haunted the spot.
Speaker: But there is an earlier
chapter that supplied by my
grandfather.
Speaker: When Murloc built his cabin
and began laying sturdily about with
Speaker: his axe to hew out a farm.
Speaker: The rifle, meanwhile, his
means of support, he was young,
strong,
Speaker: and full of hope.
Speaker: In that eastern country
whence he came he had married, as
was
Speaker: the fashion.
Speaker: A young woman in all ways
worthy of his honest devotion, who
shared
Speaker: the dangers and privations
of his lot with a willing spirit and
Speaker: light heart.
Speaker: There is no known record of
her name, or her charms of mind and
Speaker: person tradition is silent,
and the doubter is at liberty to
entertain
Speaker: his doubt, but God forbid
that I should share it.
Speaker: Of their affection and
happiness, there is abundant
assurance
Speaker: in every added day of the
man's widowed life.
Speaker: For what but the magnetism
of a blessed memory could have
chained
Speaker: that venturesome spirit to
a lot like that.
Speaker: One day, Murlock returned
from gunning in a distant part of
the
Speaker: forest to find his wife
prostrate with fever and delirious.
Speaker: There was no physician
within miles, no neighbor, nor was
she
Speaker: in a condition to be left
to summon help.
Speaker: So he set about the task of
nursing her back to health.
Speaker: But at the end of the third
day, she fell into unconsciousness
Speaker: and so passed away,
apparently with a never a gleam of
returning
Speaker: reason.
Speaker: From what we know of a
nature like his, we may venture to
sketch
Speaker: in some of the details of
the outline picture drawn by my
grandfather.
Speaker: When convinced that she was
dead, Murlock had sense enough to
Speaker: remember that the dead must
be prepared for burial and
performance
Speaker: of this sacred duty, he
blundered now and again, did certain
things
Speaker: incorrectly, and others
which he did correctly were done
over
Speaker: and over.
Speaker: His occasional failures to
accomplish some simple and ordinary
Speaker: act filled him with
astonishment, like that of a drunken
man who
Speaker: wonders at the suspension
of familiar natural law.
Speaker: He was surprised too that
he did not weep.
Speaker: Surprised and a little
ashamed.
Speaker: Surely it is unkind not to
weep for the dead.
Speaker: Tomorrow, he said aloud, I
shall have to make the coffin and
dig
Speaker: the grave, and then I shall
miss her.
Speaker: When she is no longer in
sight.
Speaker: But now she is dead, of
course, but it is alright.
Speaker: It must be alright somehow.
Speaker: Things cannot be so bad as
they seem.
Speaker: He stood over the body in
the fading light, adjusting the hair
Speaker: and putting the fishing
touches to the simple toilet, doing
all
Speaker: mechanically with soulless
care.
Speaker: And still through his
consciousness ran an under sense of
convention
Speaker: that all was right, that he
should have her again as before.
Speaker: And everything explained.
Speaker: He had had no experience in
grief, his capacity had not been
enlarged
Speaker: by use.
Speaker: His heart could not contain
it all, nor his imagination rightly
Speaker: conceive it.
Speaker: He did not know he was so
heart struck.
Speaker: That knowledge would come
later and never go.
Speaker: Grief is an artist of
powers as various as the instruments
upon
Speaker: which he plays his dirges
for the dead, evoking from some the
Speaker: sharpest, shrillest notes,
and others the low grave chords that
Speaker: throb a recent like the
slow beating of a distant drum.
Speaker: Some natures it startles,
some it stupefies.
Speaker: To one it comes like the
stroke of an arrow stinging all the
sensibilities
Speaker: of a keener life, to
another as the blow of a bludgeon,
which
Speaker: in crushing benumbs.
Speaker: We may conceive Murloch to
have been that way affected for and
Speaker: here we are upon sure
ground than that of the conjecture.
Speaker: No sooner had he finished
his pious work than sinking into a
chair
Speaker: by the side of the table
upon which the body lay, and noting
how
Speaker: white the profile showed in
the deepening gloom, he laid his
arms
Speaker: upon the table's edge and
dropped his face into them, tearless
Speaker: yet unutterably weary.
Speaker: At that moment came in
through the open window a long
wailing
Speaker: sound like the cry of a
lost child in the far deeps of the
darkening
Speaker: wood.
Speaker: But the man did not move.
Speaker: Again, and nearer than
before sounded that unearthly cry
upon
Speaker: his failing sense.
Speaker: Perhaps it was a wild
beast, perhaps it was a dream.
Speaker: For Murlock was asleep.
Speaker: Some hours later, as it
afterward appeared, this unfaithful
watcher
Speaker: awoke and lifting his head
from his arms, intently listened.
Speaker: He knew not why.
Speaker: There, in the black
darkness by the side of the dead,
recalling
Speaker: all without a shock, he
strained his eyes to see he knew not
what.
Speaker: His senses were all alert,
his breath was suspended, his blood
Speaker: had stilled its tides as if
to assist the silence.
Speaker: Who?
Speaker: What had waked him, and
where was it?
Speaker: Suddenly the table shook
beneath his arms, and at the same
moment
Speaker: he heard, or fancied that
he heard, a light, soft step,
another
Speaker: sounds as of bare feet upon
the floor.
Speaker: He was terrified beyond the
power to cry out or move.
Speaker: Perforce he waited.
Speaker: Waited, therefore, in the
darkness through seeming centuries
of
Speaker: such dread as one may know
yet live to tell.
Speaker: He tried vainly to speak
the dead woman's name, vainly to
stretch
Speaker: forth his hand across the
table to learn if she were there.
Speaker: His throat was powerless,
his arms and hands were like lead.
Speaker: Then occurred something
most frightful.
Speaker: Some heavy body seemed
hurled against the table with an
impetus
Speaker: that pushed it against his
breast so sharply as nearly to
overthrow
Speaker: him, and at the same
instant he heard and fell the fall
of something
Speaker: upon the floor with so
violent a thump that the whole house
was
Speaker: shaken by the impact.
Speaker: A scuffling ensued and a
confusion of sounds impossible to
describe.
Speaker: Murloch had risen to his
feet.
Speaker: Fear had by excess
forfeited control of his faculties.
Speaker: He flung his hands upon the
table.
Speaker: Nothing was there.
Speaker: There was a point at which
terror may turn to madness, and
madness
Speaker: incites to action.
Speaker: With no definite intent,
from no motive but the wayward
impulse
Speaker: of a madman, Murlock sprang
to the wall with a little groping,
Speaker: seized his loaded rifle,
and without aim discharged it.
Speaker: By the flash which lit up
the room with a vivid illumination,
Speaker: he saw an enormous panther
dragging the dead woman toward the
Speaker: window, its teeth fixed in
her throat.
Speaker: Then there were darkness
blacker than before and silent.
Speaker: And when he returned to
consciousness, the sun was high and
the
Speaker: wood vocal with song.
Speaker: The body lay near the
window.
Speaker: Where the beast had left it
when frightened away by the flash
Speaker: and the report of the
rifle.
Speaker: The clothing was deranged,
the long hair and disorder, the
limbs
Speaker: lay anyhow from the throat,
dreadfully lacerated, had issued a
Speaker: pool of blood not yet
entirely coagulated.
Speaker: The ribbon with which he
had bound the wrist was broken.
Speaker: The hands were tightly
clenched.
Speaker: Between the teeth was a
fragment of the animal's ear.
Speaker: This is the second story
I've read by Bierce.
Speaker: And uh when doing a quick
little Google search on this author,
Speaker: the good old AI summed up
Bierce's work as being sarcastic and
Speaker: witty.
Speaker: And I'm gonna say I agree
with that sentiment.
Speaker: And just the things that I
certainly look for in a short piece.
Speaker: Um with that being said, I
so if you might remember the other
Speaker: piece that I read for this
podcast was A Vine on a House, and
Speaker: I got a kick out of the
twisted little knots, those, the
roots.
Speaker: It just really stands out
to me.
Speaker: I still giggle when I think
about it.
Speaker: This one isn't funny, haha.
Speaker: In terms of our ending, I
think Bierce's humor is really
strong
Speaker: in the beginning.
Speaker: When Bierce is just
describing this really desolate
area, it is
Speaker: rich in trees, and that's
gonna, of course, mean rich in
animals.
Speaker: So rich in wilderness.
Speaker: And yet we have this
wonderful description of people who
come
Speaker: to the area to make lives
for themselves, only to then be
like,
Speaker: up, you know what?
Speaker: We're just gonna leave and
go try to make our life elsewhere
and
Speaker: do it all over again.
Speaker: Like, what was wrong with
what you had?
Speaker: But we'll come back to that
thought.
Speaker: So anyway, I thought that
description was really funny and
fun.
Speaker: And I loved it, and I hoped
you loved it too.
Speaker: With that being said, I
found the ending to be truly
surprising.
Speaker: So partway through this, I
was getting a little disappointed.
Speaker: I'm like, oh my gosh.
Speaker: Okay, clearly this guy is
bumbling, uh, preparing his wife for
Speaker: burial, which also brought
up another question for me in terms
Speaker: of, so what exactly do you
feel you need to do to this body?
Speaker: I mean, I'm thinking of
Egyptian times.
Speaker: Is he, I mean, he's not
gonna have a coat hanger to pull out
a
Speaker: no uh the brain from the
nose.
Speaker: So what is he doing to this
body?
Speaker: I'm imagining that he's
removing organs and things of that
nature.
Speaker: He's doing things right and
he's doing things wrong.
Speaker: I don't even know what this
man is doing.
Speaker: And as I'm saying this, I'm
thinking about maybe he was just
like,
Speaker: okay, let me undress her
and then wash her and then dress
her.
Speaker: We do get the sense that
he's fixing her hair.
Speaker: This is mentioned.
Speaker: Um, he he bound her hands,
okay.
Speaker: So, okay, maybe there's no
organ removal.
Speaker: Um he's got a rifle,
there's probably an axe outside, but
there's
Speaker: there's no hatchery
happening.
Speaker: So, what is he so tired
for?
Speaker: I know it's hard to move a
dead body, but dude, why are you so
Speaker: tired?
Speaker: Why is this so taxing?
Speaker: So, with that being said, I
kind of wish Pierce had given us a
Speaker: little bit more on that
aspect, but it's all good.
Speaker: He needed to put together a
short story for the San Francisco
Speaker:paper.
Speaker: I gotcha.
Speaker: And as someone who lived in
San Francisco, I just love knowing.
Speaker: Oh, Pierce was published in
the San Francisco Examiner.
Speaker: Woo-hoo.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: So I don't know what he did
to this body, but apparently it was
Speaker: something that made him oh
so tired, and something that he was
Speaker: kind of sort of maybe not
good at.
Speaker: But yeah, I'm thinking, oh
my gosh, this is so typical.
Speaker: She's not really dead.
Speaker: And then I'm thinking,
well, maybe she is dead and she's a
ghost
Speaker: because he hears something.
Speaker: What's happening?
Speaker: There's a thud.
Speaker: Is she gonna like wake up
and murder him because he removed
her
Speaker: organs?
Speaker: What's happening?
Speaker: Like, what is going on
here?
Speaker: And then we have him grab
the rifle, shoot, and there's the
mention
Speaker: of the panther.
Speaker: I thought, oh, well, that's
interesting.
Speaker: Was not expecting that.
Speaker: So my brain kind of
automatically put out the fact that
he is
Speaker: alone in the wilderness.
Speaker: Not just alone, no people
around, but there's animals out
there,
Speaker: and it's nighttime, and
there's death in the area.
Speaker: There is a dead body, and
so yeah, animals are gonna be like,
Speaker: I think I smell something.
Speaker: Um now, with that being
said, let's put up let's put a
little
Speaker: pillow pen in that death
smelling thing.
Speaker: Because the ending ending,
right?
Speaker: Like after the the the
Panther was like, okay, whatever,
it's
Speaker:Panther.
Speaker: That was a little surprise.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: But the pièce de
résistance, the real creme de la
creme of this
Speaker: story is really the last
sentence, my friends.
Speaker: Oh my.
Speaker: So here it is again,
because I'm loving it, and I hope
you do
Speaker:too.
Speaker: Between the teeth, let me
back it up, the ribbon with which he
Speaker: had bound the wrist was
broken, the hands were tightly
clenched.
Speaker: Between the teeth was a
fragment of the animal's ear.
Speaker: So these two sentences
reveal so much to us.
Speaker: And actually, even just I'm
rereading the sentence before that,
Speaker: from the throat, dreadfully
lacerated, had issued a pool of
blood
Speaker: not yet entirely
coagulated.
Speaker: So the blood coagulates
when it's been there for a long
time,
Speaker: so she had not been
bleeding out for a long time, she
was not
Speaker: dead, she found herself
being attacked by a panther.
Speaker: She fought back, she bit
that thing.
Speaker: So I guess she was too weak
in her fevered state to really say
Speaker: much of anything when her
husband was trying to prepare her
for
Speaker: death and like tying her
hands and stuff.
Speaker: But when she felt something
on her throat, she bit down and bit
Speaker: that animal's ear.
Speaker: I love that so much.
Speaker: And um, she fought back.
Speaker: Her she was able to.
Speaker: Get her hands free.
Speaker: But ultimately she died.
Speaker: And she just laid there
like bleeding out for quite some
time.
Speaker: So she died not from her
fevered state, not from her
husband's
Speaker: bumbling negligence, but
from being mauled by a panther.
Speaker: Ugh.
Speaker: So, so good.
Speaker: I thought this story, when
it started off with this whole thing
Speaker: about a window when kids
are running away because of spirits.
Speaker: I thought for sure, okay,
we're gonna have a ghost.
Speaker: Whoop-de-doo, this guy's
ghost is haunting the place, or um
maybe
Speaker: the wife's ghost was
haunting him.
Speaker: Like, come on, I'm I don't
need the same old, same old.
Speaker: Here am I, a bit of a
critic and a skeptic after reading.
Speaker: I love, I love gothic
stories.
Speaker: And so you do expect to see
the same layout over and over.
Speaker: This is not abnormal.
Speaker: So I really shouldn't be
complaining.
Speaker: But I think it's so fun
when an author gives us something
truly
Speaker: different, and I think
that's what Bierce is really good
at.
Speaker: Really good at just giving
you something that you probably
weren't
Speaker: expecting.
Speaker: Okay, so as much as I love
the surprise ending and I love the
Speaker: fact that it was short,
what can we learn from this story?
Speaker: Um, how about don't isolate
yourself so much that you can't get
Speaker: your basic needs met,
right?
Speaker: I mean, this guy's body was
found dead in his cabin later on in
Speaker: life.
Speaker: When his wife was sick, he
couldn't go get help.
Speaker: And he was also probably on
the younger side, so probably didn't
Speaker: even know, like, oh, who
would I go and ask?
Speaker: What would I do?
Speaker: I might not have any money.
Speaker: So he decides, oh, I'm
gonna take care of it myself.
Speaker: So yeah, and it just
reminds me of today's society where,
you
Speaker: know, since 2020, people
have found it even more acceptable
to
Speaker: just stay indoors, to not
go out.
Speaker: I myself work remotely.
Speaker: Um, I do love going outside
and taking walks in nature, but
because
Speaker: of my lifestyle, I'm not in
a position where I can go and hang
Speaker: out with my friends all the
time.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: I could probably go on some
chat forums and meetups and whatnot
Speaker: and start making lots of
new friends.
Speaker: However, it's not really a
priority for me right now.
Speaker: But we get all these
reports in the US about oh,
scientists and
Speaker: researchers say that um
people today are lonelier than ever.
Speaker: There's a loneliness
epidemic, everyone is isolated,
blah, blah,
Speaker: blah.
Speaker: Everyone's on their phones.
Speaker: And when you do go out to
restaurants, a lot of times you do
see
Speaker: people on their phones.
Speaker: Uh, the younger generation,
they're all online on social media.
Speaker: They don't go and see
friends in person.
Speaker: You see these reports all
the time.
Speaker: Um, you know, YouTube
headlines of uh people rotting away
in their
Speaker: homes, people who don't get
out of bed, they just rot away.
Speaker: I always wonder these
rotting people, like who's paying
your bills?
Speaker: How do those bills how do
you have a phone with internet
access?
Speaker: Because if you ain't
working, then at some point that
phone will
Speaker: get shut off.
Speaker: So are your families just
supporting your rotting lifestyle?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Those doesn't really make
much sense to me.
Speaker: But what makes absolute
sense is this idea of wanting to uh
start
Speaker: a life on your own terms
and have all the space.
Speaker: And this guy, he and his
wife, they go, they start a life on
their
Speaker: own terms, they have all
this space.
Speaker: And they, unlike everyone
else, have decided they are content.
Speaker: They are happy with what
they have.
Speaker: They have each other, they
have their lands, they're happy.
Speaker: Whereas, remember in the
beginning of the story, everyone
else
Speaker: is not happy with what they
have.
Speaker: They are going off to seek
new lands, uh, to find new
challenges
Speaker: and stake new claims and do
it all over again.
Speaker: So that also brings up
another question, right?
Speaker: Because they were happy
with what they had, they stayed put.
Speaker: So is happiness death?
Speaker: We already know that Beerce
is saying, don't isolate to the
point
Speaker: where you can't get help.
Speaker: Like you need people.
Speaker: You might be happy with
what you got, but you do need
people.
Speaker: Um, that's how that's how
we live.
Speaker: Um you you can't exist
completely on your own.
Speaker: Now, with that being said,
I'm thinking about okay, this guy
does
Speaker: live for a bit after his
wife has passed away, but is he
really
Speaker: on his own?
Speaker: Because he has the memories
of her.
Speaker: So I'm gonna say that no,
it's not that you can't live on your
Speaker: own, but that to to Beers
is cautioning us about isolation.
Speaker: There's caution.
Speaker: There's also caution about
making assumptions.
Speaker: Don't make assumptions.
Speaker: Dude assumed his wife was
dead.
Speaker: She'd been in this fever
state.
Speaker: He's not a doctor.
Speaker: He, and this is a while
ago, right?
Speaker: So maybe he doesn't know to
check for pulse.
Speaker: Maybe he doesn't know how
to check if she's breathing.
Speaker: Um, maybe he just sees
that, oh, she's not eating, she's
not drinking,
Speaker: she's kind of not moving,
so I guess she's dead.
Speaker: Um, she looks sickly.
Speaker: So don't make assumptions.
Speaker: Don't just assume your
loved ones are dead and follow your
instincts.
Speaker: He is alerted in the night
of something wrong, something being
Speaker: in the room, and he goes
for his gun and just kind of blindly
Speaker:shoots.
Speaker: And that saves his life.
Speaker: It doesn't save her life.
Speaker: Uh, but in a way, in a way,
it it helped her have a more
dignified
Speaker: death as opposed to the
other potential was being buried
alive
Speaker: by your husband because he
assumed that you were dead.
Speaker: So yeah, don't make
assumptions, follow your instincts,
be careful
Speaker: of how much you isolate.
Speaker: It does bring up this
question, though, is happiness
death, right?
Speaker: Because these two people
were very happy and they chose not
to
Speaker: follow the herd.
Speaker: I don't think Beers is
telling us follow the herd.
Speaker: I think he's actually
saying in the beginning, no, you
don't need
Speaker: to follow the masses.
Speaker: Like, people don't need to
keep going in this cycle of
struggle,
Speaker: achievement.
Speaker: They go find struggle,
achievement.
Speaker: They go find more struggle.
Speaker: Like, why are we doing
this?
Speaker: This makes no sense.
Speaker: Once you find happiness,
well, I guess this is kind of it,
right?
Speaker: Once you find happiness,
it's okay if you die, right?
Speaker: This guy wasn't moping
around his cabin, like, oh, my wife
is
Speaker:dead.
Speaker: He happily stayed there.
Speaker: He could have left, he
could have remarried, but no, he
stayed
Speaker: there.
Speaker: He didn't care about
maintaining the property anymore,
but he
Speaker: stayed there.
Speaker: You know, his little joys,
getting some sun.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: There's probably some
comfort for him just being there
near his
Speaker: wife that he loved dearly.
Speaker: I like the disclaimer.
Speaker: It's not that he didn't
love her.
Speaker: We have no evidence that it
is that he didn't love her.
Speaker: It's not that he was trying
to bury her alive.
Speaker: I thought it was kind of
funny.
Speaker: Anyway I I think uh it's a
good story.
Speaker: Beers packed a lot into a
very short story.
Speaker: Um and really introduced
some super cool words that has
certainly
Speaker: inspired me to be like, you
know what?
Speaker: I really gotta do something
with all this amazing vocabulary
that
Speaker: these authors are giving
me.
Speaker: Because some of these
words, you guys, I have to look up
and practice
Speaker: pronouncing.
Speaker: Like, what is this?
Speaker: Now, I will say that if you
took the opportunity or have had the
Speaker: opportunity to listen to
the three-part series on the gray
woman,
Speaker: that was a lot of research,
a lot of looking up words.
Speaker: Um, there are multiple
languages happening there, and it
was fun,
Speaker: it was very exhausting.
Speaker: I found for this one
though, there's some words I'm like,
oh,
Speaker: what is that?
Speaker: And I really feel like I
just miss how stories used to
encourage
Speaker: us to expand our
vocabularies.
Speaker: And I understand writing in
a manner in which the author shows
Speaker: common language, makes it
more accessible by more readers, and
Speaker: so that way more people
will be inclined to read.
Speaker: But this is also similar to
how in uh Hollywood nowadays
directors
Speaker: are being told to restate
uh restate the plot multiple times
because
Speaker: audiences aren't fully
paying attention because they're
multitasking,
Speaker: because they're on their
phone while also watching that show
or
Speaker: sit in the theater.
Speaker: So you gotta restate it a
couple of times throughout the
episode.
Speaker: And I feel like in a way,
writers have uh it's certain
writers,
Speaker: you know, have strayed away
from using big words, uncommon
words,
Speaker: fancy words, because they
want for their books to be very
accessible.
Speaker: But I always say to people,
if you want to get better at
English,
Speaker: read.
Speaker: Read, read a lot because it
really does help expand the
vocabulary.
Speaker: Now, as someone who is
studying French, I am trying to read
in
Speaker: French, and is it expanding
my vocabulary?
Speaker: There are times where I
stop and I go, oh my goodness, I
don't
Speaker: really know what that
means.
Speaker: But right now I'm just at a
point where I'm like, I'm just
trying
Speaker: to make it through the
book.
Speaker: Um, but I do know, I know
that the more I read, it's going to
Speaker: expand my vocabulary.
Speaker: So I think I'm saying all
this because I want you to know that
Speaker: on this podcast, you are
going to soon be able to get little
drip
Speaker: drops of definitions for
words.
Speaker: I understand that when it's
the audio version of a story, you
Speaker: may catch a word, but it's
not really it doesn't really stick.
Speaker: It's like, okay, I don't
even know what that means.
Speaker: Get on to the next part of
the story.
Speaker: Um, but by knowing the
definition of a word, it can really
enhance
Speaker: um the the the meaning of
the story.
Speaker: And, you know, why not
build some vocabulary at the same
time?
Speaker: So gonna be gonna be doing
in some drip drops for ya.
Speaker: I do listen to I recently
discovered a podcast that I think is
Speaker: pretty freaking fabulous.
Speaker: This gal has a great voice
and fun sense of humor.
Speaker: Clearly takes her a long
time to write her stuff.
Speaker: I'm just free talking for
the most part when I do my post
story
Speaker: analysis.
Speaker: But she does her whole
podcast is built around vocabulary
and
Speaker: words, and she does list
off some words at the end of the
episodes,
Speaker: and I thought, oh, that's
fun.
Speaker: I can I can not only um
think critically, but I can also or
expand
Speaker: my critical thinking, but I
can also build my vocabulary.
Speaker: Now, 99% chance I will
forget the vocabulary words after
hearing
Speaker: an episode and I'm not
going to actually use them in my
daily
Speaker: language, but still, let's
keep words alive.
Speaker: Don't replace words with
emojis, you guys.
Speaker: Keep words alive.
Speaker: Can you imagine if all
these stories were just listed in
emojis?
Speaker: And you were listening to
this podcast, and it was just some
me
Speaker: trying to decode eggplant
poop coffee, smiley face, hard
heart.
Speaker: Like, what is she talking
about?
Speaker: And I'm just like, I don't
even know.
Speaker: I'm imagining, you know, in
a thousand years people recovering
Speaker: documents from the last
five years and just seeing things
like
Speaker: text messages that were
printed out or something, and all
these
Speaker: emojis, and be like, what
is this?
Speaker: Why is there a wink and a
cartwheel?
Speaker: I don't understand.
Speaker: All right, my friends.
Speaker: Well, I hope you enjoyed
this story.
Speaker: I certainly loved it.
Speaker: I loved it.
Speaker: Last two sentences, so
good, but yeah, pretty strong from
start
Speaker: to finish.
Speaker: I hope you enjoyed this
story, and please do come back for
another
Speaker: gothic tale.