A sad day for lovers of literature. Both Günter Grass and Eduardo Galeano died yesterday. Greatness isn’t measured in popularity. It is not a question of opinion; of whether someone is loved or hated. If someone great is well-known, then the odds are that he or she receives a good amount of both. The question is more about before and after. What was the world like before the greatness arrived and how did this person change us? Both Grass and Galeano’s writings and lives generated controversy because they pushed the boundaries of acceptable conversation. They made the international dialogue a little wider and provided us with vocabulary to discuss essential subjects. Before Grass, both Germany and the world could talk about concentration camps and the Holocaust, but lacked the language for the difficult self-reflection that was needed to comprehend how those horrors could come to pass. Galeano added the marginalized Latin American’s voice to established history. He augmented the vocabulary that eventually would be known as the conversation around post colonialism. At the same time, his words became part of the discourse as Latin Americans made their space on the world’s stage. Both created literature that textured today’s world and we’re lucky to have had their voices.
Salman Rushdie wrote his remembrance about Grass in the New Yorker and National Public Radio republished an interview they did with Galeano a few years ago in Montevideo. Enjoy.
Salman Rushdie wrote his remembrance about Grass in the New Yorker and National Public Radio republished an interview they did with Galeano a few years ago in Montevideo. Enjoy.
