Glurge are those inspirational emails that get forwarded to you by co-workers or family members -- you know, inspirational stories or "ten rules to live by," often accompanied by dire threats if you don't send them on. (I should have died three times over last week alone.) If you follow the link above on snopes.com you can find some of the back stories to these messages -- which ones are true, which ones exaggerate, etc. I've gotten a bunch of them, including some not mentioned on the site (I have some really bored co-workers.) But about a month ago I got the most surprising one I have ever seen. It claimed to be the last message of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who, it said, was dying of lymphoma and wanted to leave the world with some final thoughts. Against of rather nice slideshow, mostly of Paris at night, were the usual inspirational sayings -- tell your family you love them...live life to the fullest...don't waste your days...
I don't know -- it could have all been real, but somehow it just didn't have that touch of orginality that I would have associated with Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was kind of ho-hum. And why Paris? I know that Garcia Marquz lived in Mexico during his political exile, but I'm not aware that he lived in Paris a great deal and he's always been a kind of "New World" writer.
On the other hand, if it is fake, why Gabriel Garcia Marquez? What does a highbrow name like his bring to the world of glurge, which is mostly drawn from Reader's Digest and the Chicken Soup series? Has anyone else seen this one circulating? What do you think?
4 comments:
Hi. Great post. I love your line: I should have died three times last week alone. Ha! Yes, sometimes I can feel the superstition sticking all over me when those arrive in my inbox. Eeek. And it's amazing how people keep sending them. But Gabriel Garcia Marquez glurge? I'm with you that that seems like an oxymoron.
The terrible part is that I don't have the guts to tell the people who send that not to send them. I don't want to see unfriendly.
Also, on another level I'm kind of fascinated by them.
Hey you know what? They gave you food for thought and thereby an interesting blog post.
I know what you mean, though, I just delete them and don't say anything, either. Whatever floats their boat. I'll just sail my own way. :-))
I agree that it is absolute bilge and NOT done by Garcia Marquez. Unless he is dying of a brain tumor.
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