Friday night. A debate on journalism and literature has taken place on the nearby university campus of La Merced within a ‘Word and Thought’ classroom cycle coordinated by Professor Charo Guarino. In the dialogue between the audience and the pair of speakers, the information situation and the possibility of a more or less literary journalism are discussed, as well as a more ‘subjective’ journalism, committed etc. of the already ‘old’ New Journalism. At the end, a few, including the two speakers (this paper’s Head of Culture, Manuel Madrid, and the writer and journalist Nuria Barrios), Charo Guarino, the novelist and journalist Bernar Freiría, and myself, went to one of the nearby bars to have a drink. It’s, like I said, Friday night. The terraces of these bars are full, especially with young people. There is laughter, thunderous conversations, enveloping joy… But in a corner, in front of one of the buildings, a man whose face cannot be clearly seen in the darkness, lies prostrate. The scene is terrible, dramatic. The man is right next to the garbage cans, wrapped himself in something, because at this hour the garbage from the bars is piling up. He himself looks like a mess of nighttime leftovers. Nobody does anything, they don’t call an ambulance or social services. We neither. Maybe he’s drunk, maybe he’s sick, maybe he’s just sleeping exhausted, maybe he’s been on drugs. We do not know. The night is young and belongs to the young. The night laughs. People have a right to laugh, to a little joy. With which it falls. And even worse: with the one who is going to fall. But the man is still there, stretched out. Maybe asleep. Or dead. Who knows? An image can be misleading, lying, manipulative, there are examples of that. But there is no doubt about this. The old gonzo journalism postulated an emotional involvement with the news against the schematic procedure and only with official sources: «On the spot, the police picked up a drunk man lying on the ground and took him to the hospital… ». But there may be a terrible story behind this that can be told to move. If something still moves us.
Source: La Verdad
I am George Kunkel, an author working for Today Times Live. I specialize in opinion pieces and cover stories that are both informative and thought-provoking – helping to shape public discourse on key issues. My work is regularly featured across the network’s many platforms, including print media and social media.
