Literary Gladiators: Episode 23- "The Lottery Ticket" by Ventura Garcia Calderon

If there was any short story that I have read that I feel that several more individuals should check out, it is this one. When we were putting together a list of the works we were planning to discuss, this was one of my own individual decisions that I just had to have on there. I remember that Jim brought up being fond of Calderon's works, but he is quite fond of Latin American literature, especially the poetry of Pablo Neruda. Clocking in at just a bit over eleven minutes, this is one of the shorter episodes we filmed during the summer sessions that make up the second season of the show. On the panel were Jim, Dan, Charlie, and myself, so we had a great flow within the discussion. While Dan is not an English major, he did a great job in contributing to the topic in store during both of his appearances. He appeared in an episode during the third season and we plan to have him back for the fourth season, which we will be filming during the summer.

"The Lottery Ticket" is a work about civil rights in Latin America and how one minority reacts when he is placed in such a fortunate situation and is surrounded by people of the major race. Ventura Garcia Calderon has written extensively, but his recognition in America continue to remain hard to find. Roger Goodman made an excellent decision to include him in the 75 Short Masterpieces collection he put together in the early 1960s. We are seeing more and more companies that release works in translation, such as Dalkey Archive, so I am optimistic that there will come a time where Calderon's works (especially "The Lottery Ticket") appear in more outlets and in several more anthologies.

Here is the 23rd episode of the series. We have just six episodes left for the second season and hope that you keep up with our newest releases. If you are all caught up, I hope that you check out the others. Speaking of episodes, our second episode, where we discuss "Araby" by James Joyce, has 950 views, so it's just fifty away from 1,000 views!!!

For now, enjoy this episode centered around a hidden treasure!

Episode 23- "The Lottery Ticket" by Ventura Garcia Calderon

If you are interested in checking out the original post I wrote about "The Lottery Ticket" in May 2013, check here:

http://caponomics.blogspot.com/2013/05/short-story-review-lottery-ticket-by.html