Wu Ting
How would you explain this sentence? Housecleaning. Eight paintings moved from Señora Frida’s cramped studio into the storage room on the Painter’s side. The nice painting of her grandparents, the odd one of herself and the monkey, and the bloody one that Candelaria talks about, from when she lived in the apartment on Insurgentes. Each title has to go in the ledger before it’s moved upstairs: the bloody portrait of the stabbed girl is called A Few Little Pokes. She painted it after a man in the Zona Rosa stabbed his girlfriend twenty-six times, and when the police came and found her dead, the boyfriend said, “What’s the problem? I only gave her a few little pokes.” The story was in all the newspapers. Señora said, “Insólito, you’d be amazed what people will buy.” Did she mean the painting, or the man’s story? How would you explain this sentence: you’d be amazed what people will buy? Thanks! PS: the Senora is a Mexican and her English is poor. This paragraph is from The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver.
Apr 21, 2014 1:02 AM
Answers · 9
It really sounds like a play on words though.... even "I only gave here a few little pokes" is a play on words too because it is the name of the painting but is also like the boyfriend is saying he didn't hit her hard but only poked her so he did not kill her.
April 21, 2014
"You'd be amazed what people will buy." is correct English. I this case, I think she means literally. So people will by all kinds of crap, even odd paintings. Of course, in another context, "to buy something" can mean to believe something like someone's story.
April 21, 2014
Thank you
April 21, 2014
I can´t copy the image ,the painting is called "Unos cuantos piquetitos" search: Frida Kahlo images unos cuantos piquetitos
April 21, 2014
You would be amazed of what people will buy. She refers to the painting (the bloody portrait of the stabbed girl...)
April 21, 2014
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