No offense to anybody but I have real trouble relating to the negative comments.
This story was so amazing. This is a really excellent, excellent story. And actually once you get past the sound quality, the narration was truly kick-ass. It didn't even seem like a narration. It just seemed like you were listening to Dab tell the story. It was so damned excellent. I was truly moved by this.
I always hear comments on the podcasts about people being moved to tears by a particular story, and it never really happens for me. But this one...this one did it. I actually got the intuition that I was becoming a slightly better person by listening to this. As though the story channeled some of the healing energy of the queer and the curandero.
I didn't consider Dab longwinded at all. oHe was a man who appreciated the power of story, the power of 'significance'. The investing of life with significance. He's realized that as far as he's concerned there really is no other point. And so he wraps himself, his family, and his whole life in the power of significance. He has realized that it has a healing power.
The true story has no beginning and no end, because every new moment is getting woven into it. Dab knows this. That's why he talks the way he does. He's not long-winded. Look how he talks when the women come over to the porch. Barely says 3 words. But he sees the spiritual condition of his nephew and he knows that the healing of the story is needed for this kid or he's going to be in a lot of trouble.
The magic in this story is not only in the actions of the curandero and the queer. The true magic that happens is what Dab does to the nephew. He's initiating him. And by listening to it, we are initiated as well.
Thank you so much, Daniel Abraham!