Literally Reruns -Diane M Dickson – He Believed he Would Win

Diane’s He Believed He Would Win is a thoughtful slice of darkness that brings forward many uncomfortable questions about hope and faith.

Not everyone makes it. And it has nothing to do with the quality of a person. If moral strength and deserving to be alive were enough, Ann Frank would not have died just months short of surviving World War II. There even stands a strong chance that she would still be alive in a fairer world.

Q: I saw the irony of the captures forcing the prisoner to say prayers. Was that a conscious choice?

Q: False hope kept the prisoner alive longer just to experience more suffering. I believe you achieved a parallel in which his ordeal was a microcosm of the human experience. This is honest writing because no other likely ending felt possible. Still, in your mind, with years gone by, do you still feel good about the story?

Leila

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He Believed He Would Win by Diane M Dickson

Q: I saw the irony of the captures forcing the prisoner to say prayers. Was that a conscious choice?

When I wrote this it was a time of kidnapping and hostage taking in the middle east – more prevalent than now. From my time there I know that making prisoners pray is something that they would do. But in this story, the prayer is more the on behalf of the jailers and yes there is a horrible irony in praying to a deity and then killing a fellow human. It is horrific. Prayer is such a big part of life in those parts of the world and it always struck me as such a contradiction in behaviour.

Q: False hope kept the prisoner alive longer just to experience more suffering. I believe you achieved a parallel in which his ordeal was a microcosm of the human experience. This is honest writing because no other likely ending felt possible. Still, in your mind, with years gone by, do you still feel good about the story?

I had forgotten this story completely so thank you for resurrecting it. I wonder about the term ‘false hope’ Maybe the hope was simply hope right up to the last morning when it suddenly became forlorn. I wonder if he would have gone completely mad if he had known he was simply waiting to die and I often wonder about that. At what point do we actually accept the inevitable – if it is an illness which has no other possible conclusion then I think people do achieve a sort of peace and acceptance in many cases. With this sort of situation though surely the belief that rescue must come and return to life in the future is what carries people through such things as captivity in concentration camps and being lost in the jungle etc. Is it kinder to have a death sentence declared rather than leaving a prisoner to live in hope. My giddy aunt this is a dark and dreadful piece. Do I still feel good about it? Well, I do though I am sitting here with tears in my eyes thinking about fallen heroes.