This is a blog.

First-Year CCA Writing and Literature Students write stuff here about what they are reading. They are forced to do this for a class, and they are being judged through a process called "grading."

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Response #6

Shelby Scott
Into to Writ& Lit
Response #6
10/27/10

What you won't do for love. When I think of that phrase it takes me back to a song Tupac covered nineties. It's a simple phrase that means exactly that through hell and high water love prevails and all that jazz. But for those of you that haven't heard of it, the song's chorus wails on about being a sucker for love. Tupac raps about the situations he finds himself in like fathering a child that's not really his, bailing this woman out of financial situations, and moving her into a fancy house in the hills. Sounds familiar right? Reminding you of a hot blooded Dominicano that fell in love with the wrong gangster, or her son? (the not so attractive but equally love starved nerd.) I thought you'd catch on. In the book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao my interpertaitons of the key themes the building and breaking power of love, wild fukus that never end, the traditions we sometimes accept because there's no other means of explanation, and the parraells that the fuku caused genration after genaration.
You see throughout the book that Oscar is just a poor, lonely, sometimes suicidal nerd looking for somebody to love him back. The guys got it bad for the girls too like “Dude weighed 307 pounds, for fucks sake! Talked like a Star Trek computer! The real irony was that you never met a kid who wanted a girl so fucking bad.” , says our narrator Yunior. You'll find that the actions parallel with his mother Beli, but the characters are completely different along with their motives. Beli craved the love of her Gangster with the incentive to boost her status in the world and Oscar wanted love to be considered a normal. (By Dominican standards.) I think Junot did this to showcase that in the DR fuku can “make” crazy things happen, cycles continue to live, I also believe that he did this to push the boundaries of the characters so that the could find redemption in the things the believed to be normal. For example when Lola confesses that, “ I was fourteen and desperate for my own patch of world that had nothing to do with her.” For me it was just another thing to relate to( Yes after reading this book I still believe I'm an honorary Dominicano) .Showing that no matter how bad you want to break the cycle somethings are just meant to take their course. He does this because in the DR everybody feeds off of them, it's what some would call culture and others would declare as torture.
The parallels continue all through the book, Beli and Oscar each had three great loves but unfortunately O's end with death and his mother's life was barely spared by the grace of the Zafa. After I read this I was happy that the curse was finally done. Oscar triumphed in some way and our nerd got to be the hero with his monologue right before he was gunned down, but fukus have a way of reeling in everybody. “ One day the circle will fail. As cirlces always do. And for the first time in her life she will hear the word fuku.” Are some of Yunior's last words. Junot did this in my opinion to reveal that traditions no matter how old live because that's how the characters dealt with the real world through fukus, zafa's, great loves, and never learning from each others mistkes.

2 comments:

  1. i love the line "My heart is sayin leave, oh what a tangle web we weave
    when we conspire to conceive" good son, heres the link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu1glrMvsPo

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  2. Your writing has voice, Shelby. Thank you for posting and sharing your words with the WORLD not just your class. All your voices are so needed in the world and I am in awe of the courage I see in you and your classmates to publicly put your thoughts to words every week in these response papers. This practice of posting your writing is such a valuable experience that puts you out there in the world as a writer. Already! Remember, as a woman of color, the phallologo/eurocentric/white supremist 'project' would rather have you quiet. It's one of the very goals of the project. Every time we stay silent, we are in collusion with our own oppression. We owe it to the people that died in the struggle to be free, to be free and speak our beautiful truth.

    I like the playfulness of your language here. You play with us by asking rhetorical questions. It reminds me of watching a play where the character is giving a monologue and the actor "breaks the fourth wall" by talking directly to the audience. It's both surprising and engaging.

    You also bring in outside sources/ media via Tupac's song, a viable source as far as I'm concerned. When you write, it's all about making connections across disciplines, genres, and mediums. Remember the spider that everybody was so afraid of in class? She's a weaver. That's what we do when we write. Weave. You are weaving here. Spiders are the Storyteller's spirit helpers, in many aboriginal traditions.

    A couple of questions to think about: Is the curse really finally done? Is there a curse at all?

    Things to improve on for next time-- more editing. Some examples of mistakes you had:

    -watch punctuations around ()
    -underlining title of the book
    -don't forget spell check
    -you are a Dominicana not Domincano, since you're female and spanish is a gendered language
    -there were areas where the writing seemed really fresh from the creative brain, like it needed to be organized a bit more to be clear.

    Ok, overall great stuff here. Keep bringing it like you do and give yourself enough time to edit. Don't forget, you rock! =9

    Luisa

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