Intriguing take on Diaz and Oscar Wao. I tried to get through it a few times years ago but couldn’t. (I didn’t hurl it across the room; I did that with The Dawn of Everything.) I recall the gymnastic, stylistic prose. No question Diaz is a strong writer. I did finish This is How you Lose Her--very honest; too honest for the wokies. Multiculturalism and Obama-era facilitating aside, he did tap into a much-needed traditional masculinity which even by 2010 we’d mostly lost in contemporary fiction. You make a solid point about the new moralism being hurled back upon the creators. I think this is probably the best and most realistic solution to terminate the new anti-art world we’re in: Let the moralizers destroy themselves. They’re well on their way.
I’ll check out your Perez piece; I wrote a piece on Perez as well. You’re a powerful, intelligent, insightful writer, my friend. A stylist, too. Enjoyed the read. I’ll dip in more.
“...moreover, again unlike the involuntarily celibate Oscar, Yunior is successful with women, this to a fault, his frequent infidelity and his betrayal of Lola being a motif in the novel, and one that, however plausibly couched as masculine self-critique, did Díaz’s reputation no favors in the #metoo moment.”
The problem I always had with Díaz (ironically) is what Perez was actively critiquing in that interview. A lot of my fellow adjuncts teach stories from Drown, which in addition to being deadly boring on a literary level (and, *sigh* very popular with students) demonstrates why I didn’t mourn so much when Díaz was pulled beneath the waves by a kraken he at least indulged on the way up: there’s no real *eros* in Yunior’s escapades or navigation of sexual and racial politics. They are basically dramatized set pieces of Alex Perez-caliber complaints that “no one understands when me and my homies make sexual jokes about women.” That “Brooklyn ladies” will clutch their pearls is a given -- unfortunately -- but when it provokes a performative “I’m just a bro, and I’m misunderstood, y’all” it feels very emo, whether it’s Díaz or Perez or Sean Thor Conroe. We deserve better. At least when I read Roth or Houellebecq or, hell, Ishmael Reed, I get the impression that they *need* women even if they resent them.
Thanks! I agree and think Díaz is saved in the novel from the superficiality of the stories (well, the ones I read) because he does occupy different viewpoints, including women's, and at least try to take on capital-H history. Otherwise, he'd have been better off going to the bitter extremes of Roth, Houellebecq, and Reed, which, as you say, better testifies to real desperation than the somewhat academic and self-undermining male-feminist expose of misogyny. Here is me teaching "Drown," if you're curious, which I did for no better reason than it was there in the Norton. I think I conveyed in my trying-to-be-neutral way that there's not much to it:
I thought it was great, incredibly visceral. An ugly response (in some ways) to the literary market's demand for "immigration novels." Just read it -- it's not long. He got some flak for being Gordon Lish's son, but they were (and I think *are*) deeply estranged. I hate that people missed this book. It rocked me. (The last 30 pages are take-it-or-leave-it).
Intriguing take on Diaz and Oscar Wao. I tried to get through it a few times years ago but couldn’t. (I didn’t hurl it across the room; I did that with The Dawn of Everything.) I recall the gymnastic, stylistic prose. No question Diaz is a strong writer. I did finish This is How you Lose Her--very honest; too honest for the wokies. Multiculturalism and Obama-era facilitating aside, he did tap into a much-needed traditional masculinity which even by 2010 we’d mostly lost in contemporary fiction. You make a solid point about the new moralism being hurled back upon the creators. I think this is probably the best and most realistic solution to terminate the new anti-art world we’re in: Let the moralizers destroy themselves. They’re well on their way.
I’ll check out your Perez piece; I wrote a piece on Perez as well. You’re a powerful, intelligent, insightful writer, my friend. A stylist, too. Enjoyed the read. I’ll dip in more.
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
Thank you! Throwing The Dawn of Everything across the room is certainly the more athletic act.
Ha! Indeed!
Well said.
“...moreover, again unlike the involuntarily celibate Oscar, Yunior is successful with women, this to a fault, his frequent infidelity and his betrayal of Lola being a motif in the novel, and one that, however plausibly couched as masculine self-critique, did Díaz’s reputation no favors in the #metoo moment.”
The problem I always had with Díaz (ironically) is what Perez was actively critiquing in that interview. A lot of my fellow adjuncts teach stories from Drown, which in addition to being deadly boring on a literary level (and, *sigh* very popular with students) demonstrates why I didn’t mourn so much when Díaz was pulled beneath the waves by a kraken he at least indulged on the way up: there’s no real *eros* in Yunior’s escapades or navigation of sexual and racial politics. They are basically dramatized set pieces of Alex Perez-caliber complaints that “no one understands when me and my homies make sexual jokes about women.” That “Brooklyn ladies” will clutch their pearls is a given -- unfortunately -- but when it provokes a performative “I’m just a bro, and I’m misunderstood, y’all” it feels very emo, whether it’s Díaz or Perez or Sean Thor Conroe. We deserve better. At least when I read Roth or Houellebecq or, hell, Ishmael Reed, I get the impression that they *need* women even if they resent them.
Thanks! I agree and think Díaz is saved in the novel from the superficiality of the stories (well, the ones I read) because he does occupy different viewpoints, including women's, and at least try to take on capital-H history. Otherwise, he'd have been better off going to the bitter extremes of Roth, Houellebecq, and Reed, which, as you say, better testifies to real desperation than the somewhat academic and self-undermining male-feminist expose of misogyny. Here is me teaching "Drown," if you're curious, which I did for no better reason than it was there in the Norton. I think I conveyed in my trying-to-be-neutral way that there's not much to it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-9XMK_O75w&ab_channel=JohnPistelli
Did you happen to read Atticus Lish’ novel “Preparation for the Next Life?”
No, sounded too depressing. Should I?
I thought it was great, incredibly visceral. An ugly response (in some ways) to the literary market's demand for "immigration novels." Just read it -- it's not long. He got some flak for being Gordon Lish's son, but they were (and I think *are*) deeply estranged. I hate that people missed this book. It rocked me. (The last 30 pages are take-it-or-leave-it).
And for god's sake read 2666, comrade.
Lol, I know!