The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Magical

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Magical Realism, Mc. Ondo, and the Mongoose

Review: Magical Realism • Definition • the magical and the real held in tension; objective narration of wondrous events • Relation to colonialism • “wondrous” associated with non-Western ways of seeing • “realism” a Western perspective, objective, scientific • Clash between modern industrial and indigenous societies in colonial contexts • Examples from Allende • Rosa the Beautiful, Uncle Marcos flying

Magical Realism: Macondo versus Mc. Ondo • Term coined by Alberto Fuguet, Chilean writer in 1996 • “Mc. Ondo is a global, mixed, diverse, urban, 21 st-century Latin America, bursting on TV and apparent in music, art, fashion, film, and journalism, hectic and unmanageable. Latin America is quite literary, yes, almost a work of fiction, but it’s not a folk tale. It is a volatile place where the 19 th century mingles with the 21 st. More than magical, this place is weird. ” • In contrast, “Magical realism reduces a much too complex situation and just makes it cute, ” creating “an exotic land where anything goes and eventually nothing matters, for it’s no more than a fable” (from Washingtonpost, “Magical Neoliberalism” 69)

AKIRA *Manga serialized 1982 -90 *Film version 1988, one of Oscar’s favorite movies

THE MONGOOSE “My mother got lost when she was young in a coffee plantation (my father used to grow coffee) and she was lost for like three days and everyone thought she died and by the third day they just went and bought fucking—I mean, it shows you the difference, if a child were lost for three days today, we would still have hope, we would still be looking, but in the DR they were like ‘Three days? ’That kid’s fucking dead man’—they went out and bought funeral clothes, they were going to bury this little outfit and then my mother shows up. And my mother tells this story and she was like I had gotten lost and was just desperate and this mongoose came up and was like ‘you lost? ’ ‘Well, I’m tired right now but I’ll come back tomorrow and lead you out. ’ So he did and my mother arrived home the next day. ” “Words on a Page, ” interview with Junot Diaz. The Harvard Advocate.

Other connections: The Indian Mongoose • Brought to Antilles in 1884, meant to help get rid of rats in cane fields • Reduced lizard and bird populations

Group Work • How is Beli saved? Is it willpower, luck, or fate/magic? • How does the text deal with the three controlling forces listed below? Is one explanation favorable over another? 1. subjective choice/fictionalization 2. objectivity/cause & effect 3. belief/magic • Based on your answer to the last question, how does that affect your interpretation of the text?

Uatu, the Watcher Member of an advanced race with an ethical code of noninterference, which Uatu sometimes breaks to help the Fantastic Four QUESTION: What makes this an apt comparison for each of the following? -The narrator as author -The imagined readers -“Third Worlders” (92)