“…incredibly narcissitic hopes of reconciliation that I did nothing to achieve.”
Díaz, Junot. ”As For Us.” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
Posts Tagged ‘Junot Diaz’
‘As For Us’
Monday, March 16th, 2009‘Land of the Lost’
Monday, March 16th, 2009“First sign that his Age was coming to a close. When the latest nerdery was no longer compelling, When you preferred the old to the new.”
Díaz, Junot. ”Land of the Lost.” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
‘Sentimental Education’
Monday, March 16th, 2009“Drove so long and so far on some nights that he would actually fall asleep at the wheel. One second he was thinking about his characters and the next he’d be drifting, a beautiful intoxicating richness, about to go all the way under and then some last alarm would sound.
Lola.
Nothing more exhilarating (he wrote) than saving yourself by the simple act of waking.”
Díaz, Junot. ”Sentimental Education.” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
‘The Last Days of the Republic’
Monday, March 16th, 2009“They said that no matter how far a mule travels it can never come back a horse…”
Díaz, Junot. ”The Last Days of the Republic.” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
‘Revelation’
Monday, March 16th, 2009“Success, after all, loves a witness, but failure can’t exist without one.”
Díaz, Junot. ”Revelation.” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
‘Amor!’
Monday, March 16th, 2009“Student today don’t mean na’, but in a Latin America whipped into a frenzy by the Fall of Arbenz, by the Stoning of Nixon, by the Guerrillas of the Sierra Madre, by the endless cynical maneuverings of the Yankee Pig Dogs – in a Latin America already a year and a half into the Decade of the Guerrilla – a student was something else altogether, an agent for change, a vibrating quantum string in the staid Newtonian universe. Such a student was Arquimedes. He also listened to the shortwave, but not for Dodger scores; what he risked his life for was the news leaking out of Havana, news of the future.”
Díaz, Junot. ”Amor!” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
‘La Chica De Mi Escuela’
Monday, March 16th, 2009“Beli tried her hardest but she couldn’t spin bomb-grade plutonium from the light-grad uranium of her days. During the Lost Years there had been no education of any kind, and that gap had taken a toll on her neural pathways, such that she could never fully concentrate on the material at hand.”
Díaz, Junot. ”La Chica De Mi Escuela.” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
‘La Chica De Mi Escuela’
Monday, March 16th, 2009“Given the delicacy of the situation, another girl might have adjusted the polarity of her persona to better fit in, would have kept her head down and survived by ignoring the 10,001 barbs directed at her each day by students and staff alike. Not Beli. She never would admit it (even to herself), but she felt utterly exposed at El Redentor, all those pales eyes gnawing at her duskiness like locusts – and she didn’t know how to handle such vulnerability. Did what had always saved her in the past. Was defensive and aggressive and mad overreactive. You said something slight off-color about her shoes and she brought up the fact that you had a slow eye and danced like a goat with a rock stuck in its ass. Ouch. You would just be playing and homegirl would be coming down on you off the top rope.”
Díaz, Junot. ”La Chica De Mi Escuela.” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
“…the inextinguishable longing for elsewhere.”
Thursday, March 12th, 2009Díaz, Junot. ”Look at the Princess.” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
‘Oscar in Love’ excerpt (ii)
Thursday, March 12th, 2009“With Manny and his big cock around, Oscar was back to dreaming about nuclear annihilation, how through some miraculous accident he’d hear about the attack first and without pausing he’d steal his tío’s car, drive it to the stores, stock it full of supplies (maybe shoot a couple of looters en route), and then fetch Ana. What about Manny? she’d wail. There’s no time time! he’d insist, peeling out, shoot a couple more looters (now slightly mutated), and then repair to the sweaty love den where Ana would quickly succumb to his take-charge genius and his by-then ectomorphic physique. When he was in a better mood he let Ana find Manny hanging from a light fixture in his apartment, his tongue a swollen purple bladder in his mouth, his pants around his ankles. The news of the imminent attack on the TV, a half-literate note pinned to his chest. I koona taek it. And then Oscar would comfort Ana with the terse insight, He was too weak for this Hard New World.”
Díaz, Junot. ”Oscar in Love.” The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.