I seem to be having trouble thinking of an even slightly cohesive topic for this week’s blog post. As I seem to be really into Walter Benjamin lately, I keep going back to that “constellation” thing we discussed in class. On second thought, since I’m using Benjamin extensively in my final paper, I don’t want to talk about him now. How about the genres?
I have to admit that I am prejudice against the “genres.” As much as I would like to think that I am open minded, I am not. I don’t really view much of it as academically legitimate, whatever that means. I am a product of my environment and really have never spent any time being taught about any of it. As far as the overwhelming presence of the genres in Oscar Wao, I think I’ve glossed over it. It all just seems to reiterate the fact that Oscar is indeed, a huge nerd. I’m sure that there is legitimacy in the extensive use of this kind of material as discussed in last class. I find myself having a very hard time feeling engaged with it though. Perhaps it is because I don’t take it seriously that I have trouble engaging with it in an academic atmosphere.
I suppose I’m a little disappointed in myself for being so closed off the the possibility of a new literary device. I can see that I do let my own opinions and judgments get in the way of my education at times. I’m certainly not saying that this won’t happen anymore in the future. I will, however make an effort to at least be more aware of it. It’s not fair to discount an entire genre simply because I don’t find very much interest in it and it has been historically made fun of.
I sort of understand what you mean when you say that your sense of “the Genres” clashes with the narrator’s and Oscar’s dependence on it. Although I get some of them and vaguely understand a few more (being a, thankfully, recovering anime addict), the whole realm of sci-fi/fantasy somewhat escapes me as well. While people such as us do not really get the full effect of what the narrator’s talking about, I think that this might be sort of the point.
I like to think that the writing style of this book is a product of the narrator’s and Oscar’s environment. They react to things in the best way that they know how—with the genres. Whenever something is beyond normal terms, they throw out a reference from a movie, comic, or what have you to describe their feelings toward it. I kind of like to think of it as someone saying something really funny and then, unable to respond with something of the top of your head, you throw out “LOL” or “ZOMG?”. If I were to write this entire post in Internet/meme/popculture references, chances are I’d feel either witty or have used a lexicon that understand (not rely, btw, lol :)) while a lot of other people would be really confused. In the case of this novel, the narrator and Oscar’s references to the genres emphasizes their encapsulation in a specialized world that members of their geek society (I use this as a term of endearment) understand.
Although the narrator cannot be sure that the audience understands what he’s talking about, he goes with what is second nature to him.
In the end, it doesn’t matter if it makes sense to us, but rather what makes sense to the narrator. It adds a whole new layer of “ you’ll never understand” to the mix, which adds to the book’s theme of racial and social alienation. Overall, I like to think of the whole think as a win for colloquial language—I think we have all read those books that fail horrifically at making the language believably human. It has an authentic feel to it, making me think that the narrator is really both Dominican and a sci-fi worshipper.