NewsWhore
05-01-2008, 04:00 PM
Carol Morgan School hosted Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz for a day student workshop and afternoon "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" reading and question and answer session yesterday. The event is part of the English language school's Artists in Residence program, and the school's 75th anniversary celebrations. Also participating in the Artists in Residence program this year is visual artist Guillermo Delgado from Chicago.
During his presentation, Diaz highlighted the fact that he spends his time trying to convince young people about the merit of the arts at a time when culture is not pro-artists. For him, art is one of the few places where humans can meet others in their truly human form, which is being vulnerable, fragile and often wrong.
When asked about his book, which includes such disparate themes as science fiction and Dominican issues that only readers proficient in those topics can understand, he lectured on what makes literature universal. "Universal doesn't mean easy to be understood or for everyone," he explained. "It means particular." He illustrated this point with the example of 'Moby Dick', a book that is regarded as universal and is a US classic, but which goes into great detail about whaling, a topic foreign to most people. "What is most human is found in our strange individuality," he stressed.
He explained that his use of profanity, and repeated mentions of the term "******" was because he sees his role as an artist as "to jump on shit that people pretend doesn't exist", referring to racism in the US and the DR. He coined the term "negative hallucination", which he describes as "when a people forces itself not to see a situation". He said his experience of growing up as an immigrant gave him the privileged position of being able to compare one society with another.
He was also critical of Dominican society, "where there is not a culture of honesty or political accountability". But he said this would not prevent him from a utopian focus, in the hope that the time would come for there to be a place for us all.
He responded to a question asking how he, as an immigrant, was able to compete in the very competitive book publishing US market, and responded: "Nothing prepares you better for competition than immigration. One does not have the safety of language, safety of culture, or people who will take your word for what it is."
He explained that he worked as hard as he could in his writing, but that he "got a lucky break" when winning the Pulitzer Prize. He said that success is arbitrary and the line between who gets in and out is shadier and cloudier. "In a just world, the person who should be here would be my mother!"
Diaz will be speaking this afternoon at 5:30pm at the Cinemateca of the Plaza de la Cultura as part of National Book Fair activities. Admission is free, but those interested should get there early.
For more on the CMS event, see http://www.dr1.com/blogs/entry.php?u=Chiri&e_id=3905
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)
During his presentation, Diaz highlighted the fact that he spends his time trying to convince young people about the merit of the arts at a time when culture is not pro-artists. For him, art is one of the few places where humans can meet others in their truly human form, which is being vulnerable, fragile and often wrong.
When asked about his book, which includes such disparate themes as science fiction and Dominican issues that only readers proficient in those topics can understand, he lectured on what makes literature universal. "Universal doesn't mean easy to be understood or for everyone," he explained. "It means particular." He illustrated this point with the example of 'Moby Dick', a book that is regarded as universal and is a US classic, but which goes into great detail about whaling, a topic foreign to most people. "What is most human is found in our strange individuality," he stressed.
He explained that his use of profanity, and repeated mentions of the term "******" was because he sees his role as an artist as "to jump on shit that people pretend doesn't exist", referring to racism in the US and the DR. He coined the term "negative hallucination", which he describes as "when a people forces itself not to see a situation". He said his experience of growing up as an immigrant gave him the privileged position of being able to compare one society with another.
He was also critical of Dominican society, "where there is not a culture of honesty or political accountability". But he said this would not prevent him from a utopian focus, in the hope that the time would come for there to be a place for us all.
He responded to a question asking how he, as an immigrant, was able to compete in the very competitive book publishing US market, and responded: "Nothing prepares you better for competition than immigration. One does not have the safety of language, safety of culture, or people who will take your word for what it is."
He explained that he worked as hard as he could in his writing, but that he "got a lucky break" when winning the Pulitzer Prize. He said that success is arbitrary and the line between who gets in and out is shadier and cloudier. "In a just world, the person who should be here would be my mother!"
Diaz will be speaking this afternoon at 5:30pm at the Cinemateca of the Plaza de la Cultura as part of National Book Fair activities. Admission is free, but those interested should get there early.
For more on the CMS event, see http://www.dr1.com/blogs/entry.php?u=Chiri&e_id=3905
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)