Evie Althkefati
English O450
February 8, 2022
Response to The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
A concept from the writing that I find confusing is what fuku is. Initially, when the author is writing about fuku, he presents it as a form of power that has negative consequences. Fuku is shown to be “a curse or a doom of some kind” (Díaz et al., 2007). As I read this, I came to the conclusion that fuku is a power of darkness that affected individuals in the past, and the writer is trying to show that individuals in the past believed in the negative consequences of this power. Later on in the reading, the author presents information to show that fuku had a personality. For example, he states how “everyone knew someone who had been eaten by a fuku” (Díaz et al., 2007). Through this, the author brings about the idea that the fuku is either a creature or individual because it has the ability to do what creatures or individuals do. Therefore, there is confusion in understanding whether the curse or doom was a creature that was after making people’s lives unlivable, or if fuku was only a belief about the sources of darkness that had been constructed by individuals.
A concept that the author has not explained in detail, which brings about curiosity and an extent of confusion, is the relationship between the superstitions shared and the place of science. The author places much focus on superstitions and religious beliefs about fuku. However, when it comes to science, he only mentions it in passing, by stating that Oscar believed in sci-fi. The issue that is hard to understand in this case is how a whole community could believe in superstition at a time when science was developing in the region. The author mentions that the issue of fuku was evident at least one generation before him. At the time, science should have started helping individuals understand their environment and the different actions, but the author does not write about this other than mentioning it in passing.
I don’t feel like fuku was meant to be an individual or a creature rather, it’s a belief or an idea that was spread around. The fear people had towards this idea led them to avoid logic.
This is really interesting because when I read it I also found it confusing when the writer had personified fuku. I arrived at the same conclusion that fuku was like bad luck or misfortune.