Homework #3

“The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao” written by Junot Diaz proved to be quite difficult in the beginning, it felt like the passage was going in two directions. I didn’t understand how fuku tied in with the new world, once the Admiral was thrown in there I was lost. I think that the opening is what got me, I thought who’s they I don’t know who they are and now there’s death and a demon of some sort. After the first page, I understood how to approach the reading due to Diaz’s tone. I especially enjoyed reading the footnotes, it had so much character and voice in it. After the first passage, things seem to go over the top but in a good way, all these comparisons were enjoyable to read. Towards the end, I thought who’s Oscar and what happened to him? And does it relate to fuku somehow? It’s interesting to know now that fuku has a counterspell and it’s just one-word Zafa, I would have liked to know more about its history since it seems to balance the fuku of the world. When Diaz writes “Even now as I write these words I wonder if this book ain’t a zafas of sorts. My very own counterspell”. I started to see zafas as a way to protect ourselves, something to believe in when we are in our darkest moments.