The interview began with a discussion of Fukú, which Diaz explained as "a curse of consequences." "It allows you your choices, but if you make a bad one the consequences are terrifying."
Image from Wikipedia
He also referred to Fukú as a useful "bridge narrative," and compared it to some famous curses in world literature, such as Adam and Eve's being cast out of the Garden of Eden, a direct consequence of their choice to disobey God.
We'll want to talk more about this "bridge" narrative and how it functions in the novel.
I'd also like to test out the hypothesis that Fukú is a curse resulting from violent domination, that is, from the conquest of the Caribbean by the "Admiral" (aka Columbus), who is also associated with Fukú in the novel. The violence of the Trujillo regime, and even the violence in Dominican culture, whether it is police beatings, or parental beatings, or hyper-masculine domination of women, all seems to stem from this curse. Oscar, on the other hand, doesn't want to dominate anyone, although he reads comics about the consequences of the desire to dominate the world. Rather, he just wants to love and be loved. In fact, he dies for his ideal of love.
On the theme of hierarchies, Diaz says in this interview:
"Nobody is meaner than outsiders . . . .no one is more hierarchical and excluding of outsiders than outsiders."
"Who's crueler about looks than ugly people?" Diaz quotes his mother as saying.
On the domination of women:
"Has the number of women in battered shelters dropped? Have the numbers of rapes dropped?
Diaz especially decried the popular culture images of hyper-masculinity that are being fed to boys in disadvantaged areas. He quoted one high school student as saying, "the only masculinity I know about is that I gotta be a g---d--- thug."
Diaz noted: "Watch one hour of TV to see the cultural narrative boys are being sold about masculinity."
The interviewer asked Diaz whether he thinks that violence has become more acceptable now than when he was a kid.
"Is violence more acceptable, or more represented?" Diaz asked. "Has the society
gotten better because we're more polite about what happens when the camera's off?"
"My thing is to ask 'what's the reality?'," he said. "What matters to me as an artist is to look into what the culture doesn't talk about."
"It's all about how things--even when we think we know what they are--aren't that at all."
When the interviewer suggested that he might speak for Dominicans, Diaz answered:
"My field is Dominican diaspora culture. But what I do is incredibly particular--I never assume that my work is representative. My voice is just one voice among 10 million."
In response to the interviewer's comment that it's not a little voice any more--
"Reception doesn't change that it's just one voice."
Diaz went on to say that ever since Moby Dick,"the new America" has always been part of American literature. He noted that Herman Melville's novel was full of undocumented immigrants from all over the world.
Diaz's book combines elements of pop culture, European culture, even references for English teachers and scholars. And then there's the unmistakeable presence of the "genres": fantasy and science fiction. Most of us have read Tolkein, or at least seen the Lord of the Rings movies, but if you're not well-acquainted with the Fantastic Four, check out the link. Fantastic Four
