The Brief Wonderous Blog Of Scott Pattison

Final Thoughts

fleshwizard — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:56:48 +0000

I really enjoyed this book, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my Blog. Hope I have enlightened you on some of the nerd culture references! I suppose I came out of the end with the idea that Oscar’s life is one big Zafa to rid his family from the Fukú that has plagued it. It is mentioned how Lola’s daughter is very pretty and seems to be doing very well.Although, it sort of dragged on a little bit in the middle, it was a quick and entertaining read. I recommend it for further classes.

Sincerely,

Scott Pattison [Level 63 Tauren Shaman, Andorhal Server - World of Warcraft ]

P. 316 – 335 – Nothing Ever Ends.

fleshwizard — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:52:33 +0000

Chapter 7 begins with the title, The Final Voyage. Im not quite sure, but i think that is a reference to Lord of The Rings, when Bilbo and Frodo get on the Elvish boat at the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Which is fitting as Oscar is killed by Ybon’s boyfriend the captain in this chapter. His death seems in a way anti-climatic.

The story is now over, Yunior and Lola will not be able to work it out either and Beli will die from her cancer. A sad ending, however Yunior says he has a dream with an Oscar type character that says Zafa to him. It seems like that Oscar’s life was one big Zafa for the whole family. The curse that was put on it has been taken away by Oscar’s life, his Zafa. Yunior has changed too, on page 326, he says, ” Learned that from Oscar. I’m a new man, you see, a new man, a new man.”

The book (half) ends with a reference to Watchmen, it mentions the conversation between Dr. Manhattan and Adrian Viedt. That basically says that nothing ever ends. Although i can’t find the whole panel I have a piece of it pictured.

The very ending of the book has the ultimate satisfaction that we’ve been craving as readers. Oscar had sex with Ybon! His life ended in his terms, happy since sex was so important to him. The novel seems to have ended on a happy note!

P. 304 – 315 – Calm Before the Storm

fleshwizard — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:39:02 +0000

There is an interesting quote in this section, “One day while watching his mother tear sheets off the beds it dawned of him that the family curse he’d heard about his whole life might actually be true. Fukú.” (303-304) This curse might actually be true from Oscar’s viewpoint. In this section is becomes clearly evident that Yunior is the Watcher from above. He is much less stereotypical than previously imagined now, since he seems to know about a million nerd culture references, though they are probably from Oscar’s notes.

The third and final section will be very short. The whole book seems to have been building up to this point sort of like the final battle in sci-fi or fantasy movie.

P. 289 – 304 – A Queen!

fleshwizard — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:31:52 +0000

289 will mark a strange occurrence in the book. It will be another character interjecting themselves into the book to tell a different account of what happened. La Inca will say that Oscar met Ybon at a strip club and not at a shop as what previously said in the novel. Ybon’s current ( or ex) boyfriend will find about Oscar and beat him to a pulp almost killing him, much like his mother was beat almost to death in the cane fields. But once again, La Inca (and his mother) will save him and restore him. La Inca seems to be one of the strongest characters in the book, much like Galadriel is in Lord of the Rings.

P. 273 – 288 – Blue Pill

fleshwizard — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:24:52 +0000

On page 275, Octavia Butler is mentioned which wouldn’t be the first time. She is a minority that writes science fiction so it makes sense that Oscar would be drawn to her. Oscar meets his final love in this chapter and her name is Ybon Pimentel. She is a prostitute but since he has been looking better lately. She first talked to him which was a huge thing for Oscar. 285 has a funny pop culture reference to the matrix basically saying if you wanna quit, do it now or if you wanna read on take the blue pill, read on. If you take the red pill, return to the matrix. The Watcher or Yunior also mentioned the title of the book which is a meta-moment.

P. 261 – 272 – Oscar WoW

fleshwizard — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:14:25 +0000

Chapter six, the return of Oscar! The fall is mentioned again on page 263, and it is capitalized so it must refer to the Fall his grandfather had. It is the Fall that Oscar dreams about, but it could also refer to his fall. This Oscar chapter is narrated by the same watcher, but he starts using the first person and he talks about dating Lola. Is this man Yunior, safe to see he is from reading the rest of the book. Oscar started becoming more depressed, he started blaming Fukú. The return of Oscar also marks the return of some more nerds but it is almost depressing. He says that Magic the Gathering cards are the new nerd thing but he can’t get into them. Oscar is looking better than he ever has, and decided to with his family on a trip to Santo Domingo.

P. 247 – 261 – Magical

fleshwizard — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:05:18 +0000

Although as a skeptic I like to believe it was the outburst that causes the Fall; I think this book is starting to put the idea of magical realism into the story much more than it has. It sort of becomes ridiculous what happens to the family, both daughters are killed ( one by a magically appeared bullet), a servant in murdered, the mother is hit by a car and killed, yet the youngest (Beli) survives even though she is burnt by hot oil. It is sort of ridiculous but may fall under the magical realism term. I have a link explaining the term to some detail, Right here! La Inca will eventually find the last child of Abelard and raise her thus setting up Oscar and Lola for the future. One funny part I thought is on page 259, he starts the section sanctuary with “But enough”, it seems like even he is tired of this overlong chapter regarding history. Google image search came up with this for magical realism, I’m not sure if it fits, but here it is anyway.

P. 242 – 247 – I Think He Got the Point

fleshwizard — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:54:45 +0000

Abelard’s mistake, after he makes the remark against Trujillo, is referred to as the Fall. This idea can be related to earlier in the book when Oscar has his literal fall, and this two ideas seem analogous. On 242, Zafa AND Fukú are mentioned in regards to if Abelard’s third daughter (Beli) is Zafa or Fukú. I would say she is Zafa. On 243 there is a moment of the meta fictional ( though there are many in this book) when he asks the reader what they believe caused Abelard’s Fall. Was is that Trujillo wanting his daughter, or was it what he said outside a bar that one of Trujillo’s agents heard. Díaz goes on to say that if the reader wants a supernatural twist, that Trujillo wanted Abelard’s daughter so much that he put the fukú curse on the family.

Díaz goes onto say that the reader has to decide for himself what happens. He either doesn’t know or won’t tell us. Not only that, but he gives a third possibility about a book was writing about Abelard was writing putting Trujillo in a less than favorable light. But by the sections end the most logical case is his outburst outside the bar, since Trujillo never actually goes after Abelard’s daughter.

P. 225 – 242 – Beware the Friendly Stranger

fleshwizard — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:11:01 +0000

While most of this chapter is back story of how Abelard tries to protect his beautiful daughter, the ending of the chapter starts delving into the magical realism that was mentioned at the beginning of this blog, but more on that later in a few blog posts. Abelard tries to protect his daughter so much, that in doing so he screws up. One night he worries so much about his daughter, he drinks a lot and makes a joke about Trujillo that will (probably) be the cause of his imprisonment and Fall. There is once again comparing of Trujillo to Sauron . In the New York times review of this book, he mentions how he uses Lord Of the Rings a lot. I have the review link right….. Here!

P. 211 – 224 – Point Taken

fleshwizard — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:44:53 +0000

The next (long) chapter is another history lesson with a narrative running through it about Beli’s father named Abelard, which would be Lola and Oscar’s Grandfather. Trujillo is mentioned quite a bit, and here i thought he was killed off a little while ago. The ‘history’ parts feel I’m reading a history book with a fractured Tarentino story in it. Since Trujillo makes another appearance, i did some research on just how bad this guy was, and turns out most all of it is true. Read this for more info on the Dictator. Trujillo the character seems to be nearly identical to Trujillo the real man.

It is mentioned that Oscar’s favorite movie is Point Blank (poster pictured) on 215. I have not seen this one, but I hear its good.