Thinking Writing: Oscar Wao 1
Everyone must respond to the first question and turn in your writing at the end of the period. For extra credit, you may respond to any one of the other questions and send it to me in your own time.
I. Read (again) from the last paragraph of p. 147 (“Throughout most of the car ride . . .) through page 151. Write a summary of what occurs in these pages, incorporating quotations, but also extend the meaning with your own commentary and thoughts.
Please consult the following site for annotations: http://www.annotated-oscar-wao.com/chapter3.html
II. The Loneliest Loneliness:
From the reading above, occurs this description of loneliness:
. . . in the gloaming of her dwindling strength there yawned a loneliness so total it was beyond death, a loneliness that obliterated all memory, the loneliness of a childhood where she’d not even had her own name. And it was into that loneliness that she was sliding, and it was here that she would dwell forever, alone, black, fea, scratching at the dust with a stick, pretending that the scribble was letters, words, names. All hope was gone, but then . . . .
Write your own description of the ‘loneliest loneliness”. Here is mine:
The Loneliest Loneliness. Who knows himself and does not know the loneliest loneliness? Who has loved, been loved, betrayed love, risked love, sold their body for love and does not know the loneliest loneliness? It is always there. It slept while you slept and woke when you woke. It is what you will be after you have died. It is what you were before you were born. Dost thou not remember? Dost thou not know thyself? You shall know that loneliness when the mirror you hold to trace the lines of your age becomes onlymemories. The Other will come and ask what you are staring at? And you will answer, truthfully. Nothing. Nothing at all. What will you do then? Let us sing a song of the night, of the darkest night, that is so passionate and true that the darkness itself becomes beautiful:
Out of the night comes love;
Out of the night comes the darkness of your eyes;
Out of the night comes the body of the world;
Out of the night come the larger and the smaller light;
Out of the night comes the leaf to the branch;
Out of the night comes the weyard wind.
III. Magical Realism:
Write a short, short story in which magical elements enter into everyday life. Here is one of my mine:
So, I thought I was alone on that beach when a sudden gust of wind blew my old tattered hat away. It was like the hat had wings or was some sort of kite, diving and lifting over the sea, but having no string attached, it disappeared over the water and surely landed wherever it is that kites go once they are set free. But then there was this bird call. I turned around and there, where there had been not one solitary person for months, was a girl wearing my hat. She laughed at my surprise, handed me my hat, and flew happily off. I knew then I was not alone.
IV. We see Beli first as a mother and then as she was at 16; we see her learning about her breast cancer and dealing with that reality and we see her experience the vitality of her body and her first loves; we see her as a mother who wants to control Lola’s life and as an adolescent who is herself out of control. Finally, we see her suffer a terrible beating and we learn that she has unbeatable will to live. If you were to talk with Lola about her mother, what would you tell her? If I were writing this, I would do it as a dialogue and begin:
H: Why do you hate your mother so much?
L: If you had to live with her, you would understand.
H: