Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Second Person: Díaz vs Moore
When I first opened up "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie" by Juno Díaz, it instantly brought me back to the last collection of stories that we read from Lorrie Moore. I was instantly excited because I really enjoyed the second person stories that Moore wrote. A major part of Self-Help was the stories written in second person and how they related back to the theme of the book being a "self help" book. I couldn't help but compare they two stories when I was reading the story last night.
I would first like to mention the title. The title starting with "How to .." was the first connection that I made to the stories in Moore's Self-Help. When I first read this I was expecting more of a tutorial, but I was surprised at how similar it was to Moore's style of writing. Both authors do a good job of bring you as a reader along for the ride through the actions of the main character. I struggled to connect to the narrator in this story, but I feel that it was because the actions we centered around a male's perspective while Moore's were centered around a female's perspective.
I have to admit that I felt as though Díaz was covering to many topics at once in this story. With Moore's stories, I felt as though I could follow the story with a bit more ease; and because of that, I could read it as more of a story without acknowledging the advice side of the story which comes with it being a "how to" story. With Díaz though, I felt as though he kept jumping back and forth between the type of girl that he was talking about. As I was reading the story, I wished that he separated the girls up. I thought that they each had the potential to be there own individual story. While I didn't find this totally appealing, I do think that it added to the feeling of it being a "how to" story.
I think that both authors did the second person story very well. Even though I think I do prefer Moore's second person stories, I can appreciate what Díaz did with the story and how he was able to capture what in my eyes was a more accurate depiction of a "how to" story.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Both of these stories are definitely very similar to each other from the title to the style of writing. I, unlike you, had more trouble connecting to the narrator in Moore's story because that was from a female's perspective. I liked the fact that we could experience these how to type of stories from both the male and female perspective. You mentioned how it felt as though Diaz was covering too many topics at once in this story, and I agree. Diaz's how to story had much more variables and "branches" of possibilities than Moore's story. But interestingly, both gave the same feeling that no matter what choice you make, eventually you will end up in the same place.
ReplyDeleteThat's such a good point. I totally didn't catch the title similarities. One thing this makes me wonder about it what effects the 2nd person has. You touched on a few points, but I also wonder how this writing style shapes our view of characters in this story,and just the general arc of the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Minwoo tha I think that I was able to connect more with Yunior than with Lorrie Moore's narrators. However I didn't find that the multiple girls or "branches" were that confusing. I think that this was done by Díaz to create his own style of "how to" stories. Maybe it was a little harder to keep track of all of the different events, but I think that this might have been slightly intentional, to make sure that the reader understands that the essence of the story is independent of which girl came over.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting just how similar this story was to Lorrie Moore's Self Help stories. If it wasn't for the plot and bits of spanish, it would've been indistinguishable. In terms of connecting with the story, both had their merits. Lorrie Moore's stories always felt more modern, in a more familiar situation, but generally involving a woman while Diaz's story focused more on a guy, who in this case relies on government cheese, something I don't relate with much.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in that I think that Lorrie Moore's second person stories were easier to follow because the events were often more straightforward. With Diaz's story, though, I felt like it was a more general how-to guide with less of a plot. There is a distinct main character and setting, but it isn't very clear that certain things happen. Because of this, I feel like Diaz's story is actually a bit closer to the idea of a "how-to" guide in that it is much more open-ended than Moore's, which seemed more like a story disguised as a how-to guide.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that the various girls/multiple scenarios Yunior discusses make this story feel more like a self-help story than Moore's 2nd person stories. That said, neither Diaz nor Moore seem to intend these stories to serve as instructional guides.
ReplyDeleteI agree. During and after reading it, I thought that it was good, but could be developed a bit more. I also preferred Moore's second person stories, but I think that's because they almost seem more of a story than a how to. But I do agree that both were good, and I think for Diaz especially, it was nice to break up the stories that were on mostly pretty rough topics, with a sort of fun second person story.
ReplyDeleteI too was immediately reminded of Moore when I first started reading the chapter. Diaz seems to share a similar style with terse sentences being quite common. I imagine he must have been inspired or influence by Moore in the writing of that story. As Danny says, they seem to be written for different audiences and because of that, I imagined the narrative voice to be different.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't talk about it enough in class, but the "variables" in this "how-to," in terms of the different racial background of the "girls" under consideration, is a really important part of this story, and a significant departure from Moore (who, as far as I recall, never mentions the race of any of the men in these stories at all--so we presume whiteness, but it's not an explicit issue within the story). Diaz puts the focus on race in his title, and indeed, a big part of the "instructions" has to do with how these factors will shape every aspect of the date, from how Yunior will "edit" his home to make it presentable, to how he will deal with his "nemesis" Howie, to where they'll go to eat, to how he'll deal with the nervous parent, etc. There's this sense that one of the main complicating factors (aside from those that make *all* dating for people this age--and any age!--complicated) here is race--it's a particular consideration for a character in Yunior's position, in a way it simply isn't for Moore's characters.
ReplyDelete