The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Use of footnotes (November 2012)

[William]

Showing some common ground with another author we've read recently, David Foster Wallace, Diaz makes extensive use of long footnotes throughout the book. When asked about that, Diaz had this to say:

The footnotes are there for a number of reasons; primarily, to create a double narrative. The footnotes, which are in the lower frequencies, challenge the main text, which is the higher narrative. The footnotes are like the voice of the jester, contesting the proclamations of the king. In a book that's all about the dangers of dictatorship, the dangers of the single voice—this felt like a smart move to me.

This also leads one to questions about the main narrator, whom we eventually figure out is a character Diaz uses quite frequently in other works, Yunior. There will be a separate topic entirely devoted to him because of his importance to Diaz's work.

Thoughts about this attempt at double narration? Does he manage to keep Yunior and the footnotes narration separate, or is there bleedthrough?

How do the footnotes compare to David Foster Wallace's in any of his works?

[Carl]

I'm surprised to read that, very surprised, so I guess I would say he did not accomplish that objective. Some of the endnotes were fabulous, but to me they seemed more about the narrator telling the history more objectively. Some of the endnotes were obtrusive in my opinion.

People allege that obtrusiveness with DFW's, but I find the DFW usage far better. With DFW, to me, they are clearly the nerdy parts of his writing that he expects most not to read, but I have always enjoyed them thoroughly. They are the parenthetical or comma-spliced portions that would be good in the body of the text but work better separated. There were a couple non-fiction pieces where I found the endnotes too gimmicky.

[William]

But isn't that exactly stating he succeeded then? Your statement seems to back up the duel narrator concept.

And the comparison to DFW's notes can't really be put in terms of one better than the other, since they are so clearly trying to accomplish entirely different things by using them. Diaz is establishing two entirely different voices, and DFW is using it as a literary technique, quite daringly, and in part the idea is to challenge your concept not only of what you think a footnote is, but even to stretch what you think possible for them, not just "I don't think most people will read that".

So not to go off on a DFW tangent, but I'm totally lying, here we go:

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/15347...

http://blog.granneman.com/2009/04/05/...

even longer about that:
http://voices.yahoo.com/footnotes-dav...

[Carl]

He said that he was trying to "challenge" the main text, but I perceived that he was compounding the main text. Also, the bit about the footnotes allowing the "court jester" to have a role - I didn't get a feeling of court jester from the notes at all. I think it shows that I missed the point of the notes altogether or he failed in those objectives.

[Daniel]

Having just read House of Leaves, where the footnotes truly function as a double narrative, I think this subtler attempt may have been lost on me—sort of like trying to enjoy brandy after your mouth has been blown out by tequila or chile peppers. There was a definite distinction between the fiction of the text and the "fact" (meta-fact, perhaps, or fictionalized fact?) of the footnotes.

But in terms of challenging the text? I saw too much of Yunior's hand in the style, so I read the footnotes as a function of Yunior's narrative as well. I think that goes with your question of narrative bleedthrough, although I think it's much more pervasive. I'm interested to hear other opinions on this from anyone who perceived it differently. I read the text and footnotes as a single voice (Yunior), which makes it difficult to interpret the footnotes as a challenge against the dangers of the single voice.

[William]

I agree, and that was what I was suggesting exactly. I felt like much of the time the footnotes function as a separate voice, but other times he was unable to maintain the voice, and it became Yunior again, which is something I point out unhappily, as you hate to see an author fail at their goal. I have to wonder what Diaz can do if he weren't given permission to use Yunior at all. His latest, is also billed as having

At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness-

Can Diaz write without using either Yunior OR the idiom of Dominican identity? I think at this point he needs to expand.

[Daniel]

Will wrote: "I have to wonder what Diaz can do if he weren't given permission to use Yunior at all..."

That made me chuckle, and I'm in agreement despite how much I truly enjoyed this book. In fact, I made a conscious decision not to follow Oscar Wao with any of Díaz's other works for fear of Yunior overload.

[Deborah]

I dunno. They say no matter who you think you're dreaming about you're really dreaming about you. And they (the same them, clearly) say no matter who you write about you're writing about you. Diaz is just more obvious about it than most writers.

(I went and googled is Junot Dias Yunior and the answer seems to be yes.)

[Casceil]

I agree with the earlier comments that many of the footnotes sound like Yunior. I also agree with Daniel's comment that, after House of Leaves, this does not come off like the footnotes are a different voice. I'm currently reading Infinite Jest, and I've been wondering how much the footnote approach in House of Leaves was inspired by Infinite Jest.

[Sophia]

By the time I'd finished the book it didn't occur to me that the footnotes weren't the work of Yunior.

There's a note here of other works of literature that have used footnotes as part of the text, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_(ty...

This suggests that footnotes have been around for a long time!

[Carl]

The Wikipedia is an interesting discussion on notes. In my day job, I quickly learned that you can skim government regulatory writing quite quickly as long as you thoroughly understand each and every footnote....

[Sophia]

Now there's a thought...

[Daniel]

Carl wrote: "The Wikipedia is an interesting discussion on notes. In my day job, I quickly learned that you can skim government regulatory writing quite quickly as long as you thoroughly understand each and eve..."

As much as I laughed at your comment, it really does apply to Oscar Wao. The footnotes are mostly about the history of the Dominican Republic, and the story makes much more sense when we have a firm grasp of that history.