How to Date A Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie), by Junot Diaz (SHORT STORY SATURDAY)

[@maxlover181]

You are always so cheerful and glad to be alive! I don't know how you remain so sane with all the stuff going on in your life, but it is an admirable trait. Thank you for being a light on KZbin and cheering people up with literature.

[@RyanRabid]

Not sure I always pull that off, but I at least try! I just feel pretty strongly that I don't want to put negative energy/reviews out into the world, and I don't want booktube to become anything other than a haven for sanity

[@RUTKN2ME92]

Thanks for another great video, Ryan! I'm super behind on the readings, but I hope to catch up soon! This was my first experience reading Diaz, but his novel, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," has been on my to read list for ages! Your analysis in this video offered so much insight into the story. I do think the form is so important here. It's didactic, like you said, and it's in the form of an instruction manual, however, the person stating the instructions is just as clueless as the person receiving the instructions. That is so interesting! My favorite thing about the story, though, are all the little details that are thrown in that subtly reveal more about the characters situations. For example, the girl stating that her parents met during the "Movement" and Yunior thinking about his brother's "Uncle Tomming" comment. So much is being said there, but the reader has to put forth some real effort to figure out exactly what Diaz is saying. The racial and class tensions in this story are really what make it powerful and poignant, in my opinion.

[@RyanRabid]

I loved the part in your comment where you talked about how we're still expected to do a lot of work with this story--it's supposed to explain things to us, as a how-to story, but like you said, we're left to do the work of figuring out Yunior's situation. Like the toilet paper that goes in the trash can instead of the toilet--because their toilet is a cheap one, and can't handle paper/

[@macarmenadoree]

Great review! I love Junot Diaz and this story.

[@RyanRabid]

I feel terrible I've never actually owned one of his books :) it's never been a question of IF i would own his books, just when.... and apparently I just haven't done it yet...

[@macarmenadoree]

That's okay! There's no deadline! But I understand the guilt -- I own all of them but still haven't got to brief and wonderful life which is just embarrassing! I've had it for so long! Anyway, heading over to your Zora vid -- you're talking about all my favorites lately! So exciting!

[@ezekielyu4294]

LONG-ASS POST: I don't know if you want people disagreeing with your assessment of the story in the comments, but I'll hazard a try, 'cause I think it'd be cool to discuss. I'd rate "How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)" lower than you do, probably, and here are some reasons why: 1) First of all, I am not a big fan of Junot Diaz's work - or at least what I've read. I admit some bias, here. I like the guy, since I've seen a few KZbin videos where he speaks, and he seems cool, in a nerdy kind of way. But I think his oeuvre is meager, in terms of literary quality. I've read some of his other stories, too, as well as The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I don't think they're great, which I'll get into below. 2) The short story "How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie) is one of those "hey look I'm not a short story but I kind of am" pieces that are a bit too twee for their own good. It takes the form of an instruction manual only so far as there is instruction, but it's far more casual, or confessional, than the bullet-point outlines we usually associate with an instruction manual - so, I wouldn't go where you go in saying that Diaz is trying to create some tension of form and content, since there isn't a distinguishable clash IN THE TEXT between the two, to begin with. I feel much safer in saying that Diaz inhabits a narrative voice didactic in tone, from a point removed, in "space and time," from the narrative that is focused on navigating racial/socioeconomic landscapes. I can't find enough real proof in the story to make the other claim, which seems to me too extra-textual, anyway. 3) It's not a very subtle piece. Nor is it too innovative (see Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" for a similar approach), for Diaz opts to couch a racial investigation within cliched contexts. He very heavy-handedly walks us (the Boy) through this process, and skims over potentially intriguing situations. He chooses a literal surface-level presentation of his world, right down to the obsession with skin color, ad nauseam. Diaz fails to probe deeper into these matters by utilizing a style that resists such probes in the first place! Sure, that could've been intentional, but that's no excuse, in my honest opinion. James Baldwin dealt with similar themes of race and eroticism, but could do so in a mature, realistic way. Which brings me to... 4) Junot Diaz's style, to me, is very...adolescent. That's across the board, from what I've read, at least. He tries too hard to be hip and cultural and "street-savvy" but it just comes off as immature. His writing isn't complex, and I don't mean that you need Byzantine sentence structure to be a good writer, but you do need enough psychological heft, especially if its first-person. There are ways to match such specific personality with good writing (i.e. Holden Caulfield, Huckleberry Finn, etc.), but Diaz doesn't make the cut. IMHO. ...Jesus. Now, that might seem like a whole lot for a simple short story, but I was challenged by your video, and felt compelled to vomit the above commentary. Feel free to denounce me publicly, anyone. Anyway. Ryan, I do appreciate your willingness to record this series, and wish you the best. Let me know if I misrepresented any of your thoughts, or committed any fallacies, on "How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)."

[@RyanRabid]

Thanks for the lovely and in-depth comment Ezekiel! I enjoyed thinking hard on this. I think I'm only going to focus my comment in one direction/one place that I think might be useful to talk about. In your 3rd and 4th bullet, you talk about Diaz vs. Baldwin, and Diaz's heavy-handedness, his adolescence, his hip-ness, his immaturity, vs. Baldwin's "mature, realistic way" of dealing with race and eroticism, his complexity, how his fiction "probes deeper." You've set up an analogy that I've heard before, if I understand you correctly, where Baldwin has lots of deep, well-considered stances on race and art (among other things) whereas Diaz has committed the artistic sin of merely representing, in a childish manner, his LACK of answers and well-considered stances on race and art. It's an argument I've heard (and made) before. But to be honest, I think this argument about Baldwin and Diaz is kind of exactly the point of Diaz's work/his stance on fiction in the 21st century in America. To me, your comment reads mostly about.... reader expectations. About how you (we readers) expect writers of color to have processed their experiences, and to come to the table with a stance, with an answer, with a thing that can be conveyed via theoretical language. You (we readers) come to the text expecting most of the work to have been done for us, in terms of dealing with/understanding/developing stances on the experiences of race. BUT, and here is where you and I perhaps disagree, I would argue that this is an expectation that Diaz is aware of....and responding to. I personally think it's brave--and, beyond brave, actually theoretically sound--to say to the reader: "You expect me to have dealt with this and packaged it nicely. You expect me to have answers, preferably answers that are digestible. You just keep expecting, don't you? I hereby ignore your expectations, or at least aim to make you see that you do in fact bring expectations to the table." To me, this is about how we tell white writers "you have a story to tell me" while we tell writers of color "you have a racial story to tell me." I think the psychological heft is all there Anywho, just some thoughts. I enjoyed your comment, and I appreciate the obvious care you put into it. Thank you! Best wishes! Ryan

[@ezekielyu4294]

Thank you for the considerate response. Best wishes, as well.

[@michealmack]

Hi Ryan. Thanks for another interesting video. I'd never read Diaz before. I found the story humorous and ironic. The big irony for me is this gauche teenage boy coming up with all this "How to.." business when it's obvious he's clueless about relationships really. Girls being more than a series of reactions who respond on cue depending on how you manipulate them. I see Yunior as being far from smooth. He's fearful of being judged by these girls in his turn ( he advises hiding the government cheese & hides the bucket of used toilet paper). A marvellous story with a warm tone beautifully written and a very satisfying read. Thank you for making me read it!

[@RyanRabid]

I think you point out a good irony in the story, and I couldn't agree with you more ! :) The fear in this story is always lurking, always present, though it doesn't get named very often. Thanks for reading it and giving such an insightful comment :) it makes my day that I get to read such smart people on the internet every day!

[@johnhollandsworth2697]

Amazing, as always

[@RyanRabid]

*blushes*

[@tabaresweddingfilms]

thank you so much for sharing this video!!

[@PrettyBrownEyeReader]

Your analysis helped me appreciate the story more. When I read it, all I read was a bunch of instructions that included government cheese. Is Yunior a favorite male character name that Diaz uses? I remember Yunior was in the Brief Life of Oscar Wao.

[@RyanRabid]

That government cheese is a funny detail, isn't it? haha. Glad you liked the review :) yeah supposedly Yunior is a character who is pretty close to Junot Diaz himself

[@adrianaperezvieira851]

Thank you for the review. I found myself looking forward every week for the series. All you work is def. well appreciated. I did struggle with the story, despite the fact I read the author before and loved him. I believe his form and style really represent a contemporary approach and very well fitted to tell our current stories. Like you, I was impressed by the form: I loved how he chose a instruction manual to tell us a (using popular terms in youtube) coming of age short story. At the same time, a instruction manual seems a really detached form, right? but in this story you are totally submerged in Junior surroundings, since he manages to talk to you, the reader, as if you were part of his gang, his group of friends. Taking into account all of the above I thought I should love the story, but I just didn't. The thing is I did not like the main character. Yes I understood his situation, his struggles, I felt sorry. But I just did not like his personality. I hope my broken and bad English let me thoughts come through. Thank you so much for the series and I can't wait for the next one.

[@RyanRabid]

Sorry I'm just now getting to this, but thank you so much for putting such obvious care into this comment! I like that part you said about an instruction manual being a "detached" form, because I think that's right. It's detached, but the narrator doesn't explain to us, doesn't give us as many details as we really could have. It's not like we're a stranger, we're one of his friends, like you said. But don't worry, I don't particularly like Junior either :) Thank you for such a wonderful comment Adriana!

[@anaovejero103]

I really like Junot Diaz's stories because they help me to understand men growimg up. Being a girl, sometimes it is difficult to put in somebody's shoes especially in a boy's. Diaz keeps his characters huma, flaw, confused as they try to understand their role in the world that surrounds them. A question: Im from Argentina, and I would like to know if you have read any Argentinian authors. If not, I link Jorge Luis Borges's THE HOUSE OF ASTERION ddm.ace.ed.ac.uk/project-files/Asterion/story.html and Julio Cortazar's CONTINUITY OF PARKS www.utdallas.edu/~aargyros/continuity_of_the_parks.htm Hope you enjoy them

[@RyanRabid]

I also think Junot Diaz does particularly well with men and boys! I haven't read any Borges, but I'm hoping to soon :)

[@tortoisedreams6369]

Since I grew up on gov't cheese (those were huge bricks of cheese!) I thought I'd relate to this. Loved loved loved Oscar Wao, but not this or How You Lose Her. Haven't read Drown yet. The stories are anecdotes we've all heard on the front steps. Even this one. His women are paper thin; his men are one narrow kind of male. I don't see how this is a good story, but it's probably just me. Enjoying the short story series and looking forward to Hurston since I just finished Their Eyes Were Watching God, which was brilliant.

[@RyanRabid]

It's been a pretty divisive story so I don't think it's just you :) sorry I'm just getting to this comment now, but I do think you're raising fair points that a good amount of other readers agree with!

[@thisisyrrobotfriend]

Does your confession mean you've started reading and DNFed his novels?! Also have you read his response in the New Yorker to the election outcomes? It's about being resilient and keeping hope and putting your everything into fighting against oppression, and I just love how he has truly made his writing so politically charged. He has an agenda as a writer and it's apparent in everything I've read of his. I'm so in love with him these days.

[@RyanRabid]

(wow I'm so behind on comments) No I haven't DNFed them, I've just never held physical copies in my hands and so I've never had the chance to finish them! But I did see his response and it's people like that that are keeping me motivated to get up every (or most) mornings and get to effing work. (also it's been awhile since we chatted soooooo, I hope you're well

[@Tuurible]

Great video. Do you have any advice on how to learn more about form in literature?

[@RyanRabid]

hmm... honestly creative writing texts are often what I've found most helpful! The specific book I'm thinking of is "Making Shapely Fiction" by Jerome Stern.

[@danielhutchings7278]

My prof just did a lecture on this short story!!!

[@RyanRabid]

just goes to show I'm doing something right ;)

[@blodwynswayze1531]

Er....why hasn't the "crapped-on toilet paper" gone down the toilet?

[@RyanRabid]

the toilet is not super functional, like a lot of cheaper/lower quality toilets, so you can't put the toilet paper down them or else they'll clog. So you've got to put it in a trash can beside the toilet..... And now you know ;)

[@blodwynswayze1531]

ForTheLoveOfRyan okay. I'll take your word for it. the story just makes it sound like it's being.....saved. But anyhoo if you like the "second person" I recommend the novel Ablutions by Patrick DeWitt or in short story-dom "Instructions" by Bob Leman of "Window" fame is a good 'un.

[@olivierdube8110]

how old are you

[@fitfuelplanner]

"old enough to party" // jk sorry I had to lol, (movie reference from 'Superbad'))

[@RyanRabid]

old enough to know better