Wow, so I haven't been on LJ for a really long time because of going to graduate school, but surprise! This was the first post I saw on my friends list.
So it turns out that Junot is one of my friends. I went to MIT and took one of his classes and, since I'm a grad student and an older one at that, we ended up hanging out a lot. He's a fantastic writer, but also a really fantastic person and teacher. I've never learned so much from anyone in my life. He taught me in an advanced writing course on the topic of fantasy fiction. It's so interesting to see someone who clearly LOVES genre fiction so much have such difficulty writing it. Because Junot will not allow bad fiction to occur in his ouevre. But genre is SO HARD to do well. You have to be brilliantly well-adapted to writing genre to make it sing, and until he gets there, we'll never see a Junot Diaz fantasy novel. Man, but that man really understands fantasy in a way that none of my other writing teachers ever did, even when they were pro fantasy writers who were teaching fantasy writing. Junot is just so interested in articulating the poetics of his craft that you cannot help but learn from him.
When I was reading Oscar Wao, I found myself so mesmerized by his writing, that as soon as I finished a chapter, I would go back and reread that entire chapter again a second time. I took me FOREVER to finish the book because I kept diving back into the writing all the time. LOL. Anyway, I'm rambling now, but it's really nice to see people say good things about your friends that you admire. The interview you have posted here reminds me that I should keep working on this short story that Junot told me to keep working on, because he thought it had what it took to win those published writing contest and put me on the map of fantasy writers. Wow. Big praise, but even bigger expectations to live up to when I don't even know that this story is supposed to be about . . . LOL. Take the example of your teachers, I suppose.
So it turns out that Junot is one of my friends. I went to MIT and took one of his classes and, since I'm a grad student and an older one at that, we ended up hanging out a lot. He's a fantastic writer, but also a really fantastic person and teacher. I've never learned so much from anyone in my life. He taught me in an advanced writing course on the topic of fantasy fiction. It's so interesting to see someone who clearly LOVES genre fiction so much have such difficulty writing it. Because Junot will not allow bad fiction to occur in his ouevre. But genre is SO HARD to do well. You have to be brilliantly well-adapted to writing genre to make it sing, and until he gets there, we'll never see a Junot Diaz fantasy novel. Man, but that man really understands fantasy in a way that none of my other writing teachers ever did, even when they were pro fantasy writers who were teaching fantasy writing. Junot is just so interested in articulating the poetics of his craft that you cannot help but learn from him.
When I was reading Oscar Wao, I found myself so mesmerized by his writing, that as soon as I finished a chapter, I would go back and reread that entire chapter again a second time. I took me FOREVER to finish the book because I kept diving back into the writing all the time. LOL. Anyway, I'm rambling now, but it's really nice to see people say good things about your friends that you admire. The interview you have posted here reminds me that I should keep working on this short story that Junot told me to keep working on, because he thought it had what it took to win those published writing contest and put me on the map of fantasy writers. Wow. Big praise, but even bigger expectations to live up to when I don't even know that this story is supposed to be about . . . LOL. Take the example of your teachers, I suppose.
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