Synthetic Essay Diaz vs Vonnegut in use of Science Fiction/Fantasy Genres and the Supernatural
The use of the science fiction and fantasy genre, and the use of the supernatural and superstation are used by both Junot Diaz and Kurt Vonnegut in their novels The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and Cat’s Cradle respectively. The similarities in genre usage and supernatural and superstition themes are used to explore history, and causality in their novels, but are approached differently to convey the messages the authors are trying to convey.
The use of science fiction to explore history is used by both Diaz and Vonnegut. Diaz uses science fiction as a metaphor for the reader to help understand the complicated history of the Dominican Republic by using familiar science fiction and fantasy to explain history of the Dominican Republic and Oscar’s family. Diaz compares the conflict between dictators and writers to the conflict between “the Fantastic Four and Galactus, [and] the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants” (97 Diaz). Diaz also compares Trujillo to Sauron, Darkseid, and Arawn to describe his reign of terror on the Dominican Republic (2). These comparisons let the reader better understand the History of the Dominican Republic because it takes a foreign history that his readers may have no idea about and compares them to characters or ideas that our more famous overall and very familiar to the readers. Diaz also uses his use of science fiction to bring us closer to Oscar and the other characters. Diaz shows how science fiction becomes Oscar’s obsession and release form the world with his typing, and how he sees himself in a science fiction story by comparing Santo Domingo to Science fiction (6 Diaz).
Vonnegut uses science fiction and fantasy to create a parallelism with a real event to explore the contemporary risk of the Cuban Missile crisis which happened only one year before he published Cat’s Cradle. Vonnegut used analogies to reality to do this. Instead of having the book talk about the almost nuclear war he creates a new weapon of mass destruction called Ice Nine that was invented by the man who created the nuclear bomb in his novel. By using Ice Nine Vonnegut allowed himself to create a different ending to a real world situation. Thus showing how the world could have ended during the Cuban Missile Crisis in total destruction like when Papa fell in to the sea and froze every single ocean (258-261). Zins argues that “the increasing possibility of our destroying the world by our own stupidity and our deification of science and technology “(1). The made up weapon allowed a different ending to happen with the “all sea was ice-nine,” and the “green Earth [turning] blue-white pearl instead of a backing down form a conflict (261, Vonnegut). Vonnegut’s use of science fiction to explore history is a different from Diaz because Vonnegut uses science fiction to explore the what- ifs of the Cuban missile crisis while not directly talking about the actual crisis.
Despite the science fiction fantasy genre having a huge role in both books Diaz does not use science fiction as an essential role in the plot like Vonnegut, however both authors create a different way for you to connect with their message through science fiction. As miller shows us in his article the “preternatural Narration and Lens of Genre Fiction in Juont Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao “Diaz’s use of science fiction allowed the reader to explore the human experience, how Oscar thought, felt, and help facilitate the use of the multiple discourses throughout the book (Miller). The use of science fiction also lets you see how hard life is for a young adult immigrant (Mutizwa, Kadzi. “Review: Assimilation Anxiety.”). The genres were used again as the familiar and compared the different events in the characters’ lives to the genre. Vonnegut uses science fiction very differently. He incorporates it as part of the plot. It doesn’t bring you closer to the characters, but it creates a version of reality, and helps the reader see how close the world was to total destruction, and how if we aren’t careful than with the creation of weapons of mass destruction the world could end.
Diaz and Vonnegut create use the supernatural and superstation themes in their novels to create a sense of causality. Diaz does this by using magical realism to create the beliefs in his novel to help understand Oscar and his family, and the Dominican history and culture. The first example of Diaz’s use of the supernatural and superstation through magic realism is Fuku. Fuku is how Diaz explains what causes Oscar and his family are very unfortunate and unlucky. According to Yunior it is Fuku that is responsible for the bad things that happen to everyone (4-5, Diaz). Fuku exposes Dominican history by showing that bad things would happen to and if you ever said, thought, or attempted to do something bad to Trujillo you and your family would be cursed by Fuku (3). Another example of magic realism by Diaz is the mongoose. The Mongoose came to Beli as a sign Beli after she is beaten by Trujillo’s men (151). The mongoose also exposes Dominican culture because Yunior talks about the Mongoose’s significance in history and its legends (151). Diaz uses his creation of the supernatural Fuku in a very serious manner and expects that his reader will too especially with Yuniors warning in the
Vonnegut uses the supernatural and superstation to create a religion in his novel. He created the religion of Bokkionism the people of San Lorenzo. The religion creates a new culture in which everything is a lie, and it is created so that people have hope where there is none because the government cannot make people happy (172). Vonnegut uses this new culture and religion to explain humans, and why we believe, and why we act the way we do. Vonnegut’s use of the supernatural and superstation differs form Diaz because Vonnegut uses Bokkionism in a very satiric way. Instead being treated seriously by the reader Vonnegut expects the reader to find it funny and outlandish. His goal was to help explain the cause and effect of people’s actions in the novel. It helps the reader grasp the result of actions of the characters in the novel.
The science fiction and fantasy genre and use of superstation and the supernatural and are strategies used both Diaz and Vonnegut. Each author uses it in a different way to help the reader understand history, and understand their message. Diaz used familiar science fiction that explained history to us, while Vonnegut used science fiction and fantasy to contemporary risk. Both authors created the beliefs in the supernatural and superstation to help explain causality in their novels. The ways the authors used them were different but they had the same end goal of reveling their messages within their novels.
Works Cited
Díaz, Junot. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. New York: Riverhead, 2007. Print.
Miller, T.s. “Preternatural Narration and the Lens of Genre Fiction in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.” Science Fiction Studies 38.1 (2011): 92-114. JSTOR. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5621/sciefictstud.38.1.0092?ref=no-x-route:cf585917114311551e3eeddead21e19b>.
Mutizwa, Kadzi. “Review: Assimilation Anxiety.” New Labor Forum 18.1 (2009): 116-19. JSTOR. Web. 24 Mar. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/40342801?ref=no-x-route:a81a7ef437cbcef2eb3cb90ed286bccf>.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat’s Cradle. New York, NY: Delta Trade Paperbacks, 1998. Print.
Zins, Daniel L. “Rescuing Science from Technocracy: “Cat’s Cradle” and the Play of Apocalypse (Sauver La Science De La Technocracie: “Le Berceau Du Chat” Et Le Jeu De L’Apocalypse).” Science Fiction Studies 13.2, Nuclear War and Science Fiction (1986): 170-81. JSTOR. Web. 09 Apr. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/4239744?ref=no-x-route:cf554877afc21f08c5b724d19b4730e1>.