{"id":666,"date":"2011-02-07T10:46:07","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T18:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=666"},"modified":"2011-02-07T10:46:07","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T18:46:07","slug":"%e2%80%9cour-stories-are-the-bastard-children-of-everything-that-we-have-ever-experienced-and-read%e2%80%9d-reflecting-on-chapters-3-4-of-create-dangerously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=666","title":{"rendered":"\u201cOur stories are the bastard children of everything that we have ever experienced and read\u201d: Reflecting on Chapters 3 & 4 of Create Dangerously"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is my second set of comments related to Edwidge Danticat\u2019s Create Dangerously<\/em>. The entire exchange between Daye and I can be found over here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

Daye, thanks for checking in with the comments last week.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019re talking about chapters 3 and 4 this week, I am again struck by titles. It\u2019s hard to really buy that \u201cI am Not A Journalist\u201d is a declarative statement by the author as she does little here but report on the death and aftershocks of a close friend, activist, radio-journalist. It reminds me of Magritte\u2019s \u201cThe Treachery of Images.\u201d<\/a> And while I was personally oblivious to the effects of Jean Dominque\u2019s influence, I can understand how listening, like reading in the first chapter of the collection, is poised as a political act.<\/p>\n

Like one of your final comments, I\u2019ve been thinking about the roles that Danticat places herself in and how these may relate to the immigrant youth I\u2019ve been teaching for the past six years. Danticat quote\u2019s Dominque, \u201cThe Dyaspora<\/em> are people with their feet planted in bother worlds. There\u2019s no need to be ashamed of that.\u201d I reflect on a conversation with one of my students years ago that started off the class by declaring, \u201cMr. Garcia, when we come to this country, we become different people.\u201d He was initially referring to the way he lost his \u201csecond\u201d last name as a result of traditional American conventions (and the fact that school documents simply don\u2019t have the space to include the characters from two last names). The discussion in the class, however, circled around the transformation \u2013 one that often felt shameful \u2013 for the students throughout the class.<\/p>\n

Daye, I\u2019m wondering if you could talk about how diaspora is seen as a character in Lwa<\/em>. Is it too the \u201cfloating homeland\u201d around which your characters reside? This is also a good place for me to briefly step out of my role as critic and remind readers about Daye\u2019s awesome film project on Kickstarter<\/a>. Please consider making a donation to her project \u2013 even a small contribution will help her, too, create dangerously.<\/p>\n