Junot Diaz said he knew that more than half his audience came to see him speak as a requirement.

‘Sometimes you have to drag students to art,’ he said, after demanding that those students there raise their hands for attending out of academic obligation.

To celebrate Latino Heritage Month, Diaz, a Dominican-American author and former Syracuse University English professor, spoke to a crowded Joyce Hergenhan auditorium Wednesday night. Diaz recently won the Pulitzer Prize for his debut novel, ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.’

Diaz read two of his short stories that were previously published in The New Yorker. Both stories were written in second person, a path he is pursuing because he said he believes it is his weakest narrative.

‘It’s always easier to do something you’re good at,’ he said. ‘This is a challenge for me.’

Diaz also referenced some of the novel’s negative reviews and said he understood why some were upset about the themes of rape and enslavement.

Most of the questions asked in the question-and-answer session following his readings were related to Diaz’s book. The novel, which was released in September 2007, tells the story of a 300-pound teenager whose family has been plagued by ‘fuku,’ an ancient Dominican curse.

‘It is easy for me to relate to his works because we have had similar experiences in being a first generation Latino-American,’ said Max Patino, the director of diversity recruitment in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. ‘Diaz was one of the main reasons I took my position here at SU.’

Diaz said that a version of his novel could have easily been published within the first two years of its completion, but that he was not satisfied.

‘Everyone knows it’s easy to knock out a book in a year or two,’ he said. ‘But it’s entirely different if you want it to mean something.’

He said he wrote more than 200 versions of his novel before he was satisfied.

‘I am glad that Syracuse recognizes his contribution to the arts and to the Latino community,’ said Jessica Santana, a sophomore accounting major.

Diaz said the Pulitzer Prize he won has not affected him.

‘It means nothing to me,’ he said. ‘I have learned to isolate myself from other people’s opinions. It’s amazing when you don’t care about the system, how willing it is to reward you.’

Diaz went on to explain that art done with the intent of approval is deformed.

‘Approval can tolerate no mistakes,’ he said. ‘Discovery, on the other hand, is predicated by mistakes. Writing is a discovery for me, and sometimes I get lost. Being lost is a good thing because I come back with better stuff.’

rseldrid@syr.edu

Published on September 24, 2008 at 12:00 pm