Junot Diaz

Sitting in on Junot Diaz's talk was surprisingly enjoyable, not that I didn't think I'd enjoy hearing him after reading his novel, I was just expecting a suit and a straight edge type of speech. Instead, Diaz came out with his guns a-blazing, wowing and shocking his audience with his speech, mostly, and his extremely laid back personality. Personally, I loved ever second of it. I was engaged from begining to end and was left wanting more, wanting anything he had to give me. I would've loved to be able to sit down and share conversation with him over a meal or maybe, and even better, a beer or two. What stuck out to me was when he said he wasn't political but had very strong feelings toward political people and politics in America. What I did agree on, strangely enough, was that he was angry with Obama for not giving American citizens a "story". Diaz explained that the American people thrive off of stories and we don't care what they are, but if it's a good one we will believe it. It's true in a sense, just try reading a fiction novel; part of you will want try to convince yourself that it must be true because the author did such a phenomenal job of detailing this lie they poured out for you to believe as true. Obama has been seemingly absent since he has been in office and the American people need a story. They need to hear anything, to feel involved and they wont care if it's good or bad because if they know, they believe they have a say. Diaz is strong spoken and he feels no need to put a mask on and cover up how he feels and exactly how he wants to talk about it. I admire him for that and am extremely happy to have had the honor to sit in his presence.