I’m Not An English Major, I’m Pre-Law!

I don't do book plugs (which would reach infinity) but maybe I should start a book lust blog since I am loving Salvador Plascencia's People of Paper. More love since he came to my experimental fiction class to discuss his novel. His novel is like a continuum of Calvino, Borges and every crazy typesetter from the 19th century but it was his enthusiasm that elicited such love. He reminded me why I became an english major even though it's difficult to explain to mother's friends what I study and even more difficult to field their questions:

You mean you study english? But you speak english!"
"Oh, so you wanna be an english teacher? Elementary? So you like kids , right?"
"So your homework is reading books?"

He also reminded me of all the infinite possibilities of the novel form; he's breaking boundaries in his novel that haven't been fully explored (Danielewski is only the tip of the iceberg). He was very frank about the pitfalls of the novel (the percieved misogyny, the lack of political content, form over content) but you gotta admire it for what it is: a fuck you to conventional form and a breaking of conventional standards. Speaking about his rejections from every major publishing house becuase of its experimental status (and later came back begging) just made it more inspirational. It's like the little indie novel that could.

When the ethnicity questions came up he was very open about not being "enough" of a chicano which I loved. He made it very clear that he didn't want to be pigeon holed which is why lots of chicanos criticized his novel. I sat there totally nodding my head and I think that's why I've never been able to stay in a chicano organization. I still remember one of my favorite professors telling me that I had to behave a certain way because it was a reflection upon my community; that comment really bothered me and has stayed with me to this day. It must suck being a Mexican writer feeling that you have to write in a certain style but he did it and that gives me hope for the future of awesome mexican writers who don't fit the mold.