Something (Literary and Political) I Read This Week and Loved...

Junot Diaz says what Obama needs is a story.

"The man has tried, of course; we’ve gotten patches of narrative around all the important issues—the economy, the war in Afghanistan, the war on terror (a.k.a. the Undiebomber)—but I’ve yet to hear anything that excites that part of my brain which loves, which craves the symmetries the pleasures of well-told tale. Just this past Tuesday we saw the consequences for the President of not having a real story to draw upon.  In Massachusetts, the President was faced with an insurgent Republican candidate who was telling a story that should have been familiar to the Commander-in-Chief: the story of an upstart outsider with energy and ideas, who was going to shake things up, etc. The President tried to help Martha Coakely by campaigning, but since his Administration doesn’t seem to do story he couldn’t lend her one. He could only show up as himself, and that clearly was not enough. A man cannot withstand a story, even if the man is remarkable and the story is simple. The story always wins."

Go.  Read it all. There's a lot in the essay to think about, especially in light of the fact that Obama has shown himself to be an expert story teller in the past, pre-Presidency.

(P.S. I am starting to believe that Junot Diaz could write about the paint drying on a wall and I'd read it three times, right in a row, he's just that good.)

Comments

[Jessie Carty]

ya know, it should make perfect sense to obama, shouldn't it? we are a narrative based being. maybe he'll get wind of the essay :)