I'm interested in Yunior's role as the narrator and why he calls himself "The Watcher"
Dr. H and I looked up the reference and it was originally from Fantastic Four. A quick trip to the Wiki page tells us that "The Watchers are one of the oldest species in the universe and are
committed to observing and compiling knowledge on all aspects of the
universe." They also do not interfere, they just document.
Since I haven't finished the book yet, I'm still wondering about the faceless man as well. Do you guys know when you watch a movie and there is always a guy telling the story and he often appears during action-y scenes, but never does anything? Like he is watching only so he can tell the story? Maybe Yunior (The Watcher) is represented in the story as the faceless man. In most parts of the story that Yunior isn't in, he describes them like he is. He isn't, of course, but the faceless man is.
I can't help drawing a connecting between them since I'm still not finished with the book. Does anyone else have a take on it?
This is such a cool connection. I love that you are connecting Yunior to "The Watcher," I hadn't thought about that as I was reading, but it's definitely an interesting connection. Also, Yunior does sort of play the role of "The Watcher" just by secretly reading Oscar's diary. Yunior doesn't confront Oscar about his entries, he only observes them.
ReplyDeleteI really like this connection, mostly because I think that it is just another way that Diaz ties in the fantasy elements of the novel. These elements, and every way that he incorporates them, I think, adds so much to the story.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting perspective to take. I would agree with the idea of the action scenes and the "faceless man's presence", but I don't know how I feel about the idea of Yunior acting as just a Watcher. I feel like his character is rather present throughout the other scenes and he is an acting participant rather than an observer.
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