tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9367921.post4450354953442372054..comments2024-03-12T11:58:30.386-06:00Comments on La Bloga: Review: Their Dogs Came With ThemContributing Bloguistas:http://www.blogger.com/profile/13054190814722049711noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9367921.post-89583626143106977312007-08-21T20:06:00.000-06:002007-08-21T20:06:00.000-06:00In lieu of La Bloga issuing an announcement that I...In lieu of La Bloga issuing an announcement that I will be leaving La Bloga to focus on my own blog and writing, I guess I'll issue it here. It's been a nice couple of years contributing here. <BR/><BR/>Rudy - you're too much - watch what you say about people who's books you don't read. Rene, I think you're doing an awesome job with children's lit and nobody does it better. I leave the ninos in excellent hands with you. <BR/><BR/>Daniel eres el mas caballero - stay in touch y mucho suerte con todo. Te dejo una danza del fuego - come see us at Dia de Los Muertos so I can do the fire dance for your family. Con mucho carino.<BR/><BR/>Michael - otro caballero y de todo dar. Arte y cultura in El A is richer for having you.<BR/><BR/>Manuel - muchisimas gracias por todo. I didn't get to know you as well as the rest pero you were a rockstar with me. Besos.<BR/><BR/>Lisa - her mana - que mas puedo decir? Keep up the excellent work and may your path on the road be filled con mucho luz y alma. Un abrazo.<BR/><BR/>Vale,<BR/><BR/>SolGina Ruizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05700132250640308115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9367921.post-77448753331284204862007-08-21T14:46:00.000-06:002007-08-21T14:46:00.000-06:00"Does a writer have an obligation to build and sup..."Does a writer have an obligation to build and support her culture by crafting affirming characters and stories, or should a writer allow herself to craft depressingly dismal dioramas of doomed lives?" <BR/><BR/>While I see the sentiment behind this question, its phrasing tips its hand at the facile way in which the world at large tends to read Chican@ fiction: as mere representation and political tract, story but no characters. The best fiction offers the gift of humanity's deep complexities--and that's usually done with characters with all their facets and dimensions exposed on the page, dismal or otherwise. Viramontes's novel has stunned me, as both a reader and a writer, in its refusal to shy away from the conflict and distress of interior life. In doing so, the novel has sent a subtle but insistent signal to all American readers: these are some of the many stories--the many people--long-ignored, but their reverberations echo on forty years down the line. Get ready for more of it.<BR/><BR/>I'd urge all readers of LaBloga to look up the recent radio interview on Michael Silverblatt's wonderful program, "Bookworm." Listen to the opening moments of his unequivocal praise for Helena's work and its coming recognition as a great American novel. I, for one, come down on the side of a writer crafting exactly what her heart tells her to do, painful as it is, with no obligation to anyone or anything but art in the service of all humanity, not just the safety of our Chican@ readers. "Art hurts," Gwendolyn Brooks told us. "Art urges voyages--and it is easier to stay at home."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com