{"id":2054,"date":"2013-11-21T00:14:33","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T00:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/?p=2054"},"modified":"2014-01-04T20:59:26","modified_gmt":"2014-01-04T20:59:26","slug":"oscar-wao-takes-fieldston-mad-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/2013\/11\/oscar-wao-takes-fieldston-mad-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Wao Takes Over Fieldston | MAD 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"_DSC0508\"<\/a>
A slide from David Fishman & Jorge Vega’s presentation. Photo by Jacob Cader<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On November 15th, 1990, classes came to a grinding halt at Fieldston, as the entire school took part in what would later become a bi-annual tradition: Awareness Day. The first ever Modified Awareness Day (MAD) was a joint effort between Fieldston\u2019s then P.A.C co-presidents Peter Gourdine and Kharry Lazarre-White. As president Gourdine put it, it was a day \u201cto make people realize that outside the sheltered walls [in] which we live, there are problems which need to be addressed.\u201d Today\u2019s Awareness Days at Fieldston cover an even broader scope of topics; from political issues, to environmental worries, and even a day dedicated to the summer reading book. This year\u2019s fall MAD (November 7th, 2013) was on Junot D\u00edaz\u2019s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. In his novel, D\u00edaz has sparked \u2018un debate apasionado\u2019\u00a0 far and wide regarding Dominican culture, feminism, and the era of Rafael Trujillo. What makes D\u00edaz\u2019s book \u2018tan especial\u2019\u00a0 is its ability to move beyond the simple story of a young misfit, to a historical masterpiece \u2014 intertwined with a bit of fiction. Written using a mixture of Spanish, Spanglish, and English, D\u00edaz crafted a detailed account of Dominican Culture in both the Dominican Republic, and the not-so-far-away state of New Jersey. From Penthouse Magazine to Marvel comics, D\u00edaz paints a vivid image of the life of \u2018un carajito torpe\u2019\u00a0 destroyed by the longstanding \u201cfuk\u00fa\u201d\u00a0 placed over his head. Fieldston\u2019s MAD workshops, like D\u00edaz\u2019s book, covered a wide range of issues; feminism in Dominican culture, life under Trujillo, immigration from the DR, latinos in New York City, and sex in narrative to name a few. Starting promptly at 10:55 AM, Drew Semler (Form V), Reede Goldberg (Form V), Jorge Vega (Director of Technology), and I (Form V) presented \u201cThe Psychology of Oscar\u201d and \u201cDecoding Pop Culture & Assimilation in Oscar\u2019s World,\u201d respectively. \u201cThe psychology of Oscar,\u201d as Semler puts it, \u201cis something we thought was worth looking into, because of the intense mood swings and internal struggles Oscar faces throughout the story.\u201d Goldberg says that \u201cto us, Oscar is the most complex character. His short-lived rise and prolonged downfall caused us to wonder what was going on inside his mind.\u201d Meanwhile, in the Stu-Fac Jorge Vega and I gave a talk on the connection of \u2018cultura pop y la vida dominicana\u2019 . Vega, a self-proclaimed Latino \u2018friki\u2019\u00a0 who came of age in the 80s, discussed how significant comics were in the novel, and to what extent Oscar\u2019s character was shaped by them.<\/p>\n

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Adlai Coleman and Reede Goldberg preview their session at assembly. Photo by Jacob Cader<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the afternoon Adlai Coleman (Form V) and Reede Goldberg (Form V) discussed \u201cSex and Masculinity.\u201d \u201cOur MAD,\u201d Coleman said, \u201cwas about how Junot D\u00edaz portrayed the idea of manhood in Oscar Wao.\u201d D\u00edaz, in writing his novel, seemed to portray Dominican males as \u201cmachismo,\u201d\u00a0 and these two were out to investigate if this was really the case. After the Masculinity workshop, at 12:45 PM, Lorena Rodas-Ramirez presented her investigation into \u201cThe Shadow of Trujillo: Life Under the Dictatorship.\u201d For her session, Rodas-Ramirez brought in two speakers, Jos\u00e9 Fern\u00e1ndez and Pelagio Sosa \u2014 both Latino men who had lived during the time of Trujillo. One of these men even lived in the Dominican Republic during his reign. \u201cMany people hid wives from Trujillo because he went after all women,\u201d Rodas-Ramirez translated for the crowd. To Trujillo, the Mirabel sisters \u201crepresented his worst enemies; they were women who resisted him.\u201d Rodas-Ramirez and her guests concluded their MAD by discussing Trujillo\u2019s \u2018derrota final\u2019 , and the long-standing effect he had on the Dominican Republic. Myles Cameron (Form V), and Justin Radin (Form V) took a look at the Mirabal sisters through the film In the Time of Butterflies. As Cameron puts it, \u201cwe watched the movie and then held a short discussion on people\u2019s reactions, and tied in themes of living in the DR under Trujillo to the book.\u201d MADs not mentioned here also created a buzz. For instance, Max Kassan (Form VI) and Kate Reynolds (English teacher) discussed the humorous, informative, and thought provoking footnotes sprinkled throughout the novel in a workshop titled \u2018Faux Footnotes: Exploring Narrative Authority in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.\u2019 \u201cThrough interactive writing exercises, and close examination of various footnotes in the text,\u201d Kassan explains, \u201c[our] session was designed so everyone would walk away with a greater understanding of the world of footnoting.\u201d Emma Kassan (Form IV), Marcelo Rivera (Form VI), and Lorena Rodas-Ramirez led a period on the distorted images of Latinos in the U.S. Lastly, to conclude the day, Zach Jaffe (Form V), Max Kassan, and Maura Furfey (Spanish teacher) held a session on Latinos in New York City. All-in-all this was \u2018un d\u00eda\u2019 packed with important discussions, thoughtful sessions, and enthusiasm throughout Fieldston\u2019s student body. From Rafael Trujillo to comic books, Thursday\u2019s MAD brought Dominican culture, a Latino New York City, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao to the Fieldston campus.<\/p>\n

Below is a video produced following Fishman and Vega’s presentation.<\/em><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=edulzJUw6ao<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On November 15th, 1990, classes came to a grinding halt at Fieldston, as the entire school took part in what would later become a bi-annual tradition: Awareness Day. The first ever Modified Awareness Day (MAD) was a joint effort between Fieldston\u2019s then P.A.C co-presidents Peter Gourdine and Kharry Lazarre-White. As president Gourdine put it, it was a day \u201cto make people realize that outside the sheltered walls [in] which we live, there are problems which<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":2061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-2054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Oscar-Cover.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2054"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2254,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054\/revisions\/2254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2054"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}