Zigzagger final final 2

Zigzagger

Manuel Muñoz

Christopher Richard and Imaani Cain

Sunday, April 14, 13

Author Facts:

Manuel Muñoz

Born: Dinuba, California

Education: Graduated from Harvard University. Received MFA in creative writing from Cornell University

Currently: Resides in New York City, where he works in the managing editorial department of Warner Books

Style of Writing: Manuel Muñoz’s stories move beyond traditional themes of Chicano literature to explore conflicts of family, memory, longing, and loss.

I thought America was the “Land of the Free.”

But you can’t be ‘free’ if you can’t speak your own

language, can you?


Zigzagger:

Critically Acclaimed Reviews


Briefly, Three Short Story Selections from Zigzagger

“Zigzagger” (5-19): A boy in a devout town goes to a a nighttime dance, and quickly succumbs to a “cycle of temptations” that leave him with more questions than answers the next morning.

“The Unimportant Lila Parr” (36-46): A husband and wife must face reality when their son is found murdered at a local motel that faces away

from a highway. Scandalous implications and family secrets raise questions of morality and fatality.

“Good As Yesterday” (120-142): Vero and her little brother Nicky pay weekly visits to a correctional facility where their past lover, Julián, sits awaiting parole. Nicky, blinded by naïve and unrequited love for Julián, risks his heart and his relationship with Vero.


“Zigzagger”(5-19)

Thematic Quotes (1)Religiosity:

“They say that nothing gets done on Saturday afternoons because the workers go home too early in order to prepare for a long night of dancing. It is not just evenings, but the whole stretch of the day-a whole cycle of temptation-and the churchgoers feel thwarted in their pleadings to bring back the ones who have strayed (6).”

Attraction to the Unfamiliar/Masculine Attraction:

“...and the boy noticed his face-what a handsome man he was, his dark skin as black as anyone’s in town- but his voice not anchored by the heaviness of accent. He was not like them, the boy knew instantly (14).”



Thematic Quotes (2) Masculinity/Superiority as something able to induce temptation and seduction:

“The pictured himself with the same kind of arrogance, the posture that cocked the man’s hips, the offering he suggested to this girl, and he wondered if he would ever grow into that kind of superiority, being capable of seducing and tempting (13).”

Male Sex as Animalistic and Frightening:

“And though he felt he was in air, he saw a flash of the man’s feet entrenched fast in the ground-long, hard hooves digging into the soil, the height of horses when they charge- it was then that the boy remembers seeing and feeling at the same time-the hooves, then a piercing in the depth of his belly that made his eyes flash a whole battalion of stars, shooting and brilliant, more and more of them, until he had no choice but to scream out (17).”



Discussion Starters (1)Religiosity:

What other quotes display the religiosity in this chapter?

Is it really the “dancing” and “fun” of Saturday nights that the religious backlash wants to put a stop to, or is it the implications of the “after parties,” or even of the people who attend the gatherings?

What role does the strict religious opposition play in the community members’ level of desire to keep having social gatherings?

Attraction to the Unfamiliar/Masculine Attraction:

Is the boy more attracted to the man and his shiny belt buckle/handsome face, or is he attracted to his “otherness” as an outsider?

Is there any significance to the man offering minors drinks? Was it just alcohol?



Discussion Starters (2)

Masculinity/Superiority as something able to induce temptation and seduction:

Why did the boy perceive the man to be so superior?

Did the boy witness the man as being seductive and tempting to the girls he was hitting on, or was the boy vicariously seduced and tempted by what he saw?

Male Sex as Animalistic and Frightening:

Was the sex between the two consensual?

Significance of the hooves? Why so animalistic?


“The Unimportant Lila Parr” (36-46)

Thematic Quotes (1)Attachment to the Past:

“It was Lila Parr who helped his only son plant the stunted peach trees over twenty years ago. Lila gave the boy a red water pail, and he nurtured the seedlings as best he could (38).”

“She has saved her son’s baby teeth and first shoes. In the kitchen, she keeps a drawer full of first-grade paintings and scribblings (40).”

“She could never bear a flood or terrible winds because of this weakness (40).”

Tight Knit Community, Word gets around fast:

“Everyone who has walked into the shop has stopped long enough to discuss it with them, shaking their heads as they depart to work in another town (42).”

“The townspeople, the vendors, the more distant neighbors,-all of them broke their silence when the town paper ran the story (43).”



Thematic Quotes (2)Secrets:

“There are people who come to spend a late evening in one of his rooms, and early on in his ownership, he had detested running into these people at the grocery store or the bakery shop. He’s never refused, however, anyone’s offer of extra money to help shield them (45).”

“He peeked through his office window in time to see the man lead the white woman to the farthest room, her right hand clutching her dress (46).”

“He will write and tell him, plainly, that he saw the young man step out of the car (46).”

Shame: “One of the old men says that this is not surprising, that she must be humiliated by the ordeal (42).”

“The man was embarrassed to ask the coroner if anything more had been determined (43).”

“He knows some of the members of the Iglesia de San Pedro and they have conferred with him, driving out to the farmhouse and asking him to reconsider his position in the world (43).”



Discussion Starters (1)Attachment to the Past:

Does the mother’s attachment to the past hinder her from seeing what is going on in the present?

How can the motel be a symbol of the past?

Why is this chapter’s title centered around Lila Parr?

Tight Knit Community, Word gets around fast:

Does the motel really shield people from the tight knit community?

How does the tight knit community and word traveling fast affect the choices of the son? Could that be what drove him to seek seclusion in the motel?

What implications does living in a small town have on one’s personal identity?



Discussion Starters (2)

Secrets:

What were the major secrets in this short story?

Did it seem as if most of the characters had many sensitive secrets?

Shame:

Whose secret seemed to have the most shame attached to it? Is this an appropriate application of shame and embarrassment?


“Good as Yesterday” (120-142)

Thematic QuotesShame and Embarrassment:

“She hates to see [Nicky’s] hand extended out like that, his exaggerations, his boldness at sixteen (122).”

“Tell your little brother to stop acting like that. Tell him to stop looking at the guys like that. They don’t think it’s funny (126).”

Vero herself looks around to see if people are listening but doesn’t wait. She is embarrassed by this as much as Julian (128)”

Nicky’s Intense Love:

“She is in no rush, but Nicky hurries. He is walking quickly with the Macy’s shopping bag in his left hand, the other hand extended out (122).”

“He had wanted to touch his broad shoulders and the tight chest peeking through his white muscle shirt (125).”

“He is enjoying this display, feeding this man, imitating the aunts in their family who linger in the kitchen and bring out hot plates to the uncles (127).”


“Good as Yesterday” (120-142)

Discussion StartersShame and Embarrassment:

Is Vero embarrassed about Nicky’s “gay” attitude and way of conducting himself?

Could Vero only be embarrassed about Nicky because her friends make her care? Would she be embarrassed otherwise?

Does Vero secretly harbor envy or reservations about Nicky’s falling in love with Julian?

Does Vero imagine all the families looking at Nicky’s display at the picnic tables or do you think people were really taking notice to Nicky’s gestures of love?

Nicky’s Intense Love:

Why is Nicky in love with Julian, despite Julian’s deviant behavior and the fact that he was Vero’s boyfriend at one time?

Did something happen between Nicky and Julian, and does Nicky fall for Julian because of it?

What is the real reason why Vero dislikes Nicky’s gestures of love for Julian: because people are watching, or because Julian used to be Vero’s?


Martinez’s Gaze

Shifting the site of queer enunciation’=equally distributes narrative responsibility for queer experience and identity

Also enables deeper understanding of social contexts in which queer subjects come in

Allows the audience to view queerness through eyes of character’s family, friends, etc

Queer representation transferred to heterosexuals as well


Martinez‘The Unimportant Lila Parr’

Discussion Starters

How is the queer representation shifted in the stories?

What sort of meaning can be drawn from it?

How does the father distancing himself from his son’s death show a lack of ‘queer enunciation’?


Martinez‘Zigzagger’

Discussion Starters

What is the importance of the mother acknowledging her son’s sexuality in correlation with queer enunciation?

Does it suppress or better articulate queer voices in the stories?


Martinez‘Good As Yesterday’Discussion Starters

Does Vero's empathy for Nicky indicate her assimilation into queer society or no?

If so, then why doesn't she recognize the habit of sexualized violence against Nicky?

Does that display the thought process of thinking of queerness as being social?


ReferencesCreostejournal. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2013, from http://creosotejournal.com/wp-‐ content/uploads/2011/08/munoz_large.jpeg

Reading Response – Manuel Munoz | Prose Pitch. (n.d.). Retrieved from http:// prosepitch.wordpress.com/category/reading-‐ response-‐manuel-‐munoz/

Zigzagger | Manuel Muñoz. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.manuel-‐munoz.com/books/ zigzagger/


http://creosotejournal.com/wp-

http://creosotejournal.com/wp-

http://prosepitch.wordpress.com/category/reading-






http://www.manuel-

http://www.manuel-

Zigzagger final final 2

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