“What more sci-fi than Santo Domingo? What more fantasy than the Antilles?”

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Oscar struggles to reconcile the many competing aspects of his life: the folklore of his homeland, the diaspora that brought him to America, and the separation he feels from both the Dominican and American cultures. This struggle is further exacerbated Oscar’s explicit status as an outsider due to his slightly pretentious intelligence, unseemly appearance, and especially his interest in all things nerd.

The narrator often refers to Oscar’s love of Genre, more specifically science fiction, fantasy, and comics. While other kids Oscar’s age were learning play wall ball and drive their older brothers’ cars, Oscar was, “gorging himself on a steady stream of Lovecraft, Wells…moving hungrily from book to book”(Diaz 21). The epigraph, which quotes the Fantastic Four, along with several other references to fantasy further emphasizes the role of science fiction/fantasy in the novel. These references serve to illustrate the world that Oscar lives in and draw a parallel between science fiction/fantasy stories and historical events in the Dominican Republic. In the words of Diaz, “What more sci-fi than Santo Domingo? What more fantasy than the Antilles?” Diaz describes Trujillo, “dominat[ing] Santo Domingo like it was his own private Morodor”(Diaz 224). This metaphor is revisited near the end of the novel when Diaz links a comprehensive history of the DR to the fate of Middle Earth.

The novel incorporates several other supernatural elements, the most obvious of which is fuku. Fuku is a mystical force that brings bad luck to all who challenge Trujillo. The reference to fuku at the beginning of the novel leads the reader to wonder if the events in the book are simply arbitrary or being controlled by the enigma of fuku. Trujillo himself also takes on a somewhat supernatural role throughout the novel. As he rules with such total power, the idea that he has origins beyond the mortal realm emerges.

While Oscar’s appreciation for all things science fiction and fantasy is what debases him to outsider status, the role of the supernatural takes on a much different role throughout the novel itself. The very thing that causes Oscar’s downfall seems to be what drives much of the book’s plot.