Having just read Lorrie Moore’s Self Help, Diaz’s “How to Date A Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie”, it really intrigued me. Within both, you get a guide for a very specific circumstance and it seems like a story lies underneath rather than it being an emotionless DIY guide. The person who was leading us through this story, Yunior, seemed not to reflect that much on how he felt-- like some of the characters within Lorrie Moore’s stories. While I was listening to the reading, I was struck by how robotic Yunior’s guide was. This reminded me of “How to Become a Writer” because you get how people react, but you don’t get how the guide of the story feels about it.
Within “How to Date A Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie” I also saw a lot of differences between the stories. This story reminds me the most of “How” and “How to Be an Other Woman” within Self Help. You also get lots of possibilities about what you could do.
One difference that I see between these is that while Moore makes all the outcomes the same regardless of what option she gives you to pick, Diaz makes it so that there could be many different options and of them are possible.
“But usually it won’t work this way” (48)
I guess that might just go along with that this is a guide for multiple types of girls. What do you guys think?
Another difference was that Yunior thinks a lot about what outcomes his actions would have (if he does or doesn’t do something). In Moore’s stories, she portrays the character who is guiding us as more carefree and not thinking that far into the future.
