Sin dolor
Sin Dolor was the short fiction story published in the most recent issue of the New Yorker, October 15, 2007. Damaso can’t feel physical pain, the doctor wants to find the clues in his genes to this evolutionary trait. He later comes to appreciate him as a human not as a subject. Francisco Funes gets mad and takes back his son Damaso. Damaso is seen later as an attraction, he demonstrates his gift by sticking knives, metal, etc. into his body. He dies from jumping off of a third story building, it seems since he has not felt pain he does not know his body’s real limits. Damaso is forgotten quite quickly and it seems his family never saw him as one of their own but only as an income resource.
T. Coraghessan Boyle – 19 books of fiction
He received a Ph.D. degree in Nineteenth Century British Literature from the University of Iowa in 1977, his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1974, and his B.A. in English and History from SUNY Potsdam in 1968. He now works at USC and lives in Santa Barbara married with three kids.
He wrote Sin Dolor as the main character and narrator, he also includes many Spanish words and places that make readers think he is of Hispanic origin. The story is set in a town somewhere along the lines of Guadalajara or Jalisco and the fact that only two doctors are even mentioned in the town illustrate its size and standing.
I thought the concept of this new “power” was intriguing but was saddened by the fact that Damaso didn’t seem to accomplish his full potential. He grows in strength, intellect, and develops family values; but this proves his downfall since he doesn’t leave a life of depravity and subjectation for one with the doctor.
Nawabdin Electrician
Nawabdin Electrician is a work of literary fiction published in the August 27,2007 edition of The New Yorker. Nawabdin makes a living by “stealing” electricity. He rigs machinery to register energy used as less than in actuality. He makes extra money by using a motorcycle (a tool given to him by his boss) to travel and do more work. One day a hitch-hiker tries to rob Nawabdin of this prize and shoots him, Nawabdin is saved by townsfolk and brought to a doctor where he is healed, he doesn’t feel remorse or pity as the attempter of the crime dies a painful and lonely death.
All I found was that Daniyal Mueenuddin manages a farm Pakistan and that he was a lawyer in New York City. He obviously writes short stories, this one having been published in The New Yorker.
I remember the ambiguity of Nawabdin, our class debating whether or not he is the good guy, or if the robber is actually the one who deserves the pity. Nawabdin is seen as ambitious and hard-working yet his own job is essentially stealing and lying.
His work makes it seem like not only can we not formulate the correct views of life in the story, but that because of social and economic differences in our own lives we shouldn’t. Who are we to judge what we don’t understand?
