If you don’t know who Junot Diaz is, you should learn now. Not only is he a badass author, who’s won the Pulitzer Prize, he teaches writing at MIT.
And, apparently, he makes his incoming students watch Star Wars.
In this interview on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, Diaz tells Meyers why the iconic film is required material for his creative-writing class. He makes his students watch Star Wars and read The Lord of the Rings before class even starts.
Meyers thinks it’s a dream curriculum come true, but Diaz has a different outlook:
“You know, you’d be amazed though, because I’m like 47, and the majority of these kids have not watched any of this. They’re on Harry Potter, and they are just are like, ‘I grew up with that and this is my sh*t.’ ”
He continues on why: “Those texts [Star Wars, Lord of the Rings] are kind of like the foundational myths that things like Harry Potter are already based on, and I wanted to start there. And I know the majority of them haven’t seen it.”
If you don’t watch Star Wars?
“I’ll fail your ass,” says Diaz.
Watch the entire interview for Diaz’s whip-smart perspective on how art is important to those studying science and tech — and how he feels about being the art guy at MIT.
