I sat down with Juan and we exchanged a few questions based on the books we are reading. I feel the interview went very well and we got to know our opinions on some interesting topics.
In the book Stranger than Fiction, Chuck Palahniuk dresses up as a dog to help himself feel and understand the ignorance those of other cultural backgrounds may feel in certain situations within their community. So I asked Juan, “When in your life have you been a victim of ignorance? How did you respond?” He answered the question by explaining that when he attended high school prep that he was the subject of ignorance for the way he dressed and talked. He was looked down upon for having different cultural backgrounds, or from being from a different place than the other students. Juan and Chuck were both ridiculed for the way they dressed, despite no one knowing whom they really are as people. I feel this is a common type of ignorance that I myself have been guilty of and an ignorance that I am learning to avoid as I grow older.
Chuck Palahniuk describes a festival in Missoula, Montana, in which residents of the town display grotesque group sexual acts on a stage. Throughout the chapter he writes about his overall disgust of the festival, from the overpriced souvenirs, down to the public displays. So I asked Juan, “When in your life have you been disgusted by the actions of the people around you? What did you do about it?” He began to tell me a story about a man beating his girlfriend. Juan stood up for what he believed and fought the man off the girl. The man surprisingly respected Juan for what he had done in response and supposedly gained more respect for women.


-Still needs tweaking-