Creatures of Habit: Emergency Thinking in Alejandro Brugués’ Juan de los Muertos and Junot Díaz’s “Monst

Abstract

Alejandro Brugués’ film Juan de los Muertos [Juan of the Dead] (2011) and Junot Díaz’s short story “Monstro” (2012) reveal compelling arguments for what effective and ethical responses to disaster might look like through depictions of apocalyptic scenarios in Cuba and the island of Hispaniola. In accordance with Elaine Scarry’s conclusions in Thinking in an Emergency (2011), these two works highlight the importance of training and habit, deliberative thinking, the right of exit and commitment to equality of survival in emergency preparation and response. Díaz and Brugués’ contributions to the flourishing subgenre of irreverent apocalyptic fiction offer timely appeals for more humane policies and practices that would serve the international community well in any number of actual crises being faced today in the Caribbean and beyond.