Correction: Wao-za

The Watcher reference in Brief Wondrous is an allusion to The Fantastic Four, not Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For those of you who, like me, never read superhero comics, The Watchers are a cosmic race with total knowledge of coming events (especially catastrophes caused by evil doers). They can also manipulate the time-space continuum and molecules, change physical characteristics, project energy, and create high tech gadgets. The catch is that the Watchers do not allow themselves to share their foreknowledge with other races, as doing so once lent to the destruction of an entire race. Despite the Watcher-wide prohibition on warnings, the Fantastic Four have a Watcher who lets them know when Galactus, et al are planning world demolition.

Okay. So armed with that knowledge, we have to do some serious thinking about the role of the narrator in Brief Wondrous. Is he implicating himself in Oscar's death because he failed to pay sufficient attention to threats, failed to understand what Oscar was planning? Or, is he (Yunior? Diaz?) making a broader statement about the impotency or ridiculousness of the whole Watcher fantasy; no warning is going to overrule Oscar's all-consuming need for requited love.
Or poonanny.

And that's where the book gets troublesome.