ENGLISH 325 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Valeria Luiselli, Willis Tower
16 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Mikaela Bradley
English 325
5/14/18
Reading Response
This set of readings made me do a lot of thinking, I think the use of various metaphors
was impactful and made me think. The excerpt from Sidewalks used the concept of cities and
construction juxtaposed with language. Each of the sections had a title related to architecture:
“Bridge under repair”, “Building materials”, and “Unloading zone”. The way Valeria Luiselli
describes language as something that needs to be built and as something with holes is powerful.
It is true that sometimes it can be hard to find the words to say what you want to say and express
your thoughts. I for one, as someone who has spoken both Spanish and English for the majority
of her life, sometimes I cannot for the life of me think of the word I want in the language I am
speaking in. It is in times like these that I seem to have some holes in my writing or speaking. I
have to circumlocute around what I want to say- build bridges, per say- to connect my thoughts. I
also liked the line “we can say nothing about anything” as the juxtaposition is something
powerful to consider. There are so many things in the word, and sometimes we just cannot find
the words to express what we want to say. Zora Neale Hurston’s excerpt from Tell My House
was a harder read for me as I did not glean the same flow as I did from previous essays. I did
think that the dialogue added authenticity and credibility to the essay.
The piece from Bending Genre, “Traumatized Time” was written well and showed the
perceptions can be changed. He talks about not liking memoirs and thinking they are mundane
and not at all interesting. However, after taking a chance and reading a memoir, he soon began to
be able to process things he experienced and express them. For instance, after writing about
some of his experiences, he realized that he still had things he needed to process about the
murder of his friends and friend’s family. By writing a memoir, he realized that he hadn’t
sequestered all those memories. Writing can be revealing and sometimes when I write I think of
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Document Summary
This set of readings made me do a lot of thinking, i think the use of various metaphors was impactful and made me think. The excerpt from sidewalks used the concept of cities and construction juxtaposed with language. Each of the sections had a title related to architecture: Bridge under repair , building materials , and unloading zone . The way valeria luiselli describes language as something that needs to be built and as something with holes is powerful. It is true that sometimes it can be hard to find the words to say what you want to say and express your thoughts. I for one, as someone who has spoken both spanish and english for the majority of her life, sometimes i cannot for the life of me think of the word i want in the language i am speaking in. It is in times like these that i seem to have some holes in my writing or speaking.
