This week’s assigned reading somehow startled me. At first I did not know how to approach it. I kept trying really hard to decode the way; using which the text would open up itself for me to read. I had a great difficulty and was on the verge of giving up and quitting. Now that I somehow know how it works, I feel that I was working it too hard, Maybe! It is a game that has voice, mood, feelings, and above all a clear stance ! It is astonishing how she conveys her feelings. At times she is mad and cynical that I can almost feel how she is mocking me, or belittling my question. At other times, I sensed a sadness underlying her tone, as if she has went through a bad experience or something. I felt the need to communicate more, but as a real introvert, she drove me to feel that I am intervening into a space I’m not supposed to surpass. It is as if she is not giving me a room or an approval for asking. Just like Ziyad I felt I was a co-author. I felt that I had a great impact on how the conversation is to go. All in all, Though I had a great difficulty at first, yet the experience itself is so uniquely enjoyable !

Having read Brathwaites’ Middle Passages with a keen eye that tries to grasp a firm hold of what he was trying to communicate, I have missed a lot. It was only when I relaxed and read it in its own context that I, somehow and to a certain extent, understood it. (if at all) The identity, whether personal or collective, is so crucial in this week’s reading. Knowing more about the people, their identity, their history, the discrimination and prejudices they were forced to go through, and above all their invented language is the key to that of understanding the text.

We all can speak of our own sufferings. We all have certain linguistic codes which can only be decoded by those to whom we belong and with whom we share commonalities. So What distinguishes Brathwaite’s writings from the almost unreadable, undecidable notes we write to our closest friends, for instance? Is it the form that is so special ? or the content ? or the way both collaborate to create a certain effect !

Much the same way the beauty of the Caribbean’s landscape is brought into ruins by the cruel colonization, Brathwaite blends together the beauty and musicality of poetry in talking about seriously brutal and critical topics. Leaving aside the form and content a bit, the speaking voice Brathwaite employs is astonishingly revealing. Those people, the poems are talking about, are the slaves, the waged workers, the sort of people who gets the least amount of education, if any. Bearing this idea in mind, Brathwaite have made a legitimately good call by employing the speaking voice as a means of getting this sect’s identity, voices and demands heard !

This week’s reading presents two differential texts that are written by the same author. Though the first appear as if prose, yet it is divided into acts which somehow gives the reader a sense of reading a play or better yet a cut script an actor must rehearse  before the play is played in front of an audience. With Soliloquy, Goldsmith records his every word over a period of a week. He records every syllable he utters; everything from ordering food at a deli to a conversation with a cab driver. In this record, we can only see his part of the story only, for his side only is what is included. Personally speaking, the post-script sums it up «if every word spoken in new york city daily were somehow to materialize as a snowflake, each day there would be a blizzard.» That is absolutely true. If each and every word we utter is to transform and materialize into any other form, drops of water per say, we would surely be drowning.

This week’s reading or better still browsing is so different from any other reading assignment i’ve ever done before. The question whether this writer is a poet or a novelist is not an easy one as this writer’s pieces are hard to classify. At one point I did not even feel that those pieces belonged to what we typically call literature. At some points, especially when she was talking about whistling, vibes and sound transmitting processes, I felt like that was more of a scientific interview rather that a piece of literature. yet at the end of it, I felt like it was more of an integration of all types of literatures in one. It, like anything else in our electronically oriented lives, integrates different parts that often overlaps to create a brand new whole.

The second reading, i.e. And by Islands, gave me a totally new experience. This time the stories got more literate and felt belonging to the literature I sort of recognize. Yet the way the words kept changing somehow caused me a headache. The instance i touched on a pic it navigated; giving me a new story with new different details.

Generally speaking, Electronic Literature is interestingly different !

This weeks assigned reading and listening is really illuminating. Throughout the readings I’ve come to realize how different Written Poetry is from Performed one. Performance as witnessed here adds a meaning to the meaning. It allows people to understand better and better yet to get involved in whatever idea being communicated. At first, I got lost trying to figure out the meaning the poet is trying to convey. Several lines later, the task became easier. If there is one idea should be abandoned, it would be the rules of conventional poetry writing; for postmodern poetry is breaking out from the conventional rules of poetry. The idea that language is a myth is so fascinating ! Language is really a thread or a sequences of voices or sounds, yet it carries all the meaning.

Generally speaking, regardless of all the vagueness and obscurity, This weeks reading was a good read.