Literary Pilgrim Progresses To The Past

For this week’s reading journal, I have chosen to write about the three readings that were the most complex to discuss. Although I really enjoyed poetic memoir in Surrendering by Ocean Vuong and the story of family development in Cisneros’ Ghosts and Voices, I found my responses to the other three readings were more important to discuss.

In Alibis’ A Literary Pilgrim Progresses to the Past, I found that as someone who has continually tried their hand at writing, I really connected to this reading. I completely understand that it’s very difficult to discover what distinguishes you from others. Sometimes even when you have discovered what makes you a unique author, it can be something you consciously or subconsciously conceal because to reveal is to reveal a very vulnerable party of yourself. I really loved this author’s style of writing because of how it draws the reader in using anecdotes and descriptive scenes.

One of the readings, I found very choppy and difficult to fully comprehend. That was Jay’s Discipline. Although I did have trouble getting engaged in the reading, one of the main quotes about globalization helping map the future of literary studies helped me to comprehend that the way other cultures are perceived or the way nation states work alongside each other can be observed through
The words will wash over you and create an entire realm of emotion, sound and pauses that can seem to last a lifetime. That is what I understand from this piece by Hisham Mattar, titled The Book. I really enjoyed how much the author put the core of his identity in to this piece, and how readers can really put themselves into his shoes. Almost every child will have a book read to them at a certain point that shapes their imaginative state and can carry them onwards to a streamline for certain genres of books or articles later on in