I may be stereotyping here, but I love African writers because of the way they use the English language. It’s so emotive, so powerful.

In particular, I’m talking about Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Mbwil a M. Ngal — and I suppose being exposed to the writings of these three figures is enough to warrant that above statement, because at least these guys have something that other writers don’t.

So I really believe in the use of language, which is brought about by my comparative literature major that I mentioned in the last entry (this discipline compares literature from different cultures and languages, hence its emphasis on language itself). By the way, I call comparative literature by its short form, CMLIT, a lot.

That said, not only CMLIT, but also my upbringing shaped my perspective on language. My family hails from Peru, so I grew up in a bilingual household (Spanish and English, that is). You notice certain discrepancies between languages in a setting like that: little things like certain phrases or humor not translating quite the right way. Then you start to realize that language even codes the way you perceive yourself, others, the world.

Fascinating stuff.

So I’m going to escribir en espa�ol cuando me da la gana, just to keep you on your toes. Since I’m going abroad to Latin America, I thought it’d be a cool thing to do.

Now I’m going to post this really cheesy video of a Pablo Neruda poem (number 20 from 20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair). I’m a sucker for poetry being read out loud, especially in other languages. There’s a certain music to it, no?

lo

Location: State College, PA