Side Notes

Something that has stuck out in my mind since last section is the discussion of understanding languages. In read Gajelonia’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at TheBus” we are presented in many places with words in languages we are most likely not acquainted with. I enjoyed the discussion in section to see how many people take the time to look up a word they are unsure of, and how many more people, myself included, simply examine context but most likely move on without really knowing what the word signifies. What I liked particularly about Gajelonia’s poems are the way she includes small side notes directly on the page where a reference is made. For example, in the opening poem entitled “Thirtways of Looking at TheBus” she references a song by the band The Shins and provides us with the side note : “The phrase was taken from a song by a band called The Shins. Natalie Portman swears they will change your life” (3). In reading this I realized that there is really nothing more exciting as a lit major than reading one of these side notes and realizing it is about something you not only know but actually love- in this case one of my all time favorite movies, Garden State starring Natalie Portman and Zach Braff. I also must applaud Gojelonia in choosing to put her notes directly on the side of the page...I know I for one am much more likely to read a footnote when it doesn’t take flipping through pages to find it. It becomes clear that Gojelonia wrote this as an undergrad thesis because she, just like myself, was probably sick of four years of flipping to the end of a book to find the notes. Overall I loved her work and the way she constructed this thesis - creative and clever!

Sarah Eastland