#imatation

A Year In Celebration

Zadie Smith’s essay “Screengrabs” is composed of multiple small essays from before the pandemic. With the attention being thrown randomly around from character to character her writing style pops from the page.

I have decided to tell my story using my favorite two techniques I saw while reading; Using lists and using asterisk to explain a subject in the footnotes. The specific sub-essays that I got these writing styles from is ‘The Elder At The 98 Bus Stop’ and ‘A Hovering Young Man’ respectfully.  The use of lists in ‘The Elder At The 98 Bus Stop’ really push the onomatopoeia of the characters speech. In addition is helps us the readers understand two things about smith talking to her mom.

They have a set routine in what to talk about

They must call regularly as to make this routine

Without smith having to say anything we can conclude that her and her mom also have a healthy relationship.  

With ‘A Hovering Young Man’ Smith uses the footnote feature as a way to better explain herself and continue on a topic. Her sub-essay revolves around the style and energy of a IT guy she knows. When talking about the IT guy she related to her own personal feeling of youth* that he gave off.

These writing styles are going to be used in my essays to show off the thought process of past me and show in a comedic way the quantity of a subject. In the start of the story I used a list to show how I felt behind on planning the date and how the task made past me feel overwhelmed to even start. Then later used to show off just the number of ways my family decided to mess with my date for that evening, creating a sense of humor and allowing a deeper insight to how my family viewed Ven.

Much like how Smith uses her footnotes to continue on a subject, I use them to add small continuations of my thought process that would otherwise just be cut from the writing. I use it show that while my tone in the story is more upbeat and joking I do understand the actual consequences that happened because of it. In contrast I also use it to makes jokes and give little facts about me and Ven’s relationship as to show a deeper connection between us.

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This is my Impression of a Dog Barking and panting.

.w.