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Buffalo Tree -Reply
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 13:06:26 -0500
One of the things I find stunning about The Buffalo Tree is the language. To begin with, there is a vocabulary relating to its setting in a juvenile detention center (patch, clicks, hoodies), and then there is Sura's way of speaking/writing, from the language he uses to the rhythm of his sentences, that is mesmerizing: "At juvy pound line Boo and Hodge are standing in front and in back of me. Hodge is in front of me. Boo is in back. They make Chuckie Steptoe and that new juvy with no front teeth move to the end of the line." or "I'm floating in blackness and waiting for my eyes to catch onto some monlight, but there must be mad clouds blocking the sky tonight."
To me Adam Rapp was so successful in conveying/creating this world and its characters through language and the rhythm of language that I have a sense of him being a conduit for Sura's voice--that Sura's voice was floating somewhere out on the edges of human consciousness to be heard and transcribed. It is why I accept the things that bother me about the language--bother me in a personal sense, but not in a sense of literary appreciation--the sexist way in which females are referred to
("Honeys"), the coarseness of sexual and bodily function references
("sex pole")-?cause none of it is out of place or out of character.
At the same time that the language is coarse and gritty and laden with
(to me) unfamiliar slang of Sura's neighborhood and the detention center, it is also poetic, and there is something clear and shining about Sura that comes through it: tenderness--both his own vulnerability and his ability to be compassionate, feel compassion, for others: "I set my hand right up on Coly Jo's head...That head feels sad, like Coly Jo is crying inside, like he's on that bloodstream boat and he's hanging over the edge and mad crying like he used to cry into the back of his elbow after blackout."
Since Sura has such difficulty actually feeling sadness or anger or other emotions, it is intriguing that his voice, his langauge, is so emotionally charged as he relates the things that happen. He rarely talks about his own feelings, but it is there in his language, and I thought it was a beautiful, and successful, way to give readers insight into Sura's character.
Did anyone else find the language intriguing...or problematic?
Megan Schliesman Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison schliesman at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 20 Aug 1997 01:06:26 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 13:06:26 -0500
One of the things I find stunning about The Buffalo Tree is the language. To begin with, there is a vocabulary relating to its setting in a juvenile detention center (patch, clicks, hoodies), and then there is Sura's way of speaking/writing, from the language he uses to the rhythm of his sentences, that is mesmerizing: "At juvy pound line Boo and Hodge are standing in front and in back of me. Hodge is in front of me. Boo is in back. They make Chuckie Steptoe and that new juvy with no front teeth move to the end of the line." or "I'm floating in blackness and waiting for my eyes to catch onto some monlight, but there must be mad clouds blocking the sky tonight."
To me Adam Rapp was so successful in conveying/creating this world and its characters through language and the rhythm of language that I have a sense of him being a conduit for Sura's voice--that Sura's voice was floating somewhere out on the edges of human consciousness to be heard and transcribed. It is why I accept the things that bother me about the language--bother me in a personal sense, but not in a sense of literary appreciation--the sexist way in which females are referred to
("Honeys"), the coarseness of sexual and bodily function references
("sex pole")-?cause none of it is out of place or out of character.
At the same time that the language is coarse and gritty and laden with
(to me) unfamiliar slang of Sura's neighborhood and the detention center, it is also poetic, and there is something clear and shining about Sura that comes through it: tenderness--both his own vulnerability and his ability to be compassionate, feel compassion, for others: "I set my hand right up on Coly Jo's head...That head feels sad, like Coly Jo is crying inside, like he's on that bloodstream boat and he's hanging over the edge and mad crying like he used to cry into the back of his elbow after blackout."
Since Sura has such difficulty actually feeling sadness or anger or other emotions, it is intriguing that his voice, his langauge, is so emotionally charged as he relates the things that happen. He rarely talks about his own feelings, but it is there in his language, and I thought it was a beautiful, and successful, way to give readers insight into Sura's character.
Did anyone else find the language intriguing...or problematic?
Megan Schliesman Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison schliesman at mail.soemadison.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 20 Aug 1997 01:06:26 PM CDT
