Banks, Clay. A Large Crowd of People Holding Up Signs. 8 June 2020. Washington D.C.
I enjoy Tran’s writing style. The short and quick phrases makes it easy to read, and feels like the words are coming out rushed. Like he needs to spill out everything he is saying as quickly as possible. All of the letters are lowercase, which I am neutral about. It is a stylistic choice that I do not feel adds or takes away to his writing. The font is basic and easy to read, and he uses periods instead of commas. He will write in huge paragraphs then smaller ones, and he changes up the layout of the words. It adds dimension to the page.
According to Justice.gov, in 2022 (the year this was made) there were an increase in hate crimes. According to the FBI’s statistics, there were 793 more hate crimes in 2022 compared to 2021. This is notable, because in this piece Tran discusses how a Vietnamese man was killed and dismembered by white boys, and how an unarmed black man was shot because he appeared to be dangerous. The other that Tran writes about are the minorities who are mistreated and discriminated against.
Book of the Other reminds me of the poem Harlem by Langston Hughes. Like Tran, Hughes uses short phrases to get his point across. The way he writes is also similar. Hughes asks what happens when a dream is deferred, then lands on the question, “or does it explode?” (line 12). This reminds me of the first paragraph of the last excerpt. Tran lists of microaggressions, the little things that add up, then ends the paragraph with, “and you collapse under the weight. You are buried beneath. A lifetime of these things.
Works Cited
“2022 FBI Hate Crimes Statistics.” Community Relations Service, 30 Oct. 2023, www.justice.gov/crs/highlights/2022-hate-crime-statistics.
“Harlem.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46548/harlem. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.
Tran, Truong. Book of the Other: Small in Comparison: Essay. Prose. Poems. Antipoems. Kaya Press, 2021.