Thursday, April 15, 2010

Wit

The first thing that held my attention in Wit was Edson's use of language. Contrasting the male doctors distant diction with Bearings increasingly human and fantastical diction was very effective. Watching Bearing go from witty and cynical to more emotional and optimistic as she became more at ease with her own mortality helped support the fact that she was dying and in dying was dealing with her unease about death. I hadn't read any of Donne's poetry before, and for this I am ashamed. It was great to, after reading Wit, look up John Donne's poetry that she explained within the story, and be able to see the explanation for myself. It was interesting to watch Bearing become more held together as she died and those around her who she did not know very well began to fall apart. As I said before, the language did really well to illustrate the depth and contrast of specific and broad, cynical and emotional.

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