The first essay, "A Path Taken," was short, but I felt like it did considerably much in its few words. Despite the fact that it seemed intended to be a brief memoir, I felt that on another level it was a sort of profile of the author. It showed her eccentricity and at the same time her genuineness; I expected it to start with something to the effect of "In second grade I wrote my first poem, and then I knew...". It was a very interesting and different perspective on how a particular person became a writer, and I think the information was enlightening and useful to someone in this class.
"The Ashes of August" was probably the most intensely "lyrical" essay I've ever read. Every sentence was packed with flowery language and elaborate descriptions, to the point that I lost track of what the memoir was actually saying quite often. Of course the language was elegant, but I don't know if I personally view this as a good thing (or at least, the extent to which it was taken) in this particular example. However, I thought it was very skillful how the author paralleled memoir with historical exposition and place narrative, the first two in particular seeming hard to develop so well within the same essay.
The excerpt from the graphic novel Louis Riel was unlike anything I've read before, in that it was a historical graphic novel. I must admit that I let the introductory biographical piece color my interpretation of the writing probably a bit too much, reading it with the assumption that the author would be a bit more "out there" than necessary. Overall the narrative didn't make much sense to me, probably because I am unfamiliar with the person it profiled and the context of the events.
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