Audience: the audience appears to be those addressed in the opening. This long poem seems to be a letter to Isabel, Lezley, "Slim" and Len
Format: The format varies throughout the poem. For me its a bit confusing how Henderson attempts to make it flow. In the pre-reading, it mentions three segments; Warren Freeway, Tunnel Road, and Ashby Avenue, however, as i read it, it was still hard to follow. It actually seems like more than that.... multiple streets and areas are mentioned, almost like taking a drive through LA*parallelism?*.
Use of Italics: I may be wrong but it seems to me the prevalent use of italics seems as though they are representation of sound. Ina literal sense there is actual lyrics to singing or rap, not so sure, but others, like : "smog alert smog alert smog alert" (122) and "no one home in California" (123) act as descriptions of sound. when one hears "smog alert, one assumes fire alarm. And in California a slammed door is a rude awakening to "no one's home" *at least, no one that actually wants to talk*.
My take on this: I really disliked this reading. It was just to rough for me to understand. This is one of those works that make me hate poems, and also the type that i almost require class discussion to comprehend. I tried to make something work, but it seems forced to make the connections that I did.
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