Our reading this week made an interesting point on how truly historical stories can hardly ever capture the entire picture of a situation, making these kinds of works essential for readers to be able to relate with what people may have experienced living in different time periods. The beginning of A Gloss on History of… was pretty jarring to me until I continued reading. I thought it was going to be a boring piece about history because of the language used. I found myself reading quickly through the annotation, in an attempt to get back to the main story, until I realized that the annotation was the story and everything previously mentioned was not about “history” but about Carmel and her relationship to the world around her. I thought this was a cool way to start. With that being said, the narrator keeps his sort-of-academic tone for a lot of the work, which I found charming, but left me feeling a little detached from the world written about.
The different voices and writing styles used in Carmel’s story reminded me of what Hartman said in his writing. The voices gave life to the story and showed the reader how complex the world around Carmel actually is. It is interesting how these styles of writing highlight Carmel’s own silence. She has no voice in the narration. She is silent up until she erupts, making her outburst all the more powerful. In making her silent, it could be that Keene is trying to show how alone she has been in her terrible world ever since her parents passed away.