Descriptive language fills up the “Autopsy Report,” by Lia Purpura. When either describing the world inside the autopsy room, or outside the autopsy room, the author constantly uses imagery. For example, “Then, everything was lifted out–the mass of organs held in the arms, a cornucopia of dripping fruits hoisted to the hanging scale–there was the spine.” (6). Later she describes seeing the different organ colors at the supermarket. Here, as well as elsewhere, the writing devolves to pure successive images: “pyramids of lemons, red-netted sacks of oranges and papery onions, bananas fitting curve to curve, the dusty skins of grapes, translucent greens, dark roses, heavy purples.” (8). It is with this detailed language that she bridges the hidden with the obvious, and finds a sort of spiritual significance in the fact that on the inside we all look the same. More than that, the language expresses the impact (and possible unacknowledged trauma) of the autopsy room on the author–as she begins to see everything, even the gossamer sheen after new rain, as similar to the innards (8). This essay would be hard plussed to accomplish the same amount of meaning, with the same amount of intensity, without highly visual and vicarious language.

Eula Bliss’s “Dust Off” deals with an overlapping subject matter, death. This piece also has a vivid visual quality, but this information is shared across the text and video form. Yet, the filmmaker doesn’t give the audience 100% literal video translations of the text. Often, the video is partially illustrative, but then a new metaphorical meaning is generated out of the juxtaposition with the text. For example, when describing how the second boy want on a speeding joy ride, seeking out the pleasure of adrenaline, the essayist doesn’t show a picture of a car, she shows a plane. In terms of illustration, both text and video feature a moving vehicle, and the plane’s contrail matches up with the plume behind the car as the farmer sees it. But the juxtaposition of a plane instead of the literal translation of a car generates new meaning: the audience gets a sense of the boy’s internal affective state before he died–like he was flying, and the pleasurable rush of adrenaline. The plan being alone in the sky sort of evokes the solitary quest for pleasure this boy, and all the boys, pursued to the grave.

Perhaps Lia Purpura’s textual essay would be better suited for a video essay form, where she could juxtapose descriptions from the operating room with video images of the everyday.