"It ain't where you're from/it's where you're at"

Not using that as a main point of my response, but I always like seeing a Rakim reference in a textbook.

I enjoyed the author's perspective on the idea of the passport as a book. Fleshing out the idea of the book by expanding on how it would read to the immigration officer was also interesting; It illustrated clearly a cultural disconnect and the resulting misunderstanding or loss of meaning that a foreign author could have. Looking at it this way: when I read any of Carl Sandburg's poems about certain nuances of Chicago, I could only really appreciate the poem on an imaginative level. When I had experienced or seen what Sandburg had written about, it gave me a great deal of perspective on his intent. In relation to the passport, without knowing anything about their origins or the reasons certain things are written on the passport, the immigration officer really cannot have any idea where, what, or why the person before him came. This is an effective metaphor to help bring across the idea that the author wishes to establish a voice for non-Western intellectuals.

I really need to stop doing these so late.