When you first begin reading Klosterman’s Owner of a Lonely Heart (otherwise known as his Taylor Swift essay), your first thought is not that this is another celebrity interview, it’s that this composition is an informal anecdote, one that seems to take on the tone of a casual conversation between two people--Klosterman and you, the reader. I find it interesting how Klosterman writes in such a way that his written voice has a distinct cadence that gently guides the reader through his narrative thought process as he interacted with Taylor Swift. This tone was probably helped along by his combination of informal and formal diction, paired with different sentence structures to reflect the formation of thought and speech. For example, his use of parentheses and footnotes imitate the way people tend to interrupt themselves and interject as new information occurs to them. Again, the reader tends to feel like they are having a conversation with Klosterman rather than reading a typical celebrity interview.
As for the content of the essay itself, Klosterman portrays Swift in an attractive and compelling light by developing her as a character in his story. He juxtaposes the generic, tabloid image of Swift with the lesser-known developing character that he met and talked with, constantly comparing the two throughout the interaction. As a result, this new Taylor Swift emerges in the reader’s mind as someone who is shrewd, self-aware, and reflective and with more experience in her short lifetime than anyone.
(Word Count: 245)
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