In It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music by Amanda Petrusich, the author departs from Brooklyn and heads to the the southern United States in order to find out more about what Americana is. When Petrusich leaves Brooklyn, she describes everything she sees on her way. Her task is to see where the origin of Americana music came from, but while doing this, she also defines Americana in itself from the descriptions she provides during her trip.
As a writer, Petrusich examines issues from multiple point of views, which avoids bias thoughts at times. For example, in her book she states, "To some, Alan Lomax was an unapologetic imperialist, selfishly scouring foreign cultures for folk songs, making a career out of capturing and lionizing and publishing and picking apart indigenous anthems that did not belong to him - but Lomax also saved hundreds of folk songs from grim, untimely deaths, offering subsequent generations tiny, mysterious bits of art." (Petrusich, 14). The author takes two perspectives into mind by showing the pros and cons of what Lomax did.
Petrusich also engages with the ideas of others. Instead of assuming she knows what Americana music is, she decides to go find the facts and history of it. She wants to know how everything came and where it came from. Throughout her trip, she learns new things and she paints a great picture of the reader to keep him or her interested in the reading.
- BP
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