Tissue Authors Intentions Flashcards
(18 cards)
What was Dharker’s main intention?
To show how, in a post-9/11 world obsessed with control and documentation, we’ve forgotten the human soul.
We’ve reduced people to lines on a page, yet this paper — these systems — are impermanent, flimsy, and replaceable, just like tissue.
What does Dharker explore in relation to human power?
Dharker explores how humans try to control the world through maps, buildings, and documents
Examples include birth certificates and receipts.
How does Dharker describe the systems humans create?
She describes them as fragile and temporary, much like paper.
What is Dharker’s intention regarding human power?
To challenge the idea that human power is permanent or dominant.
Which natural forces are recurring motifs in Dharker’s work?
Natural forces like the sun, rivers, and light.
What does Dharker imply about nature and spiritual forces?
They are more powerful and enduring than man-made structures.
What does the ‘light’ symbolize in Dharker’s poetry?
Truth, purity, or even God.
How does Dharker use paper as a metaphor?
To symbolize both fragility and possibility.
In what important moments is paper used in life, according to Dharker?
In birth, death, history, and identity.
What does Dharker suggest about fragility?
That it isn’t weakness — it can hold beauty, truth, and meaning.
What tone does Dharker adopt in her critique of human systems?
Contemplative, not angry.
What invitation does Dharker extend to the reader?
To imagine a world built on openness, transparency, and light, not dominance.
What does Dharker encourage us to embrace?
Humanity’s impermanence.
How is the poem structured in terms of flow?
It flows with enjambment and lack of rhyme.
What does the lack of rigid structure in the poem signify?
That life can’t be boxed in.
What is the overall summary of Dharker’s intention?
To explore how fragile yet meaningful human life is and critique our obsession with control.
Fill in the blank: Dharker uses _______ as a metaphor to show that true power lies in openness and transience.
paper
What was the name of the collection the poem entitles?
The terrorist at my table.
