Acker's Writing Prose

In Acker's essay, I noticed that she had a very distinct writing prose. In the essay, she continuously repeats certain words over and over again; words like "failure," "foreignness," and "strangeness." I believe that Acker uses this style of writing to provide an unspoken parallel to bodybuilding. I think that when Acker repeats these words over and over again, she forces us to notice these strange repetitions. By noticing them and trying to analyze the meaning behind them, she indirectly points us towards her purpose for bodybuilding. This in itself conveys one of the central themes of her essay, that things in life aren't always spoken out loud. Similarly, Acker writes how bodybuilding cannot be spoken with words; instead, it "rejects language" (21). When Acker repeats the words "failure," "foreignness," and "strangeness," she also portrays a parallel to her bodybuilding, which is full of repetitive actions. However, even though there is a lot of repetition and repetition is associated with plain and boring, Acker repeats these exciting words to show that there is more depth to just the repetitive. Bodybuilding doesn't just consist of doing constant motions, but a process where your body changes and becomes foreign or strange as well as a process where you must fail to suceed.