Moore+AG

Allyson Gorham

//The Architectonics of the Personal Essay // by Leslie Moore

10 March 2010

The article about McPhee that I chose to read is titled “The Architectonics of the Personal Essay” by Leslie Moore. Moore is using four examples of personal essays (only one by McPhee) to show the architectonics of each. Having never even heard of the word architectonics before I had to look it up in order to understand what the essay was talking about.

The OED defines architectonics as:

“Having the function of superintendence and control, //i.e//. having the relation that an architect bears to the artificers employed on the building; directive, controlling.”

From this definition we can assume that the article is going to be about the ways in which authors use structure and control when writing personal essays.

The specific piece by McPhee that Moore chooses to look at is “Travels in Georgia”. This article by McPhee details a woman who chooses to pick up and cook road-kill to eat. Moore says that it is not the story of the woman who eats road-kill itself that is important; rather it is the way and structure by which McPhee tells the story. Moore says he chooses to start with “gorp” (trail mix) a food that will not repulse the reader. He then moves on to increasing less desirable foods until you realize that McPhee is in fact eating road kill.

While this article is short (only spending about three or four pages talking about McPhee), Moore speaks quite extensively on the specific structure of the article. She explains that McPhee has used a sort of lowercase “e” diagram in which he sorts out what information he will present in the article and precisely where he will include it. Lest you think that McPhee is writing just for the sake of writing, Moore shows us that this is not the case. Everything McPhee does is planned and methodical. = =