Sea Memory: A Conversation with Valeria Luiselli
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On the first day of a writing class I took with Valeria Luiselli this past spring called Beginnings and Endings, she gave us a Greek translation guide and asked us to decipher the word, ενθουσιασμός. Sitting around a mirrored table, we converted the letters slowly, each arriving at some version of enthusiasmos. This is the etymological root of the English word “enthusiasm,” Luiselli said, which contains the Greek roots for “in” (en) and “god” (theos). “To experience enthusiasm is thus to be inhabited or possessed by a god,” she explained.