Fesmerization was something that I did not particularly look into while reading I am Not Sidney Poitier. As I was reading, I made my own definition for it, which was fesmerization.
*Fesmerization: the ability to coerce someone into doing what you want just by the power of your eyes*
Up until we got to class, I kind of just referred to it as the simple act of Fesmerization and in my error as a reader didn’t google what it meant. Little did I know Everett had taken the word mesmerization,
*Mesmerization: the act of coercing someone to do what you want them to do without the use of physical force*
and just made up his own, similarly sounding word.
Part of Everett’s writing techniques that he uses that I really enjoy as a reader and a writer, is his ability to take a word like memorization and play with the word to create his own word, fesmerization. The two words basically have the same definition but Everett introduces a new word to keep readers entertained and for his simple pleasure of messing around with the English language. There are many examples of this throughout not only I am Not Sidney Poitier but also in his other writings.
He used his own name to resemble a character that I imagine is very closely based off of himself. I believe that Everett’s personality is very close to Professor Everett’s in I am Not Sidney Poitier.This also intrigued me because the professor in the novel was one of those characters that I would do anything to meet in real life. However, after reading many of pieces, both short and long by Everett, I have found his personality is probably very close to the personality of the professor which ultimately made the book even more interesting to read.
Everett’s play on words is one of his writing techniques that both entertains the reader but also engages the reader into the text on a deeper level.