Matthew Salesses on Calling Language Into Question

At the Rumpus, Matthew Salesses discusses his latest novel, Disappear Dopplegänger Disappear, and how he shaped the language of adoption to fit his own experience. “Thankfully, the language is constantly changing,” Salesses says, “since grammar is a made-up way of excluding people from the institution of language. My favorite way to change the language, to call it into question, is through puns and plays on words. Some of language’s most important work is the work of revealing our making of culture to us so that we can make it better.”