The word that came back changed

Text: an original contemporary review-style practice extract.

At the entrance to the sound installation, an attendant asked each visitor to speak one word into a brass funnel. I chose “hello”, partly because it seemed harmless and partly because I could think of nothing worth preserving. The door closed behind me with a soft click, more like a full stop than a welcome.

The room was matt grey. Its carpet swallowed our footsteps, and the six of us who had entered together became cautious, as if noise might damage something. Nothing answered. Then the ceiling spoke. “Home,” said one voice. “Not yet,” said another. Somewhere above us, a woman laughed; somewhere near the floor, a man advised nobody in particular to mind the step. The fragments did not form a conversation, but they brushed against one another.

My own “hello” returned at last, flattened and distant. The room placed it beside a child saying “again” and an older voice saying “I remember”. The trick was obvious: recording, delay, arrangement. Its effect was not. I stopped trying to locate myself and listened instead to the temporary sentence being made by strangers.

Outside, the attendant wiped the funnel for the next visitor, a man who leaned towards it and said “goodbye” with confidence. I almost warned him that the room would not give his word back unchanged, but I stayed silent. The door closed. This time, the click sounded less like a full stop than a question mark.

Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to interest and engage the reader.

In your answer, consider:

• language features and techniques
• structural techniques
• the effect on the reader.

Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.