The Uncanny Wordsmith

The Uncanny Wordsmith

From Don't You Dare To Think Out Loud! by Javier Truben

December 29, 2025 · 4 min

About this episode

Javier Truben reflects on his journey of self-education through reading aloud and performance, exploring the nuances of language and narration.

I was a boy wonder, and I loved to hate the guts of whoever was a killjoy. And mostly, any authority figures who were poorly paid teachers, so I was bound to be self-taught. However, I had a professor who taught me to channel all that hate by reading aloud about any historical character of my choosing. Soon, I also became a performer aboard the school bus, which had loudspeakers and a microphone; I learned to read a comma and a semicolon and pause after a period without missing a beat. The bus driver cut a deal with me. I could read if I indulged him in reading his favorite book. The Bermuda Triangle by Charles Berlitz. Time after, when I began to write, all those bloody caesuras made a lot of sense. Slow reading made me pore over sentences unfolding every aspect of language; all those sensuous qualities–how many syllables a word had and how long the accent over a vowel–are likely to carry weight, give pleasure, and hold meaning. These poetic qualities are tied up as the purely cognitive. And if I think about them as a mode of communication only, those qualities would not be alive and kicking. That must explain why I feel myself accessing skills I have learned through…

People in this episode

Host: Javier Truben

Topics covered

  • self-taught learning
  • reading aloud
  • language
  • performance
  • narration
  • historical characters

Keywords

  • self-taught
  • reading
  • language
  • performance
  • narration
  • historical characters
  • The Bermuda Triangle

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Bermuda Triangle

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