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He can do it because it's in Alex's voice.
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Is the distance achieved,
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the self-distancing achieved,
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by inhabiting a foreign voice,
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with its little funny jokes that come up because of its incorrect usages?
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Is that enough to prevent sentimentality, rather than sentiment?
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Is it powerful enough language, in the abstract,
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that it moves us as a discourse on
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laughter and loving? Is the detail of Little Igor
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and Alex's love for him enough?
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Now, remember we know nothing about Igor as a character,
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his brother as a character.