Non-Fictional Prose Course

We started class by disussing some of the posts people made since the last class on A Field Guide to Getting Lost.

 While reading the beginning of The Ecology of Wisdom I was struck by the passages on pages 46 and 64 where Naess speaks about a distinct sense of "place" and that was can be defined by or identify with a particular place. He says, "… the development of a place in which a person feels at home and feels a sense of belonging shows exceptionally clearly some of the forces at work in the establishment of a place," and then later speaks about a physical place being lost or destroyed, saying "… choose a place that you will likely to be able to master when you are older.

 9/23/10

Anne: talks about web papers, highlights ones she has read since last class. And JMac coming?? Upcoming class schedule, etc etc. Watch Johnny Cash’s Long Black Veil. Is Solnit’s description of this true?

TyL: overdramatic.

I’ve picked a few things to post here and several more to mention in class under the headings of things added and things to question. I tried to pick moments in Naess that speak most readily to the themes we’ve already discussed in class.

He asserts, for instance, “reality is all possibilities,” (Naess 17). Later on the same page, he suggests: “seek truth but do not claim it,” (17). Both of these aphorisms make interesting points around the topic of truth, reality, and who owns either of these intangibles.

 I found the essay, The World of Concrete Contents to be an interesting illustration of the idea that reality is relative. One good example of the relativity of human senses is that of the two people exposed to different external temperatures putting their hands into water that is the same temperature and not being able to tell if the water is “warm” or “cold.” Protagoras’s describes this phenomenon well; “the senses undergo transformation and alteration in accordance with one’s age and with other conditions of the body.” This ties into the idea that there is not absolute truth, and that everyone experiences his or her own reality because everyone’s body and mind is different.

Speaking of love, I am in love with the sections Solnit has written to talk about place and our emotional attachments to it. Ever since Tuesday's class I've been mapping and re-mapping in my mind. That exercise really made me consider the places and spaces in my life--the proximity of some, and also how far I feel from discovering/drawing/knowing the terrain of the places I have not yet been. I feel the way we did when our class started blogging last semester-- like I've just uncovered a way to better process and understand my self, and now I need to do it over and over again.