Question 2

Berger attempts to see images as simply as possible. He doesnt care for the quality of work it seems, the colors or the brush strokes. He attempts to look through the painting into the mind of which it was created. He knows that a painting is a relation of an artist to the world and how he sees it and Berger believes that he can comprehend the past by viewing the historic world in different perspectives of people who lived in history through their artwork. In a way it is a communication between the past and the present, Berger believes that he can understand what history was like through an artists “writing” in his artwork.

Ryan

Quesion 1

Berger views history as a right that every human has to know and understand. The relation of art and history is important because artwork defines our history better than any words would. A painting of a family in the middle ages gives us a better view of the family rather than someone attempting to explain their attributes. The family painting may also portray the environment they live in, their personalities and their flaws. Paintings and pictures are frozen frames in time that can be stored and remembered forever, ideas can be changed and passed on differently through different interpretation. Paintings may be interpretated differently but they relay forever how things were, and are comparable to how things are now.

Ryan

2nd Questions – #3

There is no way that anyone could prove his idea of seeing “it”. One could say that the Grand Canyon is beautiful, or their experience with a secret tribe in Mexico was amazing, and one could say that they had just had the best lesson on sonnets in their biology class than they ever did in theyr english class. Still there is no telling if someone has really seen “it”. The idea of “it” is the same as the idea of love. Yes people fall in love, and yes people may see “it”, but there is no measuring how much you love someone just as there is no measuring how you can see “it”. Individual perspective creates a wall in studying the methods of Walker Percy’s argument. Different people see in different ways.

Ryan

2nd Questions – #2

This concern could be a concern of everyone if Percy is correct in saying that everyone is blinded by the media and the media’s interpretation of things. I believe, that even if Cardenas did see “it”, or if Percy’s idea of “it” is a truth of life, no one in modern life would be able to view “it”. A high majority of humans alive today watch TV, read the newspaper or just read anything at all with any reference to anything. I would say everyone already has some perception of what an experience may entail. Therefore I more strongly believe that this is no concern to people alive today because almost the entire world has been discovered and someone has written about it and tourists have heard about what they are going to visit and students have heard about what it is that they are going to learn.

Ryan

2nd Questions – #1

The tourists at the Grand Canyon are all in search of the same experience going into their vacation. Percy suggests to these tourists to see the Canyon for its true beauty rather then its beauty depicted by the media. This suggestion is to the masses, to anyone who wishes to read the article, the oblivious and the knowledgable. The tourists visiting Mexico already have an idea of what they want to find. They already know that they wish to seek difference. Once they have it, their problem is how do they keep it as their own and keep it sacred to them. The difference between the two are their problems. Grand Canyon tourists have to know what to look for, the Mexico tourists already know what to look for, but now have the problem of keeping it their own.

In a way tourists and students ar in the same genre. Tourists travel around the globe to learn new things and share new experiences. Students are squeezing as much knowledge into their brains to learn new things and share new experiences as well. Percy talks about tourists at the Grand Canyon, seeing the sight for what it truly is. This relates directly with students and how they need to see a poem for what it truly means, or a movement in the 1800s for what it really meant.

Ryan

Loss of the Creature – What are some questions you are left with?

What is the Platonic view of Quant and Picturesque?

One of his points I believe is the fact that grouping something results in its loss of soveignty. If this is true than there is no soverign thing in the world? Because everything is defined by group in some way or another.

In the example of the Spanish explorer discovering the Grand Canyon. Did he not expect to find something marvelous in being an explorer? Therefore his expectations, according to Percy, would have been met in discovering the Grand Canyon and would therefore not be “living it”.

The couple traveling through Mexico found what they were looking for. They found a small village where everything seemed to be perfect and they were “living it up”. Because they had anxiety about something bad happening means that they already had an idea on what they wanted to find. They therefore had expectations as well as other tourists do when they visit places. Therefore it seems that they are not soverign at all?

Ryan

Loss of the Creature – What are some parts you struggled with?

On page 475 I am completely thrown off with the second full paragraph. My first question is the reference to the “surrender of the horizon”. Is this “horizon” related to one’s overall line of knowledge and understanding? Still in this paragraph it seems that there is a random mention of Kwakiutls, Franz Boas, Faukner and Tennessee Williams, all of which I am unfamiliar with.

On page 474 the quote “Their consciousness…sets it at nought.” makes no sense to me. How can one have a consciousnesses of their conscious?

Percy seems to use repitition often to define his ideas. He does it again in the third paragraph on 474, “The worst of this impoverishment is that there is no sense of impoverishment.” If there is impoverishment how is there no sense of it?

Percy constantly says that in education and in museums it is not the educators fault or the curators fault that the laymen do not find “it”. If not theirs then whos? Society? Administrators?

Ryan

Loss of the Creature – Relation to cliche’s

This essay relates directly to cliches. William percy says that people are not able to find sovereignty or “it” unless they find it on their own path. Consumers must experience a difference when it comes to experiencing something. Rather than following the cliche role as a tourist or a student or a sight seer one must experience a phenomenon, take the road less traveled. Every point made by Percy relates to non conformity or avoiding cliche’s. To study sonnets in biology and dissect fish in english, to leave the beaten track and travel alone.

One interesting idea stated by Percy is the idea that familiarity will recover “it”. The idea to conform and become a cliche tourist and take the donke ride down the Grand Canyon repeatedly many times will recover “it”. Therefore overconformity and repeated cliche will work just as well as avoiding cliches.

Ryan

Teacher Tactics

One aspect of a liberal arts college is also the tactics used by a teacher. At many schools professors use bland and general tactics. The free learning environment in a liberal arts college allows the teachers to be creative and innovative in their teaching. This creates a more interesting and fun learning environment. This photo is out of a movie called School of Rock where Jack Black uses his musical “tactics” to relate ideas to the students. By a free learning environment I mean that the students and teachers relate to one another with little constraint on what the subject matter is or the way in which they speak to one another.
This photo was taken from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/chronicle/reviews/movies/SCHOOLOFROCK.DTL&o=0 and was taken by Paramount Pictures

Ryan

Exploration

In a liberal arts education one is able to explore. By this I mean one is able to take many different classes to form an idea of a well rounded education. By a well rounded education I mean that a student does not leave college with knowledge in one field but rather in many different fields. The picture of the bumble bee relates to this idea because a bee does not just pollinate one flower but many, and many different kinds. Just as a liberal arts student dabbles in many different areas. The bee also represents the sense of community one would receive from a liberal arts college. Bee’s work together to pollinate millions of flowers and create honey. The smaller size of a liberal arts school enhances the real sense of community between students, teachers and faculty.

This photo was taken from www.flickr.com and was posted by Rose Davies

Ryan