Response To Annie Dillard's Essay 'Seeing'
Carrillo, Andrea
GEW 101-25878
Dr. Walter Dutton
25 March 2013
Perspective
Annie Dillard wrote the essay “Seeing”, which is about the ability to change your perspective on the world around you. Throughout her essay, the author refers to objects such as blades of grass and the universe to demonstrate to her readers that many things are sometimes forgotten or not thoroughly thought about. The author uses themes such as the effect light and dark have on seeing, the difference between the natural obvious and the artificial obvious and the growth and change of perspective from childhood to adult hood to describe her perspective on seeing. Dillard goes in to depth on describing the way the mind perceives things the eyes see. It is not certain that the things viewed are perceived the right way, because there is no correct or incorrect way to view something.
But there is another kind of seeing that involves a letting go. When I see this way I sway transfixed and emptied. The difference between the two ways of seeing is …show more content…
the difference between walking with and without a camera. When I walk with a camera I walk from shot to shot, reading the light on a calibrated meter. When I walk without a camera, my own shutter opens, and the moment’s light prints on my own silver gut. When I see this second way I am above all the unscrupulous observer. (Dillard, 126)
Just as the author of “Seeing” uses photography to describe the way to perceive things, this writer also uses her knowledge of photography to make sense of it. While caring around a camera with the intent of capturing something amazing, this writer catches herself stooping down low to get the effect of a worms eye view, or standing on something high to get a bird’s eye view. Through the lens of a camera, the indirect view of what the device is being pointed at changes the viewer’s perspective. Along with being able to manipulate a camera, viewing things through a lens is able to manipulate vision, and give the person looking through the camera a different view point than they would get with the naked eye. With the lens of a camera, you can control how close or far you get to a subject, along with how light or dark you want that subject to be captured. If too much light is let into the camera lens, the shot will be too bright and washed out, on the other hand of not enough light is let into the lens the photograph will be dark and hard to make out. Dillard writes “If we are blinded by darkness we are also blinded by light” (118) by saying this Dillard is insinuating that just as your vision isn’t working to its full capacity when it is dark, your vision is also altered when there is too much light. When looking into the sun, vision gets blurry and spotty for a while afterword. Vision is sometimes impaired by harsh light such as the flash of a camera, looking into the sun or headlights of a car coming towards you, leaving you unable to see what you would normally see. Annie Dillard writes “Darkness appalls and light dazzles; the scrap of visible light that doesn’t hurt my eyes hurts my brain.” (119) Aside from it being physically possible for light to hurt Dillard’s eyes, it can also hurt her brain if she is unable to make sense of what she is seeing. Knowing and understanding go beyond just looking at something. Seeing and looking are two different things, in the Webster dictionary the word seeing is defined as comprehending, and to perceive the meaning of importance. On the other hand, the dictionary defines looking as defined as turning one’s eyes toward something or in some direction in order to see. What doesn’t hurt the author’s eyes hurts her brain because what she is seeing she is trying to make sense of. When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. As Maximillian Cohen stated on a website about interpretation, At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. Just as Dillard questions what she sees, she is equally curious about what she cannot see.
“Even the simple darkness of night whispers suggestions to the mind.” (116) Many people say in order for something to be credible, it has to be seen. But if seeing is taken out of the picture, other senses have to be relied on to become aware of what is going on. Without being able to see, it is easy for imagination to take control and fill in what the eyes would take credit for. Annie Dillard goes into depth on the theme of darkness and light when she writes “After thousands of years we’re still strangers to darkness, fearful aliens in an enemy camp with our arms crossed over our chests.” (117) She means that people still don’t comprehend darkness, darkness is frightening because the unknown is frightening. By saying fearful alien in an enemy camp, the author refers to the way people react to darkness, feeling threatened and overwhelmed by the
unknown. Annie Dillard continues her text by explain the difference between the natural obvious and the artificial obvious. “Nature is like one of those line drawings of a tree that are puzzles for children: Can you find hidden in the leaves a duck, a house, a boy, a bucket, a zebra, and a boot?” (114) A line drawing is a picture with small, random objects hidden throughout it that the naked eye will not see right away. There are two ways to look at things, either the big picture is seen or it is broken up into smaller parts to be analyzed. With a line drawing, the eyes are challenged to see closely at aspects they would not acknowledge looking at the big picture. That is exactly the difference between the artificial and natural obvious, the natural obvious is plainly seen, while the artificial obvious is a challenge to visualize something more than what is seen. Dillard says “The artificial obvious is hard to see.”(115) Because the artificial obvious is not what the the eye sees right away, it sometimes may be missed. The past sentence says the word the twice, if the reader is reading too fast or not paying close attention they may miss it. Annie Dillard gives an example of the way the artificial obvious is sometimes over looked when she writes “The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.” (113) If the pennies are not being thought about, they will not be seen. On the other hand if someone goes out into the world with the idea of finding pennies, they will see them. The penny could also be thought of beyond the way it appears on the ground. How did it get there? Who dropped it? Was it placed there on purpose? Questions like this would not occur to someone whom is in a rush to a meeting, or a kid who playfully kicks the penny. If the artificial obvious is not sought out, it will not be seen. On some occasions even if the artificial obvious is being looked for it could be missed. “In flat country I watch every sunset in hopes of seeing the green ray. The green ray is a seldom-seen streak of light that rises from the sun like a spurting fountain at the moment of sunset; it throbs into the sky for two seconds and then it disappears.”(115) This statement written by the author makes the point that amazing things, as minute as they may be are happening every day and they can be missed in the blink of an eye. Even though the green light was being looked for, it can only be seen for a short period of time making it special, some sort of miracle.
It is often forgotten how small humans are compared to the plant, and how small the planet is compared to the solar system, and how small the solar system is compared to the galaxy. In reality humans are close to nothing compared to the big picture. Dillard explains this when she states “At this latitude im spinning 836 miles an hour round the earth’s axis; I often fancy I feel my sweeping fall..”(118) The author is explaining how she realizes how small she is and how although she is laying on her bed, there is a lot more going on that just that. When looking for something, the eyes try to match a mental picture of the object they have memorized, to something in sight. “I see what I expect.” (115) If the brain is expecting to see a frog, the eyes look for something green, when in reality there are nearly four thousand species of frogs that can come in almost any color imaginable. That is the key word, imaginable. People are also easily influenced by others opinion, if someone’s best friend doesn’t like a certain band, then they will try to view their friends perspective and see why they don’t like them, then they too will start to have the same opinion. This writer has a poster of a Marilyn Monroe in the living room of her apartment. When she just put it up, she thought it was flawless. This writer soon found herself sitting in front of the poster, daring herself to find a flaw. After close examination, she found stray hairs, tangled lashes and slightly crooked tooth. By using the artificial obvious to analyze something, the viewer is looking for something hidden or questions something that is hard to understand instead of the natural obvious. This very paper is an example of artificial obvious. This is the interpretation of the writer’s point of view, opinion and perspective of the essay “Seeing” written by Annie Dillard. By using the artificial obvious, the writer has to make mental connections and read deep into the text rather than just reading on the surface. Dillard writes “I read Stewart Edward White: ‘I have always maintained that if you looked closely enough you could see the wind –– the dim, hardly-made-out, fine debris fleeing high in the air.”’(115) It is physically impossible to be able to see the wind. Using other senses, the wind could be felt, it could be heard and causes of the wind can be seen such as flags and kites flying. Using all of these aspects put together, it is understandable how it could be said to see the wind. People base the way they interpret on what they know and experiences they have had. If someone is an expert on stars, the way they see the sky at night is different than someone who is an expert in computer engineering. According to Annie Dillard “The lover can see, and the knowledgeable.”(115) There are many ways to interpret this statement, the first thing this writer thought about is the saying that says people either make decisions with their head or their heart. The way something is thought of determines the way it is perceived. Being blinded by love, or the love a mother has for her child will always overcome negativity in any situation. Something interesting about this statement made by Dillard, is how she gave an example about how the knowledgeable are able to perceive, but never gives an example for the way the lover sees. Instead of an example the author states that she cannot see the way the lover does because she is not a lover. By talking about the lover, and not giving an example her statement is not very credible. As humans grow old, their point of view matures with them. Dillard speaks about the topic of the maturity of perspective when she writes “Why didn’t someone hand those newly sighted people paint brushes from the start, when they still didn’t know what anything was?” (125) When babies are born, they have a clean slate. They are literally brought to a new place where they have no understanding of anything around them what so ever. Newborns do not understand the difference between right and wrong, and they have not been exposed to things that would influence their perspective such as music, television or their parent’s political opinion. If a newly sighted person was given the opportunity to draw something, it would from the mind of someone innocent who is still trying to figure out the artificial obvious of what they are looking at.
The author tells a story about Rabbi Mendel who explains how in his youth, he was able to see the angel who rolled away the darkness before the light. “‘Yes,’ said Rabbi Mendel ‘in my youth I saw that too. Later on you don’t see these things anymore.”’ With growing old, your mind also grows wise, both good and bad memories are built throughout life and they influence the way things are perceived. Adults have important things to take care of and worry about, such as jobs, bills and children. While taking care of the things they need to do, they may forget to stop and have the mentality they did when they were young. Adults do not control when their mentality begins to lose its innocence, it happens naturally without warning. This writer has 2 younger sisters, one is eleven years old and the other is twelve years old. This writer being eighteen is the oldest of the three. One night while in the car with her two sisters, the car lights flashed on two rabbits in the grass. The youngest of the three said “look guys, it’s a bunny and her mom!” The middle sister then replies, “No, it’s a bunny and her sister!” This writer finally gave her input and told her younger sisters, “You guys are both wrong, it’s a bunny and her boyfriend.” After this incident, the writer saw the drastic difference in the points of views between the girls. Having around an eight year difference between their ages made a difference in the way they each perceived the bunnies in the grass and any one of them could have been correct. There truly is no correct way of interpretation; each person is entitled to their own opinion of what they are seeing. This writer noticed that each of her sisters gave their opinion of the bunnies based off of what they are familiar with. The younger two who have never experienced love would have never thought of the two bunnies being lovers, and the writer who is hardly ever home didn’t think about the bunnies having a parental relationship. Without the ability to see, how does someone know how to perceive? Annie Dillard talked about the blind and their perspective with,
[[ Many doctors had tested their patients’ sense perceptions and ideas of space both before and after operations. The vast majority of patients, of both sexes and all ages, had, in von Senden’s opinion, had no idea of space whatsoever. Form, distance, and size were so many meaningless syllables. (Dillard, 121)
The blind are put to the test when it comes to what they know. Out of the five senses, they are missing the one that makes it easiest to perceive and analyze with. They have to rely on their other senses to make sense of things. Through the blind, the reader gets to understand just how important our eyes are to what we know and understand. If a blind person was asked to describe a tree, they would not be able to describe what they have a memory of. Nor would they be able to compare it to something they know, they cannot say it is green because they don’t have the slightest clue about what the color green looks like. They also cannot compare its size to something else because they don’t have a clear definition of what is big and what is small. One of the ways to explain to someone your perspective is verbally. People cannot understand each other’s perspectives if they are not described. Dillard stated “Seeing is of course very much a matter of verbalization. Unless I call my attention to what passes before my eyes, I simply won’t see it.” (125) It is possible for things to be noticed but not seen. As this writer stated before, the difference between seeing and looking. If the brain doesn’t connect with the eyes when you are looking at something then it would be processed. Annie Dillard finished off her essay with “The vision comes and goes, mostly goes, but I love for it, for the moment when the mountain open and a new light roars in spate through the crack, and the mountains slam.” (128) With finishing her essay like this, she gives the reader a vivid example of one of the many wonders our eyes can see and the big roll it has in our lives. In conclusion, the point of this paper is mainly to value the little things in life that you may sometimes look over, to try to fins the deeper meaning of the things you see and to appreciate the fact you never know when something is going to change the way you look at thw world for the rest of your life.
GEW 101-25878
Dr. Walter Dutton
25 March 2013
Perspective
Annie Dillard wrote the essay “Seeing”, which is about the ability to change your perspective on the world around you. Throughout her essay, the author refers to objects such as blades of grass and the universe to demonstrate to her readers that many things are sometimes forgotten or not thoroughly thought about. The author uses themes such as the effect light and dark have on seeing, the difference between the natural obvious and the artificial obvious and the growth and change of perspective from childhood to adult hood to describe her perspective on seeing. Dillard goes in to depth on describing the way the mind perceives things the eyes see. It is not certain that the things viewed are perceived the right way, because there is no correct or incorrect way to view something.
But there is another kind of seeing that involves a letting go. When I see this way I sway transfixed and emptied. The difference between the two ways of seeing is …show more content…
the difference between walking with and without a camera. When I walk with a camera I walk from shot to shot, reading the light on a calibrated meter. When I walk without a camera, my own shutter opens, and the moment’s light prints on my own silver gut. When I see this second way I am above all the unscrupulous observer. (Dillard, 126)
Just as the author of “Seeing” uses photography to describe the way to perceive things, this writer also uses her knowledge of photography to make sense of it. While caring around a camera with the intent of capturing something amazing, this writer catches herself stooping down low to get the effect of a worms eye view, or standing on something high to get a bird’s eye view. Through the lens of a camera, the indirect view of what the device is being pointed at changes the viewer’s perspective. Along with being able to manipulate a camera, viewing things through a lens is able to manipulate vision, and give the person looking through the camera a different view point than they would get with the naked eye. With the lens of a camera, you can control how close or far you get to a subject, along with how light or dark you want that subject to be captured. If too much light is let into the camera lens, the shot will be too bright and washed out, on the other hand of not enough light is let into the lens the photograph will be dark and hard to make out. Dillard writes “If we are blinded by darkness we are also blinded by light” (118) by saying this Dillard is insinuating that just as your vision isn’t working to its full capacity when it is dark, your vision is also altered when there is too much light. When looking into the sun, vision gets blurry and spotty for a while afterword. Vision is sometimes impaired by harsh light such as the flash of a camera, looking into the sun or headlights of a car coming towards you, leaving you unable to see what you would normally see. Annie Dillard writes “Darkness appalls and light dazzles; the scrap of visible light that doesn’t hurt my eyes hurts my brain.” (119) Aside from it being physically possible for light to hurt Dillard’s eyes, it can also hurt her brain if she is unable to make sense of what she is seeing. Knowing and understanding go beyond just looking at something. Seeing and looking are two different things, in the Webster dictionary the word seeing is defined as comprehending, and to perceive the meaning of importance. On the other hand, the dictionary defines looking as defined as turning one’s eyes toward something or in some direction in order to see. What doesn’t hurt the author’s eyes hurts her brain because what she is seeing she is trying to make sense of. When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. As Maximillian Cohen stated on a website about interpretation, At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. Just as Dillard questions what she sees, she is equally curious about what she cannot see.
“Even the simple darkness of night whispers suggestions to the mind.” (116) Many people say in order for something to be credible, it has to be seen. But if seeing is taken out of the picture, other senses have to be relied on to become aware of what is going on. Without being able to see, it is easy for imagination to take control and fill in what the eyes would take credit for. Annie Dillard goes into depth on the theme of darkness and light when she writes “After thousands of years we’re still strangers to darkness, fearful aliens in an enemy camp with our arms crossed over our chests.” (117) She means that people still don’t comprehend darkness, darkness is frightening because the unknown is frightening. By saying fearful alien in an enemy camp, the author refers to the way people react to darkness, feeling threatened and overwhelmed by the
unknown. Annie Dillard continues her text by explain the difference between the natural obvious and the artificial obvious. “Nature is like one of those line drawings of a tree that are puzzles for children: Can you find hidden in the leaves a duck, a house, a boy, a bucket, a zebra, and a boot?” (114) A line drawing is a picture with small, random objects hidden throughout it that the naked eye will not see right away. There are two ways to look at things, either the big picture is seen or it is broken up into smaller parts to be analyzed. With a line drawing, the eyes are challenged to see closely at aspects they would not acknowledge looking at the big picture. That is exactly the difference between the artificial and natural obvious, the natural obvious is plainly seen, while the artificial obvious is a challenge to visualize something more than what is seen. Dillard says “The artificial obvious is hard to see.”(115) Because the artificial obvious is not what the the eye sees right away, it sometimes may be missed. The past sentence says the word the twice, if the reader is reading too fast or not paying close attention they may miss it. Annie Dillard gives an example of the way the artificial obvious is sometimes over looked when she writes “The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand.” (113) If the pennies are not being thought about, they will not be seen. On the other hand if someone goes out into the world with the idea of finding pennies, they will see them. The penny could also be thought of beyond the way it appears on the ground. How did it get there? Who dropped it? Was it placed there on purpose? Questions like this would not occur to someone whom is in a rush to a meeting, or a kid who playfully kicks the penny. If the artificial obvious is not sought out, it will not be seen. On some occasions even if the artificial obvious is being looked for it could be missed. “In flat country I watch every sunset in hopes of seeing the green ray. The green ray is a seldom-seen streak of light that rises from the sun like a spurting fountain at the moment of sunset; it throbs into the sky for two seconds and then it disappears.”(115) This statement written by the author makes the point that amazing things, as minute as they may be are happening every day and they can be missed in the blink of an eye. Even though the green light was being looked for, it can only be seen for a short period of time making it special, some sort of miracle.
It is often forgotten how small humans are compared to the plant, and how small the planet is compared to the solar system, and how small the solar system is compared to the galaxy. In reality humans are close to nothing compared to the big picture. Dillard explains this when she states “At this latitude im spinning 836 miles an hour round the earth’s axis; I often fancy I feel my sweeping fall..”(118) The author is explaining how she realizes how small she is and how although she is laying on her bed, there is a lot more going on that just that. When looking for something, the eyes try to match a mental picture of the object they have memorized, to something in sight. “I see what I expect.” (115) If the brain is expecting to see a frog, the eyes look for something green, when in reality there are nearly four thousand species of frogs that can come in almost any color imaginable. That is the key word, imaginable. People are also easily influenced by others opinion, if someone’s best friend doesn’t like a certain band, then they will try to view their friends perspective and see why they don’t like them, then they too will start to have the same opinion. This writer has a poster of a Marilyn Monroe in the living room of her apartment. When she just put it up, she thought it was flawless. This writer soon found herself sitting in front of the poster, daring herself to find a flaw. After close examination, she found stray hairs, tangled lashes and slightly crooked tooth. By using the artificial obvious to analyze something, the viewer is looking for something hidden or questions something that is hard to understand instead of the natural obvious. This very paper is an example of artificial obvious. This is the interpretation of the writer’s point of view, opinion and perspective of the essay “Seeing” written by Annie Dillard. By using the artificial obvious, the writer has to make mental connections and read deep into the text rather than just reading on the surface. Dillard writes “I read Stewart Edward White: ‘I have always maintained that if you looked closely enough you could see the wind –– the dim, hardly-made-out, fine debris fleeing high in the air.”’(115) It is physically impossible to be able to see the wind. Using other senses, the wind could be felt, it could be heard and causes of the wind can be seen such as flags and kites flying. Using all of these aspects put together, it is understandable how it could be said to see the wind. People base the way they interpret on what they know and experiences they have had. If someone is an expert on stars, the way they see the sky at night is different than someone who is an expert in computer engineering. According to Annie Dillard “The lover can see, and the knowledgeable.”(115) There are many ways to interpret this statement, the first thing this writer thought about is the saying that says people either make decisions with their head or their heart. The way something is thought of determines the way it is perceived. Being blinded by love, or the love a mother has for her child will always overcome negativity in any situation. Something interesting about this statement made by Dillard, is how she gave an example about how the knowledgeable are able to perceive, but never gives an example for the way the lover sees. Instead of an example the author states that she cannot see the way the lover does because she is not a lover. By talking about the lover, and not giving an example her statement is not very credible. As humans grow old, their point of view matures with them. Dillard speaks about the topic of the maturity of perspective when she writes “Why didn’t someone hand those newly sighted people paint brushes from the start, when they still didn’t know what anything was?” (125) When babies are born, they have a clean slate. They are literally brought to a new place where they have no understanding of anything around them what so ever. Newborns do not understand the difference between right and wrong, and they have not been exposed to things that would influence their perspective such as music, television or their parent’s political opinion. If a newly sighted person was given the opportunity to draw something, it would from the mind of someone innocent who is still trying to figure out the artificial obvious of what they are looking at.
The author tells a story about Rabbi Mendel who explains how in his youth, he was able to see the angel who rolled away the darkness before the light. “‘Yes,’ said Rabbi Mendel ‘in my youth I saw that too. Later on you don’t see these things anymore.”’ With growing old, your mind also grows wise, both good and bad memories are built throughout life and they influence the way things are perceived. Adults have important things to take care of and worry about, such as jobs, bills and children. While taking care of the things they need to do, they may forget to stop and have the mentality they did when they were young. Adults do not control when their mentality begins to lose its innocence, it happens naturally without warning. This writer has 2 younger sisters, one is eleven years old and the other is twelve years old. This writer being eighteen is the oldest of the three. One night while in the car with her two sisters, the car lights flashed on two rabbits in the grass. The youngest of the three said “look guys, it’s a bunny and her mom!” The middle sister then replies, “No, it’s a bunny and her sister!” This writer finally gave her input and told her younger sisters, “You guys are both wrong, it’s a bunny and her boyfriend.” After this incident, the writer saw the drastic difference in the points of views between the girls. Having around an eight year difference between their ages made a difference in the way they each perceived the bunnies in the grass and any one of them could have been correct. There truly is no correct way of interpretation; each person is entitled to their own opinion of what they are seeing. This writer noticed that each of her sisters gave their opinion of the bunnies based off of what they are familiar with. The younger two who have never experienced love would have never thought of the two bunnies being lovers, and the writer who is hardly ever home didn’t think about the bunnies having a parental relationship. Without the ability to see, how does someone know how to perceive? Annie Dillard talked about the blind and their perspective with,
[[ Many doctors had tested their patients’ sense perceptions and ideas of space both before and after operations. The vast majority of patients, of both sexes and all ages, had, in von Senden’s opinion, had no idea of space whatsoever. Form, distance, and size were so many meaningless syllables. (Dillard, 121)
The blind are put to the test when it comes to what they know. Out of the five senses, they are missing the one that makes it easiest to perceive and analyze with. They have to rely on their other senses to make sense of things. Through the blind, the reader gets to understand just how important our eyes are to what we know and understand. If a blind person was asked to describe a tree, they would not be able to describe what they have a memory of. Nor would they be able to compare it to something they know, they cannot say it is green because they don’t have the slightest clue about what the color green looks like. They also cannot compare its size to something else because they don’t have a clear definition of what is big and what is small. One of the ways to explain to someone your perspective is verbally. People cannot understand each other’s perspectives if they are not described. Dillard stated “Seeing is of course very much a matter of verbalization. Unless I call my attention to what passes before my eyes, I simply won’t see it.” (125) It is possible for things to be noticed but not seen. As this writer stated before, the difference between seeing and looking. If the brain doesn’t connect with the eyes when you are looking at something then it would be processed. Annie Dillard finished off her essay with “The vision comes and goes, mostly goes, but I love for it, for the moment when the mountain open and a new light roars in spate through the crack, and the mountains slam.” (128) With finishing her essay like this, she gives the reader a vivid example of one of the many wonders our eyes can see and the big roll it has in our lives. In conclusion, the point of this paper is mainly to value the little things in life that you may sometimes look over, to try to fins the deeper meaning of the things you see and to appreciate the fact you never know when something is going to change the way you look at thw world for the rest of your life.