For your annoted response to the first two chapters of Solnit's book:
Solnit ends the second chapter with the following statement:
"Some things we have only as long as they remain lost, some things are not lost only so long as they are distant."
1) What did she mean by this? Cite specific examples from the book to support your thinking.
2) How does Solnit use the language and ideas in her essay as both map and destination? That is, was she headed toward this statement all along as she wrote? Cite specific examples from the text to support your argument.
3) Can you think of something from your own experience that supports this claim? (that is, does this sentence resonate in some way with you? Is there synchronicity between this statement and other things you are experiencing/learning/reading right now?)
Expected length 2-3 pages, double spaced, excluding list of references (inlcude references on a separate sheet).
For next week: Read pages 45-152 for discussion.
Expected learning outcomes: Students will be able to think and write critically about current ideas in the genre of nature writing
6 comments:
"We treat desire as a problem to be solved..." ---I was really caught up with what everyone had to say when this came up in discussion. Chapter two, 'The Blue of Distance', really hit home for me, as I think it could for many people if you read between the lines. I felt that we all had different emotions attached to the feeling of longing for something, but there was also a level I felt that we could all connect. It is interesting to me to see what separate individuals long for. To think of my eight year old little brother, and what he longs for, compared to what my grandmother in the mountains longs for. Is there a difference between longing and desire?
That is a tough question... I looked both up in the dictionary and they are very similar but desire comes from DESIDERATE- a combination of latin words meaning longing for and heavenly body or constellation)
I absolutely love your new photo for the site Dr. T!
Thanks, Eileen!
I love the question, I don't have an answer, but have some deep thinking to do about longing, it seems we all are familair with this feeling, but where does it come from and what decides the object of longing, is it internal or external or both?
Dr. T,
Was it "Both Sides Now" you wanted us to listen to?
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