Ishmael - Chapters 3 and 4

It is funny to me how at the end of my last post I only focused on human-beings. I didn't mention the planet, the development of micro-organisms into more complex ones, and I really gave no explanation for how things came to be! What is relevant though, is that I mentioned making a living, which is finding my own purpose in other words. I didn't mention jellyfish or wombats, I focused on using the world for my own means.

Ishmael elaborates on the ideas above by telling the narrator that the story we enact everyday goes like this: The Takers believe the world is a human support system. We are the pinnacle of Creation. The world was made for man and man was made to conquer and rule it.

The perspective Ishmael gives is our creation myth. Even though humans have scientifically proven this story, he gives the narrator that it is the story enacted by the Takers. The idea that humanity is meant to rule the world is a myth. I agree with this. In my earlier post, I wasn't sure what man's destiny is and so it is in fact a myth, a story enacted over and over again. But I am confused. If the world was made for man, as in we rely on the world, why do we try to conquer it? Why is the price of enacting this story casting mankind as the enemy of the world?

Quinn has expertly grabbed my attention. He has pointed out my own bias of the world and how it works and has left me searching for more in the coming chapters. I think that in many ways I have taken the world for granted. I've used it's resources for material gain and now I am searching for where I fit in the whole scheme of things. I become the narrator and converse with a gorilla known as Ishmael. It's truly fascinating.

Ishmael - Chapters 1 and 2

I know I am catching up on blog posts, but at the same time, I want to illustrate well thought-out responses to Ishmael in the soon future! My initial impression of Daniel Quinn's novel, Ishmael, is that it grabbed my attention from the start. I am intrigued by the humanity of both the narrator, who remains anonymous, and the gorilla, Ishmael. I relate to the narrator from the start of the book. Like him I wanted to save the world when I was younger, lost hope, and am now searching for a reason to change the way I live for the better.

When the narrator goes to meet Ishmael, I found myself questioning descriptions of the room. The narrator states that he first noticed the emptiness of the room; He then reports the hideousness of Ishmael's face because of the similarity to our own. It is fascinating that out of all the animals, Quinn made the choice to use a gorilla, an animal we consider to be an ancestor of modern day human beings. Also, the narrator points out that we look at animals, even those which we are physically alike, are considered ugly, dangerous, and different from us. We are somehow segregated from Nature and the animals of the earth.

Opposite from the narrator's initial remarks, Ishmael elaborates another perspective. He states that the situation of the animals who are penned up is the same one that the narrator is in.
I specifically want to focus on a quote on page 35, "Even if you weren't personally captivated by the story, you were captive all the same, because the people around you made you a captive. You were like an animal being swept along in the middle of a stampede." I enjoyed reading this part of chapter 2 because Ishmael broadly pronounces the difference between being a captive of a story and being captivated by a story. Quinn also connects people to animals, which is an interesting literary statement. At the end of chapter 2, Ishmael asks the narrator about the one story everyone knows and accepts, aka an explanation of how things came to be. Like the narrator, I only have an impression of what our story is and don't see the full picture yet. Sometimes, I notice my own captivity. I realize that there are many social constructs in the world and that as Takers of the American dream, I think that our story begins with people who gathered food, and then gathered knowledge, and then decided to make something of it all. Without reading into chapter 3, I don't really know what our exact story is. All I know is that my societal purpose is to make a living, well whatever that means.

Walden (Three of the Essays)

After reading three more of the essays in Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, I've decided to write about "The Ponds" in this blog post.

Thoreau makes some purposeful illustrations in this essay that stood out to me. He describes, "It seemed as if I might next cast my line upward into the air, as well as downward into this element, which was scarcely more dense. Thus I caught two fishes as it were with one hook." I think that this is a great statement about how he has connected himself to Nature and to his Spirit. Walden Pond is a sacred place to Thoreau. For two years at Walden, Thoreau can now describe in detail everything about the pond, including the colors, the depth, the shores, the fish, etc. He recounts the adventure of throwing his axe onto the ice and then having to make a slip-noose to pull it out of the frozen pond.

Walden is not only an important place for Thoreau but it is a person, a friend. He personifies the pond by saying, "These are the lips of the lake, on which no beard grows. It licks its chaps from time to time." He retells the tale of how the pond got its name: "...and while they were thus engaged the hill shook and suddenly sank, and only one old squaw, named Walden, escaped, and from her the pond was named." He even makes fun of the nearby ponds,"Flint's Pond!...What right had the unclean and stupid farmer, whose farm abutted on this sky water, whose shores he has ruthlessly laid bare, to give his name to it?"

"Talk of heaven! ye disgrace earth." - Thoreau

Above all, Thoreau describes in detail this pond I have never been to and points out how beautiful it is in Nature. He portrays, "Not a fish can leap or an insect fall on the pond but it is thus reported in circling dimples, in lines of beauty, as it were the constant welling up of its fountain, the gentle pulsing of its life, the heaving of its breast. How peaceful the phenomena of the lake!" Even though Thoreau (hahaha that wordplay!) is writing more so for himself, to journal his thoughts and discoveries, he illustrates experiences that we have all witnessed but forget about over time.

Walden (Four of the Essays)

Out of the many essays in Thoreau's novel, Walden, the two that I enjoyed reading so far are "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" and "The Village". On the very first day of class, I wrote down that I wanted to understand more about how I am connected to Nature in a spiritual/religious manner. In the two essays I mentioned, Thoreau illustrates a philosophical view of Nature.

"Olympus is but the outside of the earth everywhere"

He has a unique world view. To Thoreau, the earth is a sacred place blessed by gods and goddesses! A home is but a seat and not a material necessity; Nature is a part of us and vice versa. It is interesting to note that the word 'nature' does not only mean the phenomena of the physical world collectively, but it also means the essential and inherent features of something/someone. In other words, the nature of being human is to live simply. Thoreau makes a valid case.

In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau weaves in and out of Nature itself and the metaphysical realm. He states that "The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us...Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me" Thoreau makes a metaphor with regards to waking in the morning and having a wakeful mentality throughout the day. In addition, one of my favorite sections from this essay reads:

"It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour"

I personally think that this will be my new focus for my dancing. Usually, I tell a story through a dance solo, but what if I was a sunrise? or a sunset?  What if I portrayed deeper/spiritual experiences of life?

"Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently without perturbation"

In "The Village," Thoreau explains, "for a man needs only to be turned round once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost - do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of nature." In order to understand ourselves, we must lose our social constructs and sense of conformity. We need to see each day as a new experience. A mystery.

Chapter 4 - Lightly, Carefully, Gracefully

The final chapter of Eaarth, by Bill McKibben, is a bittersweet one. After stating all of the statistics, all of the personal stories, all of the drastic changes that are happening on this new Eaarth, McKibben illustrates the possible strategies for maintaining our world and our lives. Early in this chapter he states that, "the amount of people with too little to eat is now rising." Food is one of our most basic resources that we need to survive. And currently, "it takes the equivalent of four hundred gallons of oil annually to feed an American, and that's before packaging, refrigeration, and cooking." Why is it so complicated, ineffective, and harmful to our economy? It is obvious that we have to change our system of agriculture. The cost of shipping food to stores across the world adds up to be more than the price of growing food locally opposed to what most people think.

        I enjoyed reading Pete Johnson's innovative plan for growing food - having a moveable greenhouse which would be local, less expensive, and healthy. McKibben is right, we need small farmers throughout the country to make the change we need. In short, he states that we don't have a choice. Compared to China, we eat way more meat than we should and it's costing us. Plus, I know for a fact that I don't buy local foods when I should. I stick to the fast-food chains in Kalamazoo because they are inexpensive and quick. In this chapter, I was surprised that the people in the reality series Frontier House said that they rather live on the frontier but instead moved back to live in the suburbs.
         McKibben explains that we as human-beings need a controlled decline; we need the wisdom from the past and the knowledge of the present to hunker down and change the planet for the better. At the conclusion of the book, McKibben describes the Internet as being one of the best resources we have in our fight against global warming because of it's ability to connect neighbors. I strongly agree with this. People use the Internet more than ever now and could help make small changes here and there.

       My final thoughts:

• For one I am amazed at how much information McKibben as collected and has documented in this novel. It's incredible!
• The fact that he started out connecting his neighborhood and then made his awareness viral is truly inspiring.
• He has given me a few great ideas for the future - conserve, buy local, and make small changes daily to reduce emissions

For the song I have chosen for this final chapter, I need to give a brief description of how I discovered it and why I chose it. A couple years ago I watched all of the Harry Potter movies for the first time and one song stuck with me. The song is so different and so powerful for being in one of the final movies that I had to replay the scene over and over again. The meaning of the song is really up for interpretation, enjoy!

The link to the clip is here: O'Children Harry Potter

The link to the whole song is here: O'Children by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Chapter 3 - Backing Off

In chapter 3 of Eaarth, McKibben envisions the world as being durable, strong enough to support what we already have instead of reaching for economic growth. In the United States, we grew quickly. We accomplished our National Project that involved exploring the west and increasing revenue. A national government was created along with a national bank that made it possible for the building of public roads and railroads. We owned land, we owned resources, and we owned people. We accomplished a few notable National Projects, such as putting a man on the moon. But it is time to maintain rather than expand. The government can't do everything. McKibben illustrates that it is up to the local economies to build community. He points out that as it is right now, our economy works without the input of our neighbors (which is depressing if you think about it). In reality though, we need to reshape our society for a graceful decline. McKibben sold this concept to me personally when he discusses the history of Vermont. The historian Peter Onuf states that, "nowhere in America did local communities become so thoroughly accustomed to such a high degree of political self-determination [than those in Vermont]." For much of history, the people of Vermont maintained control of the state and it's laws. My favorite section in this chapter is about McKibben's summary of the Family Diner, a restaurant that uses local farm products for the menu items. How many restaurants are similar to the Family Diner in Michigan? Now that I think about it, there are only a few I've been to. I realize now that what we as Americans eat, what we wear, the products we use day to day aren't that real and authentic.
All in all, I agree with McKibben's proposals. We do need to focus on the essentials and maintain the small communities we have. If we focus on growth and expansion, our resources will diminish and we'll be lost on this new Eaarth.

The song for chapter 3 of Eaarth is here!