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October 04, 2005
"Seeing" Draft
“Bud I don’t see what the specialist sees, and so I cut myself off, not only from the total picture, but from various forms and happiness” (Dillard 95)
People have different perspectives. If I see an image and interpret its meaning in my mind I don’t expect anybody else to have exactly the same interpretation. While growing up, our perspectives keep developing almost every moment as we go along the unbroken line of life. Our experiences diverge and vary in different societies and cultures and we unintentionally choose to bring those practices into our understanding and analysis of what we see.
I have come across interesting incidents in my culture that make me ponder about image and its meanings and how people acquire it. One day, I went to have lunch with my friends back at home in Mongolia. It was the day after I came home from boarding school in another country for the summer. We went into a typical local bistro. As soon as I stepped into the bistro, I started to observe and experience using all of my senses. I remember the smell of the food that emanate only at the bistros, and the sight and touch of those typical tables and chairs that looked so memorable to me. Nevertheless, I wasn’t sharing this commemoration with any of my friends, since they went in there everyday therefore they didn’t have any interest besides eating. I told them about my feelings and explained in this situation, to my friends who were “the specialist” and I was the guest, the outsider. I became an outsider in my own culture because I was coming from another culture with different views.
As people travel and expand their vision they certainly are encouraged to compare cultures. Annie Dillard, the author of “Seeing” writes, “I don’t see what the specialist sees, and so I cut myself off” Her observation and vision don’t have to be exactly the same as “the specialist” who can be referred to anyone but her. Each one of us has unique way of looking at the world. Our ways of looking to the world “out there” will never be repeated. I was intrigued that my “guest vision” brought an unusual view of the bistro to my friends and I. My revelation differed from my friends’ and it might have made my friends take another look at the bistro.
When Dillard states “cut myself [herself] off, not only from the total picture, but from the various forms of happiness” she is afraid that she may not be original and therefore she may not fit in. She states that she becomes unhappy when she cuts herself off “from the total picture”. If one is disconnected from the society, that person will feel alienated. People sometimes need time to be by themselves. However, not many people can be isolated and be happy. In my opinion, the character is not happy in the essay, because she detaches herself from the rest of the society, illustrated as “the total picture”, and she becomes unhappy and disengaged from “various forms of happiness”. Human beings feel better if they are attached and involved to society and its groups. We become connected through what we see and what we experience together through visual culture.
~~~Zaya~~~
Posted by lcisbold at October 4, 2005 10:08 AM