In the reading there were many weird examples of how
bewilderment could be poetic or politics. There were many instances where he
showed how humans get bewildered in their own thoughts and feelings toward
certain situations. He also explains how religion and history and how many
times we have been bewildered throughout it in politics. He gave us a series of
poems to describe how bewilderment is poetic, allowing us to see with confusing
ways poems come together is creativity and great work is formed through bewilderment.
In my own words, the word bewilderment is defined as the state of being
confused to a point where things you were certain about before was looked at
differently and is now uncertain of. Bewilderment can mean different things to
different people but the actual definition of bewilderment is, according to
dictionary.com "a confusing maze or tangle, as of objects or
conditions..." Showing it could be a wide range of things to be bewildered
by, like objects and conditions, for example physical and mental ways of
viewing bewilderment. As we have previously discussed in class certainty is
more important to our lives because it brings about a sort of peace of mind and
organization. It allows us to look at
things and have a game plan for what will come next without the hassle of
surprise. Certainty also can be a bad thing because if there were no uncertainty
there would be nothing invented. Creative people take chances, maybe everything
is not perfect at first when inventing things but they are tested multiple
times until they are perfect. Bewilderment can be also known as uncertainty on
a much larger scale. Bewilderment has many different levels and although you
can be in that state momentarily or for the rest of your life it comes a time
where it does come in handy to help discover the new and improved things that
come about. The balance of the two determined the world around us, too much of
one without the other could be chaotic to everyone surrounding because you are
born with bewilderness or without it but however you are is essential to the
world.
Fanny Howe, an American poet, novelist, and short story writer, defines bewilderment from the perspective of a writer on page 9 of her essay titled “Bewilderment”, as “for me bewilderment is like a dream: one continually returning pause on a gyre and in both my stories and my poems it could be the shape of the spiral that imprints itself in my interior before anything emerges on paper.” She later defines the term in the view of politics on page 23, when she states, “the politics of bewilderment…involves circling the facts, seeing the problem from varying directions, slowing the weaknesses from the bottom up…the politics of bewilderment runs against myth, or fixing, binding, and defending.” In my eyes bewilderment is a contradictory term that can be defined in two completely opposite ways, absolute certainty and absolute uncertainty. Both working definitions prove to be necessary towards ones every day life, as certainty is vital in situations that involve possibility of uncertainty. Without certainty one can easily fall into desperate confusion and lose sight of the true meaning behind what is at question. Politics relies completely on certainty, without this nothing is absolutely accurate in a system in which all should be accurate. This is not the same for writings, as Howe emphasizes in her essay, people will conceive poetry much differently than the poet originally intended for it to be. The uncertainty of poetry gives readers the opportunity to think further into the writing and analyze it from any possible point of view. Certainty and uncertainty both contribute to the ever-changing definition of bewilderment, thus proving that without one there cannot be the other, illustrating that each equally affects man and all are necessary to ones day-by-day life.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, bewilderment is defined simply as an intense state of confusion. According to Fanny Howe, the dictionary defines bewilder as "to cause to lose one's sense of where one is." From both of these interpretations on what this word means, I think its safe to say this word is a perfect synonym for being lost. Throughout life for all, I would say it's safe to say that its human nature for everyone to feel lost at some point in there life. It's not uncommon for people to be imperfect. Over time, these confusions and mistakes become fact that we are able to learn from. I agree with you in how you say certainty brings out a peace of mind and organization, but I don't believe this can be achieved without the welcomed aid of uncertainty or bewilderment. For instance, the passage "Bewilderment" made my mind hurt the first time I read through it, but as I reread and reflected on Howe's words, everything seemed to simplify. Like the two friends mentioned in Howe's dream -- the one who "represented the public (known) life, and the other the private (hidden) life..."-- certainty and uncertainty are two different views that come together to make one. Only you know what is in both your hidden and private life, and even though they're separate entities, they are connected when put together. In life we need that sense of bewilderment and uncertainty so that we can stay sane. In the moment, confusion may seem unfortunate, but in the end it's worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteJust as Valerie said, I think that bewilderment just simply means being confused. I believe that everybody is bewildered at many times in their life. Being bewildered can many times lead us to being lost in our life which can end up helping us by teaching us things we didn't know before. As you said, certainty can bring peace within you but nobody is ever 100% certain with any situation in their life. Being certain about things sometimes helps us by knowing how we are going to go about things that come up in our lives but sometimes the things we are certain of turn out to be the totally opposite which then leads us to being bewildered. Just as certainty can end up going the opposite direction, so can bewilderment. Sometimes we can be completely confused about a certain situation but as time passes we learn why these things were happening and end up knowing what is exactly going on. Certainty is necessary for lives because it helps us to become more confident in some situations while bewilderment is necessary because it helps us to become more aware of whats going on around us and help us to learn new things throughout our lives.
ReplyDeleteBewilderment is when someone is lost in there own world. Certainty is necessary in our lives because we need to be certain of our actions. In the essay Howe talks about different views that bring conflict ("materialist-skeptical and invisible-faithful view") If we are certain about both views we wont have conflicts and everything will be certain. Bewilderment might be beneficial to us because it is used in "poetry and politics." We begin to doubt things and so we shut inside our own brain taking one side of the conflict. This is good for debate of simply if you agree with one side.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on everything that you have mentioned. But to add on to it, I think bewilderment is also a state on confusion because it's like having that state of mind, of being different. In the reading Fanny Howe refers bewilderment to poetics and politics. It uses those two to say that living in the world, can come from looking at it as a poetic or a politic. If you look at as a poetic, you would see as you are reading a poem or have your own thoughts of a character If you look at it from a politic point of view, you would see it as a competition or as one powering over one another. Certainty is necessary in our lives because that's where the thoughts come into place. By that I mean to be more sure of something or to think of things in a positive way, or perspective. Certainty can lead to less problems or chaos, and to have things close to or precise. Like you said before, that I also agreed with, certainty can also be bad because how could have that certainty without the uncertainty? Meaning how could you be sure about certain things without having the thoughts of it from the start? Bewilderment might be necessary to our lives because it ties back into certainty and uncertainty. Bewilderment is being confused or in a dazed, which is like having uncertainty. Having that bewilderment can be god because it leaves room fore you to gain that certainty.
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