The Unknown and Bewilderment

In Brian Greene's essay "Our Universe Might Be a Giant Hologram", he seems to focus on his belief in "Holographic Parallel Universes". He believes that there is "some distant surface that, much as a puppeteer pulls strings, are fully linked to the processes taking place in my fingers, arms, and brain" as he types his essay on the computer. I personally wouldn't put much thought into my perception of reality changing because even if there was some alternate universe, I would still be here in our universe. Sure its strange that some person (or thing) is doing something light years away, that is related to what I'm doing. I won't deny that, BUT the fact of the matter is I'm over here, and they're somewhere else. If there was a chance that we'd get to meet each other, I might care a little more and even feel some sort of weird connection to my "other self", but until then...

On the topic of connection, I do believe Edward Abbey, author of "Serpents of Paradise", has a connection to the animals living in the woods with him. He says "I'm a humanist. I'd rather kill a man than a snake." According to Dicionary.com, a humanist is a person having a strong interest in or concern for human welfare, values, and dignity, so his willingness to take a mans life over an animal shows that he has a higher regard for them. When I was a vegetarian, I too was more concerned with the feelings of animals sometimes more than other people. It's sad really, but I felt bad for them and I, like Abbey, believed (and still believe) it is possible that "many of the nonhuman undomesticated animals experience emotions unknown to us." I think because of his deep connection with nature and uncivilization, Abbey tries to familiarize himself with their unknown thoughts or emotions. As previously mentioned, he feels connected to the wild and its inhabitants so maybe he desires to learn as much as he can about them in order to deepen that connection.

The common ground in both of these stories seems to be the idea of the unknown, and that inability to uncover it leads the authors to a state of bewilderment. They allow themselves to become confused/bewildered by their interests, and they won't find clarity until the unknown is revealed.

       In "Nature and the Environment" by Edward Abbey shows a relationship between an individual with nature/environment. It is about him living in a trailer in the middle of no where, its just him and the living animals around him at least that's what I believe. His relationship is very positive with the animals that surround him such as mice, rattlesnake, and also the two gopher snakes. Although he wants to get rid of the mice the rattlesnake he doesn't kill them since he is a humanist saying that, "I'd rather kill a man than a snake." He wants to get rid of the mice later because they attract rattlesnakes; but then he finds a gopher snake which are rivals with the rattlesnakes and the gopher snake can get rid of both so he keeps in sort of like a "pet." After the gopher disappears, he later comes back with a mate and the man sees them doing somewhat of a ritual dance. When the gopher snakes notice he is approaching them so they leave and he notices that he will never see them again, and let's them go in peace. This is very good in my opinion that he is very open minded, and actually somewhat understands nature, very beneficial indeed.
       In "our universe may be a giant hologram" by Brian Greene is over an idea that the world and what happens to us, is similar to what happens in another universe far from us. What happens to us is sort of a shadow that is happening in another universe, like many times before I have read in articles that we as humans don't have any control over our life's; so I think this is what Greene is also trying to
       Even though they are different to each other, both of the readings have some sort of bewilderment. In "Nature and the Environment" bewilderment is shown in how we humans don't know what animals are thinking/feeling because were not one of them. Just like they can't understand us, nor could we understand them. And this confuses us which is similar to bewilderment. In "our universe may be a giant hologram" bewilderment is being showed in this article is how we are lost in our own universe, we have to understand what is occurring in the other universe which like I said causes us to be lost.

"Our Universe May be a Giant Hologram" and "Nature and the Environment"

Physicist Brian Greene in his essay “Our Universe May be a Giant Hologram” makes the argument that the world and the realities that are happening everyday around us are solely a depiction of another universe that is far off in the distance. He argues that what happens here in this universe is simply a shadow of the events taking place in another universe. While reading this essay I was initially confused at first but then I realized that if this is true then reality is actually false. I feel that my sense of reality is not really mine but someone else’s who is in another universe; it’s kind of like you are just imitating something that is being imitated in some different universe. Well if this is the case, then should we be responsible for our actions? Because if we are just following what is being done somewhere else we really don’t have any control over our life.

On the other hand Edward Abbey in his essay “Nature and the Environment” portrays his relationship with nature and his surrounding environment. I believe that Abbey has a very positive relationship with his environment and the creatures within it. He practically lives in a desert in the middle of nowhere where he is immune to being face to face with scary creatures such as snakes every day. Although he is at risk of being bitten he decides not to kill the rattlesnake beneath the doorstep because he is humanist and would “rather kill a man than a snake.”  He further decides to let mice roam in his trailer because they “don’t disturb [him] and are welcome to [his] crumbs and leavings. Although Abbey feels connected to the environment and its creatures at the same time he has a sort of isolation from them. This is depicted when he gets attached to the gopher snake and lets the snake “wrap himself around [his] waist and rest on [his] belt.” But when the gopher snake comes back to the trailer after disappearing with a mate he finds them engaged in a “ritual dance” or a “pas de deux.” His curiosity leads him to get closer and “see the whole thing” but is discovered by the snakes that stop dancing and go to him to discover him. After the snakes are done with their discovery, they “veer and race away” from him. Abbey attempts to chase them but realizes that he should “let them go in peace.” I feel that it is beneficial to experience the world like Abbey because you are more open to more interpretations and for someone like me who does not like bugs and other creatures it is a way to discover something new and possibly better. Abbey is comfortable with the unknown because if he wanted to know everything to the root he would have followed the snakes to know where they were going and what they were doing but he chose to let go. This in return I feel lets the elements of “sympathy, mutual aid, symbiosis, and continuity” exist.
               Both of these essays have some sort of bewilderment factor that exists within them. In “Our Universe May be a Giant Hologram” bewilderment is shown in the fact that we are lost in our own universe because our perception of things is not the reality but just a mirroring image of the instances taking place in another universe. To make sense of the occurrences around us we have to make sense of the other universe. Contrasting this in “Nature and the Environment” bewilderment is present in the idea that the emotions that are felt by animals are different or unknown to humans because of the fact that we are not one of them. This is the same for animals. As humans we are not able to understand what an animal is saying or why they do something and this is confusing to us because we like to have a set stone answer for everything. These ideas affect me personally because I don’t like open-endedness; I like to have a certain answer or a correct answer for things. It really messes with my mind that confusion is necessary to understand concepts.

Bewilderment

Fanny Howe, in his essay Bewilderment, gives examples of how he and others have observed and applied bewilderment in their stories, poems and life. Howe, as the essay goes along, attempts to better define bewilderment by providing poems and stories that create the felling of bewilderment that show how they have successfully created this feeling and confusion. Although he gives great examples of bewilderment he does not give a straight definition of what bewilderment is but creates an understanding within one’s self. By crafting an environment of bewilderment within the essay, one is left confused with the feeling of bewilderment. Because one is able to experience the feeling of bewilderment as it is being explained in a bewildering way, one is better able to comprehend and associate the feeling with the text. Given all the information, stories and poems within the essay, one is left juggling information in a puzzling balancing act, attempting to understand it all at once. This struggle to understand and just not knowing what to do, one becomes engulfed and dazed by the overload and begins creating an understanding of the composition of this feeling. Understanding this feeling of healthy confusion, as the author describes, gives people the ability to know how to deal with all-of-a-sudden type situations. Without these types of feelings and situations people would be certain of everything and never be left wondering and pondering new and greater ideas. In that case we’d be stuck on a plateau of innovation and be left bored and lifeless. Bewilderment therefor not only is defined but is what causes life to be confusing but better because it allows the creation of new thought because of the need to know and understand what other thoughts mean. Certainty is what people are attempting to achieve with the constantly revolutionizing of innovation and something they will never achieve because it is continuously changing. This is not a bad thing, this is actually a great thing because, as human beings, this is what has allowed us to survive and reinvent the world around us.

Bewilderment

 Fanny Howe's Bewilderment, requires the reader to really read and  thoroughly interpret each piece of her writing. The article also required plenty of complex thinking and understandings. Fanny Howe, a poet novelist and writer of many short stories, describes how such small things can have multiple complex meanings and interpretations. In particular, bewilderment.  Bewilderment is defined as being completely confused or perplexed. She uses the story of King Midas to further explain her argument. When describing the "Midas Touch" story, Howe explains that the story isn't just about greed but, "it was about looking too hard and too possessively at living things."(4.) Using this example and many others she explains how bewilderment has multiple purposes in writing. She says that bewilderment also challenges the theory of dualism. Dualism, according to Dictionary.com, is the state of being dual or consisting of two parts, division into two. Howe argues that bewilderment separates us from the idea there is just black and white, or this and that, or just two sides to the story. She also makes the point that, "The mystery of thought can only be solved by thought itself- which is what?" (5.) We don't really know what thought is because we can't really break thought down without relaying back to a previously broken down thought. Just like a spiral. It is always continuous and never ending. A spiral knows no direction.This means that all things on this earth can be broken down into smaller things or broadened into more complex ideas, but this process will never end and continue to be broken down and built back up again. It all just depends on the perspective of a person. In conclusion, what Howe is really trying to portray, is the bewilderment or just being confused is the root of writing. Being forced to question, answer the question and question again an idea, allows us to come to somewhat of a conclusion to that idea. Although we will never really find the true answer when writing or have the exact same perspective as someone else, being bewildered when writing can help us push our writing into a more creative and original direction.

Bewilderment

In the essay written by Fanny Howe, she introduces the word bewilderment and how such a simple word can have a complex meaning. In the story the concept of bewilderment shown is that we are never in the "known" in our dreams. She also explains how bewilderment is important in poetry today by providing several problems with some works of poetry and how bewilderment can answer these aspects to those problems. I like this essay because it can be interpreted in many different ways because of how each person can individually perceive this story. When she says "The dreamer is aware that only everything else but this tiny dream exists and in this way the dream itself is free to act without restraint." I think this means that we know consciously that we are dreaming which allows us are dreams to be very random. Dreams are very confusing, but it's still apart of a daily cycle we as humans go through. Which by dreams being random and confusing is basically the working definition of Bewilderment. With this uncertainty, bewilderment plays a huge role in poems because you may have thought you understood and interpreted the poem, but in fact the author had a very different meaning to what it actually meant. This kind of parallel thinking inspires us and is a huge part in the way people think because it helps us try and understand other questions in life like the meaning of life, or how the universe came to existence. Without bewilderment the world we live in would be a loss of uncertainty and progression. Just like she says in the essay the "the point of art-like war- is to show people that life is worth living by showing that it isn't."

Bewilderment

According to the dictionary, “to bewilder is ‘to cause to lose one's sense of where one is.’”. Fanny Howe explains to the reader how bewilderment is important in poetry. She provides several problems with poetry and how bewilderment is the answer to understand them. She explains how bewilderment is formed when trying to express the simultaneousness of a situation. Bewilderment is “more than an attitude--but an actual approach, a way--to resolve the unresolvable”. After reading “Bewilderment” by Fanny Howe, I have concurred my own understanding of the meaning of bewilderment. As far as poetry, I believe that it means to accept more than one understanding of the poem; to not bind yourself to one view of what the author of the poem is trying to say. In my opinion, bewilderment is an internal struggle you have with yourself while trying to understand a poem.

Fanny Howe finds beauty in the uncertainty of poems. Along with bewilderment, uncertainty is an important part of reading poetry. Even though you think you may have understood a poem, the author could have had a completely different meaning. Like poems, bewilderment and uncertainty are necessary for life. We try to find a meaning for life the same way we try to find a meaning for a poem. According to Fanny Howe, “The actual theological meaning of the word ‘salvation’ is meaning. To seek salvation is to seek a sense of meaning to the world, one's life”. If we didn’t use bewilderment and uncertainty as a means of finding our salvation for life, we would end up feeling great amounts of pain.