To See a World in a Grain of Sand

If the doors of perception (eyes, noses, ears…) were cleansed, everything would appear as it truly is, infinite.

To see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour

-  both by William Blake (early 19th Century British poet)

Voyeurism, Illicit

Illicit: naughty, taboo, guilty pleasure

Voyeuristic: “peeping Tom”

Exhibitionism: people get there thrills by showing off to other people; opposite of voyeuristic

Why don’t we want to get caught?

·  Don’t want to show that we care

·  Admitting our lives are less interesting than theirs

·  Status: their life matters more

o  Inclusion and exclusion

·  Vulnerability

·  If you comment, it ceases to be creepy?

·  Illusion of control

What would Thoreau say about facebook?

·  Conformist

·  It’s a false experience: not experiencing for yourself

·  Superficial

·  Substitutes falsified image for the thing itself

·  Why? What worth does it have?

o  Once you have seen it once, you have seen it all

·  There is no time for gossip

·  IT IS THE EASY WAY OUT

·  SELF ENSLAVEMENT: no capacity to act for yourself-lose free will

o  Curry approval without admitting we are doing it (x50)

o  Servants of our electronic media

§  No time to deal with one’s being alone

§  Always connected

o  “dead on”- Mr. Evans

·  Faux -relationships are worse than no relationship at all

o  learn to be alone first

Thoreau would like facebook? Would he use it to publish his radical agenda, get the message out…

C8: “I do not suppose…” : obscurity: not being known; he does not care if he is known

GIGANTIC STATUS UPDATE?

HOMEWORK: 45 MIN. SIT BY YOUR BEING ALONE. THERE MAY BE DISCOMFORT. DON’T USE ELECTRONIC MEDIA. TURN OFF THE PHONE, THE TV, THE IPOD AND THE TELEVISION. TRY TO STEP OUTSIDE, PREFERABLY. Spend 10 min. writing about the experience.

1.  What tones does Thoreau take, and how does he create them?

a.  Positive, inspired (can do), enlightened

b.  Jaded – Ironic –

c.  Critical – know it all – condescending - proud

d.  Logical –

e.  Calm, descriptive –

f.  Wise – proud

g.  Sarcastic

2.  How does he display his sense of humor? How about his optimism or pessimism?

Mockery

Double meanings

Sarcasm – irony

Anecdotes and allusions

3.  What is his narrative persona like, how does he establish it and how does he relate himself (as this persona) to the reader?

4.  How does he create effective descriptive passages?

a.  Rhetorical devices such as asyndeton, periodic sentences, poly-syndeton, parallelism, metaphor; lengthy sentences.

b.  Paragraphs – middle has his racing thoughts. End brings us back to the concrete.

c.  Action verbs

d.  Concrete nouns

5.  How does he play with words?

WIL 14: “The morning…” metaphor, hyperbole, “intentional disjunction,”

C 1: last sentence – “The universe…” views, wide have two senses – double meaning in the sense of metaphor

C 2: “Were preserved meats…” – double meaning

Spring/earlier…Assonance “fluttering butterfly” Onomatopoeia

Eco 9: “mass of men…” --> massive men (homophone)

6.  How does he use figurative language, especially various kinds of metaphor?

7.  What are his favorite words? (Include verbs)

I, you, why, live, learn, [action verbs], water, change, simplicity, life, desperate, explore, nature, awake, experience, desire, truth, migration, land, surely, driven earth, universe, flow, tradition, journey,

8.  How does he use rhetorical devices? (overlaps with 5)

Eco7: “It is very evident…” asyndeton, polysyndeton, rhyme, antithesis, repetition, anaphora

C6 “I desire to speak…” paradox, hyperbole,

Extended metaphor (conceit): slave driver, travel, goose, sleepers, fish, [water]

Rhetorical questions

Alliteration

Epigram – pithy phrase C13

“Animafication”

9.  If there’s anything else Thoreau does (beyond questions 1-8) to intensify the effect of his writing and/or draw in the reader, add it here.