LITR 5535: American Romanticism

Student Presentation on Reading Selections, fall 2000

Lathon Lewis
Fall 2000
Professor Craig White

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

by

Annie Dillard

The discussion was over passages in the second chapter, Seeing, in the Annie Dillard book.

The 1st passage discussed was the paragraph on page 31 that began with the sentence: "But there is another kind of seeing that involves a letting go." Here the author displays a sense of Romantic nostalgia with the introduction of a loss that produces desire for what is now gone. In the passage there is also the dichotomy of seeing with and without a camera. The author regards seeing without as being natural and true while seeing with a camera is regarded as unnatural. Therefore seeing without a camera brings one closer to nature.

The 2nd passage discussed is on page 33 and begins with sentence: "The secret of seeing is, then, the pearl of great price." This "secret" that the author introduces is a mystery to attain but seems to reside in a place that we were once before. There is a longing to go back to this place where we were once before (a possible higher state). It seems as if the author can not necessarily remember but there is a sense that this place exists. It seems to introduce the existential idea of a human essence before existence. We reach the moment of the sublime as we approach that place beyond expression. There is even an elusiveness of the very definition of such a place.

Question posed: Does this place (or state) of the sublime exist, or is it imagination?

Responses given included:

  • If it is true for the individual (in their mind), then that makes it truth
  • The sublime is a mystery and the value is in what remains unraveled…that is the pearl of great price
  • The mysterious (or sublime) is where Romance stands; once you begin to give representations of this state you reduce its value
  • The desire to know (this mystery) opens you up to be able to see it
  • There is a tension between the mechanical vs. the organic in the passages with the example of the walking with and without the camera