Seeing Essay
It Takes More Than Eyes to See
John Lubbock once said, “What we see depends mainly on what we look for.” Nature is one thing that many people look past and disregard the beauty of. Individuals might not be able to see how lovely nature is for a plethora of reasons, but some people that do see the beauty of nature have their own ideas of why others just don’t see how magnificent nature is. Two authors that have their own views of how people see nature are Annie Dillard and John Burroughs. Dillard’s more sensational view on nature differs greatly with Burroughs more knowledge based views, but even though they have a very different view on seeing nature they also have a lot of commonalities. In the first paragraph of Dillard’s “Seeing” Dillard shows how she has always had a keen sense for details. This amazing sense for detail that she illustrates directly relates to how she sees nature compared to nature. Dillard sees nature in the view of the lover. Her thought on lovers is shown in the quote, “The point is that I just don’t know what the lover knows; I just can’t see the artificial obvious that those in the know construct.”(Dillard, 21) What she means by this is that if what you are looking at is not something you care greatly about you might just look over very important features that make that thing what it is. Another view of nature that Dillard has is shown when she says,” Unfortunately, nature is very much a now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t affair.”(Dillard18). What that says is that there are many things in nature that appear for a few seconds and then disappear. She says that to show that sometimes you may need to keep your eyes open to see one thing in nature. It also may show that to see the beauty you need patience. Burroughs states early on in his writing, “The science of anything may be taught or acquired by study; the art of it comes by practice or inspiration.”(Burroughs, 147) He is saying this to convey the thought that you need to be educated on
John Lubbock once said, “What we see depends mainly on what we look for.” Nature is one thing that many people look past and disregard the beauty of. Individuals might not be able to see how lovely nature is for a plethora of reasons, but some people that do see the beauty of nature have their own ideas of why others just don’t see how magnificent nature is. Two authors that have their own views of how people see nature are Annie Dillard and John Burroughs. Dillard’s more sensational view on nature differs greatly with Burroughs more knowledge based views, but even though they have a very different view on seeing nature they also have a lot of commonalities. In the first paragraph of Dillard’s “Seeing” Dillard shows how she has always had a keen sense for details. This amazing sense for detail that she illustrates directly relates to how she sees nature compared to nature. Dillard sees nature in the view of the lover. Her thought on lovers is shown in the quote, “The point is that I just don’t know what the lover knows; I just can’t see the artificial obvious that those in the know construct.”(Dillard, 21) What she means by this is that if what you are looking at is not something you care greatly about you might just look over very important features that make that thing what it is. Another view of nature that Dillard has is shown when she says,” Unfortunately, nature is very much a now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t affair.”(Dillard18). What that says is that there are many things in nature that appear for a few seconds and then disappear. She says that to show that sometimes you may need to keep your eyes open to see one thing in nature. It also may show that to see the beauty you need patience. Burroughs states early on in his writing, “The science of anything may be taught or acquired by study; the art of it comes by practice or inspiration.”(Burroughs, 147) He is saying this to convey the thought that you need to be educated on