We're going to start with a very short essay which is more about the traveler's identity than the travel itself. The essay is about a woman who is literally always lost--she can never find her way in life due to a medical condition. So what's it like to travel when you're lost even in your normal life? How do you find yourself?
Answer TWO of the questions below in a short response--at least a few sentences, and no "yes/no" answers. I want to see you thinking through these questions rather than simply answering them. There's no one answer or response I'm looking for--I just want you to RESPOND to them and begin a conversation with them. Bring your responses to class on Tuesday, since we'll discuss them in class and I'll take them up afterwards.
THE QUESTIONS (answer any 2):
Q1: Brown writes that "I l ack a homing instinct of any kind" (43). Because of her condition, no place really feels familiar to her, or like home. Though this sounds like a very scary prospect, what might be the advantage of not finding anything familiar?
Q2: She also writes that travel serves a unique function for her: "I think I've made myself into a constant traveler as a defense mechanism" (45). Why might traveling actually help someone who can't find their way in the world? Can you think of a way people do this in other situations? For example, people who use one activity as a defense mechanism because they can't do something else?
Q3: What if you woke up every day and told yourself, and she does, "I'm new...I don't live here, I'm just visiting...This isn't my real life" (44)? How might that change the way you approach each day, and live each day? Do you think it would make you more productive or less? Happier, or more frustrated?
Q4: A few times in the essay, Brown quotes from a poem by Adrienne Rich called "Song," which is about a rowboat. As Brown writes, it "knows it is comprised not of "ice, nor mud nor winter light/but wood, with a gift for burning"" (45). What do you think this metaphor means? Why would a boat know that being made of wood, it has a unique gift of burning? Why would it (or we) want to burn?
No comments:
Post a Comment