Within Steve Mentz’s Deterritorializing Preface, he provides a very interesting insight on how he believes that we should view the world. Every word and idea he presents has a common focus on the idea of fluidity and movement. He considers the best view of the world as one that is ever-changing and allows us to see and think about new ideas and concepts. The quote that I think represented this the best was under his section about Word #7 : Horizon where he says “I imagine horizons as sites of transition, like beaches or coastlines, and also as places where perspectives merge. Horizons of ocean, horizons of currents. These are places from which new things become visible.” I think the way he put this is both beautiful and also extremely interesting. I have always considered my view of the world and just my perspective of things in general to be very structured and organized, so hearing him describe this in such a way was quite eye-opening for me. I consider myself to be an open-minded person, but without structure I do get overwhelmed. But, considering perspectives as shifting and flowing rather than just completely separate and different from one another is a way in which I had never viewed them.
In addition, I think the part of this writing that impacted me and stuck out to me the most is his section about Word #3 : Flow. In this section he says “Thinking in terms of cyclical flows rather than linear progress makes historical narratives messier, more confusing, and less familiar. These are good things.” What really impacted me the most about this quote in particular is how different it is from the way we are taught. In history and english classes growing up, we are taught to memorize events and narratives the exact way in which we are taught and that is something I have taken with me throughout my education. I am very good at understanding the way in which events happen, so the thought of them becoming more confusing and disoriented as something good was kind of a jarring thought. In the same vein, I understand where he is coming from. I feel as if it is very similar to Emerson’s idea of not following what is written by other people. If history becomes messy and confusing, it allows us to create our own ideas and develop a new perspective on events rather than just understanding what happened on a base level. I think this is a concept that I am going to sit and think about for a while.
I’d like to think that being or taking open-mindedness into consideration is definitely a challenge that a lot of people face in today’s world. You make an excellent point about the idea of Mentz using fluidity within his journal to talk about the way someone can approach the world. The use of terrestrial language doesn’t even cross my mind when I speak, and actively changing it to more “Blue”-centric words really makes it seem like it can impact the way a person thinks. You also talk about needing structure or else an overwhelming feeling washes over you, not only can I see myself from that standpoint, but I think that puts into view the idea that even if we do change our words or the way we think about things, it won’t change the fact that the human mind does have its soft limits when taking in new information.
Going off of the idea of developing new perspectives, I really appreciated how Steve Mentz used language to create more open mindedness in how we think about interacting with the world around us. I never realized how rooted our language was in focusing on concrete concepts, so the new language proposed is a great way to reinvent the way we think.
The transition from progress to flow demonstrated the power of challenging the preconceived notions we have about achievements, and I love that this is reflected in the actual movement of the ocean. The pull and push of never-ending and ever-changing movement.
My favorite concept, however, was the concept of the ship transitioning to the state, and I really look forward to how this particular concept plays out in our reading.
Hello Marley! Mentz made some great points. By looking at the ocean in a different perspective, it allows new doors in our lives to open. In his words, “new things become visible”. And this can lead to our way of thinking becoming more open-minded. With an open-mind, it gives us a new outlook on the world and ourselves. I think having an open-mind is very important especially in our society now. A lot of people express their own opinions however, they are unable to take in other’s.
His word #3: flow, also impacted me. Being messy, confusing and less familiar lets us be free and see things how we want to see them, rather than being told how to look at it. Also, by things being more confusing, we become curious which then leads us to finding out answers. Like you said, we can go out and create our own ideas and develop new perspectives. Great post!
Hey Marley!
I also like the concept of the ocean being played into how we should give structure a fluid autonomy. In class with Dr. Mentz, he indirectly points out that there is really no way of instigating what the focal point of Moby Dick was. I think, to add onto that and your point of seeing from multiple viewpoints and being open-minded, the ocean can be a chaotic body of water; but it can also be a harmonious body of water. The duality of the ocean as both these good or bad entities then kind of go with the idea that one should be open to different ideas but still have an identity of their own.