Tag Archives: the blue humanities

Steve Mentz’s article is truly noteworthy. 

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After reading Mentz’s article, it feels like my eyes have opened up a little bit more because of the details that I completely agree with. In the article, he quoted: “For literary writers and scholars, the ocean seems especially attractive because of its metaphorical vastness. The great waters represent a principle of narrative fecundity that Salman Rushdie has described as the “sea of stories.” (140). This quote is so interesting to me because, for a long time, I have been curious about the idea of: is there more to the ocean than just water? We all know that the ocean is vast. We all know it has tons of stories of people who are worth mentioning. This is when curiosity strikes me. I want to know more about the deep-sea creatures. Most people would think that such creatures would never exist, but the deep dark sea contains everything, and when I say everything, I mean creatures that our eyes could not even believe in. Mentz made such great points in this quote because, as scholars, we allow our curiosity to win over us. We study by gaining knowledge. We study by thinking about the possibilities of everything that could possibly happen at any moment. We create thoughts that are beyond the human imagination. We are attracted to the ocean not only because it has water, but because it creates images that allow us to visualize those stories in our heads. This is why Moby Dick plays a huge part in all of the articles we have read so far. The novel allows us to explore the mysteriousness that the sea offers to us. As scholars, we are not meant to know everything about the sea. We are meant to study it, to visualize it, and know the dangers behind it. When Mentz refers to ‘sea of stories’, I believe he is referring to the stories of the people who sail to the sea in the novel. There has to be people who challenge their lives in order to go out into the deep sea. Even though there are some points that I believe are spectacular and worth mentioning, this article still confuses me because it talks about the sea with poetics alongside other poets. Does this mean the ocean is the body of a poem? And people just sort of utilize it as a way to create more poems? I would love to learn more about how the ocean is associated with poetry because it definitely plays a huge role in explaining the vastness of the ocean.

“The Blue Humanities”

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I’m fascinated with this week’s reading, ” The Blue Humanities,” this article really stood out to me, especially this quote by: Jules Verne, who wrote: “The human mind delights in grand visions of supernatural beings. And the sea is their very best medium, the only environment in which such giants . . . can be produced and developed.” The fact that he mentions this on how the ocean can create such imaginative beings and creations of whatever comes to mind by the power of ‘nature’ is truly marvelous. Getting a bit off topic, as a child I was obsessed with anything of the ocean: animals, shells, sea creatures, mythical sea creatures, etc. Anything that involved the ocean I would write and create stories about it. Even as an adult I sometimes write and describe the ocean as an actual “human being” with emotions. The sea is full of mystery, wonder, power, curiosity in many aspects, and now being considered as a piece of art and inspiration to others for creativity and escape. Everyday people create stories and songs involving the power of nature to be used as an escape and appreciation, Melville being inspired by the ocean and thus came the creation of Moby-Dick, by wanting us to feel inspired by it.

“The Blue Humanities” and the Curious Nature of the Ocean

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Within the article, “The Blue Humanities” by John R. Gillis, alludes to the teachings of Emerson. Gillis writes, “[T]he desire for an experience of untamed nature originated in the eighteenth century among a small group of European aesthetes, for whom the awesome power of the sea, as witnessed from the safety of land, was a powerful emotional and mental stimulant”. It truly made me realize that oceanic research is so new to humans and the level of knowledge during the era of whaling. The newfound exploration of the nature of the ocean “became a fountain of images and metaphors” with the emergence of oceanic writings such as Moby-Dick. With Melville spending time at sea and having knowledge of the ocean, he used the ocean as a metaphor. What that metaphor is, is yet to come with my reading of the book. He allows the average person, who has no ocean knowledge, to immerse themselves into the curious nature of the deep undiscovered ocean.

The Blue Humanities – John R. Gillis

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I think what I connected to the most in John R. Gillis’ article The Blue Humanities, was his understanding of the way in which we as people get curious. It seems to almost be in human nature to want to understand what is unknown. We have always put our dreams into the vast unexplored spaces of the universe, i.e. space, unexplored land, etc, and the ocean is not an exception to that. The quote “Dreams and nightmares that had previously been projected on terrestrial landscapes were now invested in seascapes. Even as the oceans became an object of science, they produced new myths.” is one that I think reflects this perfectly. As we explore the sea more and more, it just becomes more apparent that there is so much of it that will potentially not even be explored in our lifetime, and this is what intrigues people. The unknown world that exists simultaneously with us creates an endless desire to understand it within people because it allows us to imagine what could possibly be living among us. It’s different from just reading a fairytale or fantasy book, this is stuff that could possibly be real and the less we know the more we want to. I think this concept also resonates with and connects to what Emerson was saying in his speech about going out and exploring nature in order to learn. The desire to understand the world around us and create ideas of what might be in the world around us allows us to become more independent thinkers. This allows our brains to be stimulated in a completely different way than just reading and understanding someone else’s point of view.

What is the ocean?

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Reading Gills’ article was mostly me reacting “oh right,” “that’s true,” “that’s fair,” “interesting, I share the same sentiments.” I was more in awe about the evolution of sea exploration than the studies themselves, how it went from “how to survive at sea” to “let’s explore more of the unknown.” It’s as if navigating the seas were just as treacherous as learning how to drive. But what fascinated me more is that writers and painters turned the ocean “into a place of spiritual and physical recreation… In an era when everything seemed to be in a state of becoming, (the ocean) represented the flow of life in ways that the land could not.” To me this means that the ocean became a literary device. For example, the ocean in Moana guides and lifts her spirits in her journey to Maui and Te Fiti. Metaphorically, in the Life of Pi, it both helps and threatens Pi with waves and storms. Then there’s a tiger, but even he is afraid of the water’s mysteries. Moana and Life of Pi are both works depicting the ocean playing different roles. It’s become a crucial literary device with cultural and symbolic significance.