It was a bit difficult to understand, but the reading was interesting and also a way to understand the world differently. In the preface, ” Deterritorializing Preface” by Steve Mentz he mentions to us alternate from “land-based” thinking and to “ocean-based” thinking, which means he wants us of being stable and grounded with the same concept to see it as fluid, changing and spontaneous like the ocean itself. I enjoy the metaphors he uses to describe the ocean as something that can change our lives.” Our metaphors must float on water rather than resting on ground. In an aqueous environment, nothing stays on the surface forever.”( Mentz, xvi), this quote is very relevant and true because nothing stays forever as we must continue with more ideas flowing and coming to our lives instead of being stuck forever in the same routine, lifestyle, ideas, etc. We must continue to evolve in order to improve in our cognitive skills, specifically language.

Thinking, in a oceanic way, can help us see connections, vulnerability and also change our ways in life to something new. I always describe and see the ocean as a human being who can think, shape, and destructible. Amidst of climate change, we need to see the ocean as a a powerful force that can shape a human life. Observing on how the ocean is deteriorating slowly by pollution, plastic waste, etc, Mentz wants us to see it as an awakening towards the direction on how urgent

As we learn about blue humanities and sail through histories carried through bodies of water, we must confront the way colonization and imperialism have inherently shaped a culture of the ocean as a tool of the oppressors. While discussing language as a means to dissolve the invisible and terrestrial boundaries imbued by bureaucracy and imperialism, we delve into the history of lands discovered through ship sightings, a history of colonization spreading and arriving by ocean, and a legacy of human cruelty carried across oceans. I think about how the expansion of our language, or deterritorializing, might help us to decolonize a language and a sea of peoples so fragmented and disoriented from movement. Steve Mentz Deterritorializing Preface offers insight into how to Blue humanities, and the ungrounding of our language might help bridge the gap between “our shared cultural history.” 

This complex relationship with the ocean is confronted through the Ship. In this effort to decenter the terrestrial, the ship replaces the state, which “the dissolving force of oceanic history works against nationalism, though at times it may also tend in the directions of global or even imperial totality.(xvi)” The prevailing symbolism of the ship is, to many, an agent of imperialism and capitalism. The ship offers us a way to discuss the converging politics of the world, which have disrupted, uprooted, and scattered humans and cultures throughout the globe. 

While the ship offers an alternative understanding of hierarchy, community, and civilization, it also holds a fragile relationship with the shifting chaos of the sea, and the places it visits, disturbing and changing the fragile ecosystems it comes into contact with. 

In the preface to Steve Mentz’s work “Deterritorializing,” he offers several different ways to view the world (especially the Ocean) and our way of thinking. The first change he offers is current (formerly field); here Mentz talks about how we should shape our viewing on how we think in fields and areas of expertise. Instead of thinking of it as something that is stable and set in stone, we should think of it as something that is in current and always flowing. Our knowledge shouldn’t be thought of as restricted to a certain subject or area of expertise, instead we should allow our knowledge to flow like water. Mentz writes “Fields produce harvests but can lie allow. Currents flow. We need flow to know Ocean.” In his second change, Mentz writes about water (formerly ground). Here he talks about how we should be reminded that a majority of Earth’s surface is covered in water, not land. Mentz writes “Our metaphors must float on water rather than resting on ground. In an aqueous environment, nothing stays on the surface forever.” What I got from this was that nothing stays the same, much like the flow of water, things rise and sink, and so much our own knowledge of the world. Mentz’s third word is flow (formerly progress). Here we replace the idea of linear progress with the idea that things are constantly changing in flow. This of course changes and challenges our perception of all that we know, which Mentz claims is a good thing. The fourth word Mentz brings up is ship (formerly state). Here he writes, “The dissolving force of oceanic history works against nationalism, though at times it may also tend in the directions of global or even imperial totality.” Mentz is saying that unlike a majority of nations, ships are one place were unity and equality is truly real. Our politics should should no longer be focused on the ideas of state, but rather ship – “trading, fighting, hailing, sighting” as Mentz writes. In his fifth word, Mentz proposes the idea of seascape (formerly landscape). He questions whether our language is too visual, and says that underwater creatures don’t necessarily need to rely on sight as much as we do. The sixth change Mentz offers is distortion (formerly clarity). Distortion is important, it changes how we view things and how we think of things. It can allow for us to rely on ourselves and our own knowledge rather than what we see in front of us. His seventh and final word is horizon (formerly horizon). Here Mentz talks about how the horizon is a place where new things become visible. The horizon is important in life, it’ll always be there, offer new ideas and changes. Mentz’s changes on these seven words offer us a new perspective on life, our lives are parallel to water and we must be reminded of that.