"It usually happens when I hear someone talking in Espanol. You see, I don't do Espanol either. I use to do Espanol, but it got me in a lot of trouble." (Herrera 175)
-In this quote Herrera is talking about speaking spanish. It's interesting that through the whole book he speaks so much of his culture but only at times like these shows his experience with it. The fact that he gets in trouble for speaking spanish is an interesting thought because that proves his point that American culture is so oppressive when doubled with a different culture such as chicano. The way he speaks about not being able to speak spanish seems kinda of reserved, he doesn't necessarily feel bad about it, its just easier.
"The explosion was the secret. The flavor, let's call it a flavor; it set out on its own. So fast, so alive - it disappeared. Then, I appeared."
-The above quote is from Herrera's last stanza in the last piece of work in the book. The piece is called "How to Make a Chile Verde Smuggler." While there are many different meanings that could be taken from this passage it struck me he was talking about his creation into the world, possibly his conception and birth. How he was made out of this "flavor" or this overpowering force, and it is what makes him and drives him. This could be love, although in the beginning he mentions the chiles from Food City and the "flavor" he speaks of could be related so, possibly, he is referring to his culture, because chiles are a very large part of chicano cuisine and one that he enjoyed. If this is the case he is trying to say that he is his culture, he is what makes it up, it lives inside of him and inside of his family and friends, He smuggles that culture around with him at all times, kindof like smuggling a chile....or being a chile verde smuggler.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (152-174) QR
"The Madonna also said that Tomasa needed 'un picaso' to be born: a pinch, a prick, a tony hole so she could burst forth. Three years later, blam, I was there." (Herrera 170)
-This quote explains how some people in Herrera's culture used their religion to get on top. Herrera doesn't seem to either dislike or like this in anyway. Similar to many of Herrera's opinions, he doesn't really feel particularly invested in it. It is his religion, yes, but who is he to judge how other people use it? This theme of non-judgemental thoughts about people is reoccuring throughout the book but, interestingly, only with people of the same culture. When it comes to other cultures he is overly critical.
"Hanoi knew what he was talking about. She knew it. She relaxed her thick left arm, took a breath, and called the dude with the white corduroy loafers." (Herrera 171)
-The above quote eludes to the enchilada sillouettes that Herrera talks about very often. The way that Herrera explains the mutual understandings between all these old friends makes you get a sense of the depth of their community and how tightly wound it is. The way that Hanoi responds to the demands of other people in the book is an interesting parrallel to draw with Herrera's mother, another prevalent woman character.
-This quote explains how some people in Herrera's culture used their religion to get on top. Herrera doesn't seem to either dislike or like this in anyway. Similar to many of Herrera's opinions, he doesn't really feel particularly invested in it. It is his religion, yes, but who is he to judge how other people use it? This theme of non-judgemental thoughts about people is reoccuring throughout the book but, interestingly, only with people of the same culture. When it comes to other cultures he is overly critical.
"Hanoi knew what he was talking about. She knew it. She relaxed her thick left arm, took a breath, and called the dude with the white corduroy loafers." (Herrera 171)
-The above quote eludes to the enchilada sillouettes that Herrera talks about very often. The way that Herrera explains the mutual understandings between all these old friends makes you get a sense of the depth of their community and how tightly wound it is. The way that Hanoi responds to the demands of other people in the book is an interesting parrallel to draw with Herrera's mother, another prevalent woman character.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (131-151) QR
"Of course, I am lying again. When you are down, like we've been, money is never the answer. By the time the bills roll in, we've transformed into being "espirituales." We've conned ourselves into a crazier gear than the one we were living in." (Herrera 136)
-This quote shows how Herrera believes that everything in his life has changed him forever. Being poor has made it so money won't help him. He believes that his position in society has made him so seperate from everyone else that now he is in a completely different "gear." He lives a life seperate from the rest of the world, him, his close companions against the world.
"Jim smiles at me. I mumble and stretch to one side. Sirens and hipsters shoot by the neon-spoked dreamy night. How about a smoke?"
-The above quote shows Herrera's discomfort in this situation. Jim for some reason seems to make him uncomfortable and shifty, which is shown through the nervous tone in his writing. The way Herrera touches on the "neon-spoked" night but avoids talking about it by saying "how about a smoke" lets the reader know he has many more thoughts about the idea of "sirens and hipsters."
-This quote shows how Herrera believes that everything in his life has changed him forever. Being poor has made it so money won't help him. He believes that his position in society has made him so seperate from everyone else that now he is in a completely different "gear." He lives a life seperate from the rest of the world, him, his close companions against the world.
"Jim smiles at me. I mumble and stretch to one side. Sirens and hipsters shoot by the neon-spoked dreamy night. How about a smoke?"
-The above quote shows Herrera's discomfort in this situation. Jim for some reason seems to make him uncomfortable and shifty, which is shown through the nervous tone in his writing. The way Herrera touches on the "neon-spoked" night but avoids talking about it by saying "how about a smoke" lets the reader know he has many more thoughts about the idea of "sirens and hipsters."
Thursday, May 17, 2007
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (106-130) QR
"How to roll up your catholic pleated skirt & look favorable, How to make braids out of anything even masa, or calcetines, How to take a two by four and make skates, surfboards" (Herrera 110)
-This quote is from the Notes on Other Chicana & Chicano Inventions. It shows Herrera's ability to see things realistly, just the way they are. He mentions catholic pleated skirts and your attention is once again brought to religion and the stress it puts on his culture. Rolling them up is a way of combatting that part of the culture. Making braids out of anything is also a way of saying that through all of the different difficulties in his cultures, arise being able to make the best out of anything even a "two by four."
"Ain't nothing better, than pulling over - after the pizca in Fresno, on the way to the next one in Delano. On a hot day leave the troke running..." (Herrera 114)
-The above quote explains how Herrera feels about this sense of freedom he gets when he's on the road. It's as if he's escaping from everything that his culture and all the cultures around him bring onto him. The way he says "troke", however, helps you to remember that even with this sense of freedom he stills feels weighed down by his accent, and a constant reminder of his life. This is in no way saying that he wishes he weren't chicano and isn't assuming it is bad to be chicano, but the way he describes his way of life makes him seem like at times he would just like to be a person, not a white person, not a chicano person, just a person in general with no affiliation to some particular culture or obligation.
-This quote is from the Notes on Other Chicana & Chicano Inventions. It shows Herrera's ability to see things realistly, just the way they are. He mentions catholic pleated skirts and your attention is once again brought to religion and the stress it puts on his culture. Rolling them up is a way of combatting that part of the culture. Making braids out of anything is also a way of saying that through all of the different difficulties in his cultures, arise being able to make the best out of anything even a "two by four."
"Ain't nothing better, than pulling over - after the pizca in Fresno, on the way to the next one in Delano. On a hot day leave the troke running..." (Herrera 114)
-The above quote explains how Herrera feels about this sense of freedom he gets when he's on the road. It's as if he's escaping from everything that his culture and all the cultures around him bring onto him. The way he says "troke", however, helps you to remember that even with this sense of freedom he stills feels weighed down by his accent, and a constant reminder of his life. This is in no way saying that he wishes he weren't chicano and isn't assuming it is bad to be chicano, but the way he describes his way of life makes him seem like at times he would just like to be a person, not a white person, not a chicano person, just a person in general with no affiliation to some particular culture or obligation.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (81-105) QR
"The invisble skull on the desolate hills of every California town opens its jaws of arranged imprisonments and decapitations. But, who listens?" (Herrera, 83)
-This quote is Herrera expressing his thoughts about the communities of California, and the world. The invisible skull is the mass culture that everyone is so imprisoned in and that seems to take everyones independence and along with it their happiness. The way the jaw of the skull opens is to Herrera a stirring in society but do they actually stir or do they just like the idea? No one truly listens to the poets lyrics, they just take novely in the idea of poetry, not the unique meanings of the words and emotions.
"This sounds religious and pious again, a bad Chicano habit." (Herrera, 86)
-The above shows Herrera really identifying with something that makes Chicano's different in his mind, makes his community unique. He doesn't necessarily despise it even though he calls it a "bad habit", he is only trying to express that it's something that defines him, and his relatives, his culture. The way he describes this habit and religious and pious is interesting because the words have very similar meanings so it must be that he is trying to draw attention to this religious factor. He doesn't necessarily embrace it but states it as a fact. Simply something that happens whether you try or not.
-This quote is Herrera expressing his thoughts about the communities of California, and the world. The invisible skull is the mass culture that everyone is so imprisoned in and that seems to take everyones independence and along with it their happiness. The way the jaw of the skull opens is to Herrera a stirring in society but do they actually stir or do they just like the idea? No one truly listens to the poets lyrics, they just take novely in the idea of poetry, not the unique meanings of the words and emotions.
"This sounds religious and pious again, a bad Chicano habit." (Herrera, 86)
-The above shows Herrera really identifying with something that makes Chicano's different in his mind, makes his community unique. He doesn't necessarily despise it even though he calls it a "bad habit", he is only trying to express that it's something that defines him, and his relatives, his culture. The way he describes this habit and religious and pious is interesting because the words have very similar meanings so it must be that he is trying to draw attention to this religious factor. He doesn't necessarily embrace it but states it as a fact. Simply something that happens whether you try or not.
Monday, May 14, 2007
First Paragraph for Comparison Paper
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and The Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler by Juan Felipe Herrera are both realist novels with romantic writing in the form of prose, and vignettes. They are both also about the authors’ growing up in America in a Chicano community. The books have very different feels, Cisneros is very fluid, with each piece pertaining to the last in a drawn out, visual story of her life. Herrera on the other hand is eclectic, showing the actual chaos of his life through the chaos of his writing. Both of the books also have one thing in common, they are incredibly relevant to today’s society. The way that children with all types of ethnic backgrounds are feeling growing up in America in contemporary times is shown in both books even if it wasn’t exactly the same time period when the books were written. The feeling of being trapped is one felt by many children today, with all privileges and all types of cultures. The American society has a way of strangling a person in their world, making them a prisoner in their life. The books show this feeling through incredible descriptive words and ideas. Both House on Mango Street and Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler are wonderful literary pieces to explain life in America today, and to show the way that writing can be so different but show the same thing so well.
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (56-80) QR
"Get horny with the wrong images...argue about salt...fear roses..." (Herrera 61)
-This quote comes from a poem titled Things Religion Makes Me Do. The way the author lists all of these things that are strange and out of place makes you believe maybe its his religion that is strange and out of place. Getting horny with the wrong images is simply his way of saying that it makes him believe things he shouldn't, care about things that don't matter. Arguing about salt is his way of saying his religion creates superstitions like the fear of roses, silly things that he believes are real and that make him argue for them and for his way of life.
"A woman asked me what writers influenced me, who did I read? I said, my mother. Lucha Quintana. Have you heard of that writer? The woman's neck twisted. No, she wanted to know "what writers"! She wanted to ask the usual worn phrase. Ginsberg, Anrtaud, Nervo, Lorca, Neruda, Popa, Hikmet, Rodnati, Walker. These are the shadows - I should have told her." (Herrera 69)
-The above quote shows you an interaction between Herrera and the people around him. He doesn't understand his "fame" in the writing world. He doesn't understand why, if people think he is special, which you should be to be famous, why they don't accept his differences, or even care about them. When he is asking the woman if she's ever heard of his mother it is a question he already knows the answer to but has meaning to him. To ask if she knows of her writing is to make her writing something that SHOULD be known and therefore something acceptable by the society as what he can base his writing on and what is allowed to be his favorite.
-This quote comes from a poem titled Things Religion Makes Me Do. The way the author lists all of these things that are strange and out of place makes you believe maybe its his religion that is strange and out of place. Getting horny with the wrong images is simply his way of saying that it makes him believe things he shouldn't, care about things that don't matter. Arguing about salt is his way of saying his religion creates superstitions like the fear of roses, silly things that he believes are real and that make him argue for them and for his way of life.
"A woman asked me what writers influenced me, who did I read? I said, my mother. Lucha Quintana. Have you heard of that writer? The woman's neck twisted. No, she wanted to know "what writers"! She wanted to ask the usual worn phrase. Ginsberg, Anrtaud, Nervo, Lorca, Neruda, Popa, Hikmet, Rodnati, Walker. These are the shadows - I should have told her." (Herrera 69)
-The above quote shows you an interaction between Herrera and the people around him. He doesn't understand his "fame" in the writing world. He doesn't understand why, if people think he is special, which you should be to be famous, why they don't accept his differences, or even care about them. When he is asking the woman if she's ever heard of his mother it is a question he already knows the answer to but has meaning to him. To ask if she knows of her writing is to make her writing something that SHOULD be known and therefore something acceptable by the society as what he can base his writing on and what is allowed to be his favorite.
Friday, May 11, 2007
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (29-55) QR
"What are we renewing? From what to what? How long-suffering is the transition?" (Herrera 32)
-This is an interesting quote because it shows you Herrera's deeper more thoughtful, less eclectic side. He is talking about life after death..."rising from the ashes", being reborn. His question for his friend Victor, that he is writing this letter to is why would you need to be renewed? After death why would you want to have to be turned into something else, and how long would this transition be. For Herrera that renewal is a painful idea, so why stand all that suffering for so long? What then is the point of death in the first place??
"What have we learned from our Capitalism? The decapitation of our joys? The desire for simulations of consciousness?" (Herrera 43)
-Here, Herrera is trying to figure out why America is the way it is. The societys that put aside all of their joys and livelihoods for this normal persona, this Capitalist ideal. Why do people have to constantly pretend to always be in the now and care about the now, the "consciousness"? This consciousness is the reason for people never seeing what they truly want, the reason people always put it on hold as if it doesn't matter. Why do they have to pretend to want these mundane things that "simulate consciousness" and make you believe you're part of some wonderful fast paced world???
-This is an interesting quote because it shows you Herrera's deeper more thoughtful, less eclectic side. He is talking about life after death..."rising from the ashes", being reborn. His question for his friend Victor, that he is writing this letter to is why would you need to be renewed? After death why would you want to have to be turned into something else, and how long would this transition be. For Herrera that renewal is a painful idea, so why stand all that suffering for so long? What then is the point of death in the first place??
"What have we learned from our Capitalism? The decapitation of our joys? The desire for simulations of consciousness?" (Herrera 43)
-Here, Herrera is trying to figure out why America is the way it is. The societys that put aside all of their joys and livelihoods for this normal persona, this Capitalist ideal. Why do people have to constantly pretend to always be in the now and care about the now, the "consciousness"? This consciousness is the reason for people never seeing what they truly want, the reason people always put it on hold as if it doesn't matter. Why do they have to pretend to want these mundane things that "simulate consciousness" and make you believe you're part of some wonderful fast paced world???
"Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler"-J.F. Herrera (1-29) QR
"Step ahead, be careful - the ice, you can slip." (Herrera 6)
-The way the author says this at the beginning of his poem about dropping his burdens is kindof a way of warning the reader. It makes the reader feel what hes feeling, that life is constantly on the edge, never stable. You could always fall, something could always go wrong. It gives the reader a heads up in a way for his poem to come, like the power of it is so great you might fall and slip into it like on ice. It also sets a tone of caution, of unpredicatability, of spontaneaity to the poem that you wouldnt feel without this line at the beginning.
"I worry about smiling obituaries...I worry about monolingual emergency signs..." (Herrera 28)
-This is part of a poem where the author simply lists over and over again "I worry..." and then whatever one of the things he worries about is. The funny thing about this poem is that much of it makes alot of sense. He worries about things that shouldn't happen, or that if they happen are probably worth paying attention to. The two worries above are good examples. Why would an obituary smile? To him that is something that you should be worried about, a person that spends all their time with dead people, yet smiles anyway. Monolingual emergency signs are also a worry because if they're monolingual some people will not understand them and therefore possibly be hurt, or is that for a reason??? He asks alot of indirect questions that have logical obvious answers but just are not thought of as important because they are so normal....or not ridiculously strange.
-The way the author says this at the beginning of his poem about dropping his burdens is kindof a way of warning the reader. It makes the reader feel what hes feeling, that life is constantly on the edge, never stable. You could always fall, something could always go wrong. It gives the reader a heads up in a way for his poem to come, like the power of it is so great you might fall and slip into it like on ice. It also sets a tone of caution, of unpredicatability, of spontaneaity to the poem that you wouldnt feel without this line at the beginning.
"I worry about smiling obituaries...I worry about monolingual emergency signs..." (Herrera 28)
-This is part of a poem where the author simply lists over and over again "I worry..." and then whatever one of the things he worries about is. The funny thing about this poem is that much of it makes alot of sense. He worries about things that shouldn't happen, or that if they happen are probably worth paying attention to. The two worries above are good examples. Why would an obituary smile? To him that is something that you should be worried about, a person that spends all their time with dead people, yet smiles anyway. Monolingual emergency signs are also a worry because if they're monolingual some people will not understand them and therefore possibly be hurt, or is that for a reason??? He asks alot of indirect questions that have logical obvious answers but just are not thought of as important because they are so normal....or not ridiculously strange.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Interview
Interviews being conducted through Melissa Larson who is forwarding emails to others.
(only 7 questions because the start of a dialogue will bring more questions and answers)
-How long have you been attending the Burning Man
Festival?
-What do you feel are the highlights of the festival?
-Does attending Burning Man change your view of your
life after and before the festival?
-What would you say are the biggest changes you make
when at Burning Man in terms of emotional and living
changes.
-Are there specific feelings that you associate with
arriving at the festival and leaving the festival?
-What do you think are the main things that make the
festival counter culture, or different? (if you agree
it is, if not I'd love to hear your thoughts)
-Is there anything else that you think would be
beneficial to my project??
(only 7 questions because the start of a dialogue will bring more questions and answers)
-How long have you been attending the Burning Man
Festival?
-What do you feel are the highlights of the festival?
-Does attending Burning Man change your view of your
life after and before the festival?
-What would you say are the biggest changes you make
when at Burning Man in terms of emotional and living
changes.
-Are there specific feelings that you associate with
arriving at the festival and leaving the festival?
-What do you think are the main things that make the
festival counter culture, or different? (if you agree
it is, if not I'd love to hear your thoughts)
-Is there anything else that you think would be
beneficial to my project??
Monday, May 7, 2007
Selections from "A House on Mango Street" - Sandra Cisneros QR
"..the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa had nailed on the windows so we wouldn't fall out. You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there." (Cisneros, 748-The House on Mango Street)
-This type of writing that Cisneros has such an incredible dominance over just shows you every emotion in an image. It brings to life the words and makes you see straight out of the eyes of the narrator. Its almost as if Cisneros doesn't have to say "it made me feel like nothing" because the reader feels like nothing just reading it. You hear the nun's voice and you feel the shame that makes this girl and yourself feel so small and useless. This is also a good quote just to show the way that many people feel about their lives, in America or anywhere else. America especially however because of this expectation of living that we seem to have.
"She likes looking at the walls, at how neatly their corners meet, the linoleum roses on the floor, the ceiling smooth as wedding cake." (Cisneros 749-Linoleum Roses)
-Once again Cisneros draws you into the life of Sally. This girl who, desperately trying to get away from her father, her life, her emptiness, got married too young and now is taking pride in the only thing she has, her possessions. This quote shows an extreme of women in society. It shows the prison many of them lived in during their marriages and the desperation that they had which, in turn was translated into a strange artificial love for things such as ceilings, and walls, and lamps and rugs.
-This type of writing that Cisneros has such an incredible dominance over just shows you every emotion in an image. It brings to life the words and makes you see straight out of the eyes of the narrator. Its almost as if Cisneros doesn't have to say "it made me feel like nothing" because the reader feels like nothing just reading it. You hear the nun's voice and you feel the shame that makes this girl and yourself feel so small and useless. This is also a good quote just to show the way that many people feel about their lives, in America or anywhere else. America especially however because of this expectation of living that we seem to have.
"She likes looking at the walls, at how neatly their corners meet, the linoleum roses on the floor, the ceiling smooth as wedding cake." (Cisneros 749-Linoleum Roses)
-Once again Cisneros draws you into the life of Sally. This girl who, desperately trying to get away from her father, her life, her emptiness, got married too young and now is taking pride in the only thing she has, her possessions. This quote shows an extreme of women in society. It shows the prison many of them lived in during their marriages and the desperation that they had which, in turn was translated into a strange artificial love for things such as ceilings, and walls, and lamps and rugs.
topic for Paper #2
A comparison of two very different books, Dharma Bums and The Great Gatsby. Focusing on particular characters and parallels of how realism creates an avasion to life commitment, creates the tendency to drift. Characters will be compared: Japhy, Ray, Nick, Gatsby (possibly to japhy)
Sunday, May 6, 2007
"Seeing" - Annie Dillard (Second half) QR
"..daughter carefully shuts her eyes whenever she wishes to go about the house, especially when she comes to a staircase, and that she is never happier or more at ease than when, by closing her eyelids, she relapses into her former state of total blindness." (Dillard 702)
-This quote is when the author is discussing a book she read about people who are blind and are given their sight through surgical procedures. The way that she talks about these people seems to make you think she envys these people. They are discovering something completely new and wonderful to them. Everything in the world is beautiful to them, every color different and new. She envys this because to her the world is just a blur, she wants that new discovery, that special love for something new. At the same time she realizes how much easier it would be to be able to avoid all that. Never have to deal with seeing, never have to watch yourself do something, watch yourself fail, be able to have an excuse for not loving some small thing the way that people like thoreau do.
"I stood on the grass with the lights in it, grass that was wholly fire, utterly focused and utterly dreamed. It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen..." (Dillard, 706)
-The author finally finds what shes looking for. Something so beautiful to her that it seems to be reflecting back, awakening her life. She feels "seen" for the first time, by herself, by the world. To her the lights she sees are something shes worked to see, theyre hard to see because its hard to let yourself completely believe in that beauty that is so encompassing.
-This quote is when the author is discussing a book she read about people who are blind and are given their sight through surgical procedures. The way that she talks about these people seems to make you think she envys these people. They are discovering something completely new and wonderful to them. Everything in the world is beautiful to them, every color different and new. She envys this because to her the world is just a blur, she wants that new discovery, that special love for something new. At the same time she realizes how much easier it would be to be able to avoid all that. Never have to deal with seeing, never have to watch yourself do something, watch yourself fail, be able to have an excuse for not loving some small thing the way that people like thoreau do.
"I stood on the grass with the lights in it, grass that was wholly fire, utterly focused and utterly dreamed. It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen..." (Dillard, 706)
-The author finally finds what shes looking for. Something so beautiful to her that it seems to be reflecting back, awakening her life. She feels "seen" for the first time, by herself, by the world. To her the lights she sees are something shes worked to see, theyre hard to see because its hard to let yourself completely believe in that beauty that is so encompassing.
Friday, May 4, 2007
"Seeing" - Annie Dillard (first half) QR
"But I don't see what the specialists sees, and so I cut myself off, not only from the tottal picture, but from the various forms of happiness." (Dillard, 694)
-The above quote just shows how Dillard is trying to explain how, because she has no specific love for anything her world is very small. She doesn't see specifics or large pictures, she only sees her life, bland and unexamined. She can't enjoy anything, any form of happiness because to her nothing is special, nothing is beautiful in ONLY her eyes. Because she cant see any of those things that people with special loves sees she simply refuses to see anything in particular and walks around in a haze.
"Thoreau, in an expansive mood, exulted, 'What a rich book might be made about buds, including, perhaps, sprouts!' It would be nice to think so." (Dillard, 694)
-This further shows the authors desire for some type of belief that clouds her judgement. She wants to believe just to believe and be able to have complete faith in something. The way thoreau is so in love with his work that he is fascinated with every single aspect of the smallest things such as peas and sprouts is a type of metaphor for her life. Her life has nothing small and fascinating in it, which in term tends to belittle her life making her feel small and unimportant herself.
-The above quote just shows how Dillard is trying to explain how, because she has no specific love for anything her world is very small. She doesn't see specifics or large pictures, she only sees her life, bland and unexamined. She can't enjoy anything, any form of happiness because to her nothing is special, nothing is beautiful in ONLY her eyes. Because she cant see any of those things that people with special loves sees she simply refuses to see anything in particular and walks around in a haze.
"Thoreau, in an expansive mood, exulted, 'What a rich book might be made about buds, including, perhaps, sprouts!' It would be nice to think so." (Dillard, 694)
-This further shows the authors desire for some type of belief that clouds her judgement. She wants to believe just to believe and be able to have complete faith in something. The way thoreau is so in love with his work that he is fascinated with every single aspect of the smallest things such as peas and sprouts is a type of metaphor for her life. Her life has nothing small and fascinating in it, which in term tends to belittle her life making her feel small and unimportant herself.
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