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Quotes of the Day - 28 June 2006
Nothing is quite coming out well for today's blog entry, so I'm just sharing a couple quotes from a series I'm reading right now.
"A great hypothesis is like a great poem, as long as it explains something central to the human mind it will stand." -- Sean Russell, World Without End
I think this illuminates both science and poetry, and it's a particularly interesting way to look at a poem, I think. Of course, the appeal of a poem isn't always about understanding the human condition--sometimes it's just playing with language or entertaining.
In the following passage, we hear from a man from Farrland (think late 18th- or early 19th-century England) who was been forced to make a living among the natives of Varua, a hunter/gather society. He is talking to fellow Farrlanders:
"'The truth is that after a few years on Varua, some aspects of Farr culture have begun to seem a bit strange to me... your way of seeing things changes when you live here. Back in Farrland you spend most of your time dealing with the world of men. Pursuing your vocation, paying the rent, the taxes, going to the theater, to the butcher shop, and the baker, answering your post. It is an endless succession of duties, but most of them are contrived by men. Here, on Varua, you seem to deal more directly with the world itself--or, perhaps, directly with life. A more elemental life. You harvest food from the trees and the earth, fish in the lagoon, repair your roof after a storm, gather firewood, raise children, help your neighbor. It seems more genuine, somehow, and the world contrived by men seems distant, and strange, and artificial. Oh, not that this life is all easy and good. I'm not a foolish romantic. I have lived here, after all, and can tell you it takes some work. And there are comforts you miss: books, a soft bed.' He held up his wine glass as further evidence. 'But, on balance, the things gained outweigh those lost. You cannot imagine how carefree and joyous the people are.'" -- Sean Russell, Sea Without a Shore
When it comes down to it, of course, both "civilized" people and tribal people are making a living in their different ways. It's about food and clothing and shelter and living with one another, but it's a question of the terms on which people live together. It's interesting to me not so much in a "let's go back to live in caves" sort of way so much as a way of looking at things from a different perspective, to see what we have and what we've lost in the move to civilization and consider how we might synthesize the best parts of both.