My students live in a panpsychist world.
How else explain the neediness of abstract or nonanimate things? Punishment needs to be dealt out. Merit needs to be rewarded. Attention needs to be paid.
With (reportedly first-remarker) Pythagoras, Spinoza, William James, and others, my students believe “everything is sentient.”
Here we have Nature, possessing the ability to be seen. She is visible! She is visible, in fact, “in” a variety of perspectives. This phrase evokes Andrew Marvell’s charming poem “The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers.” It ends:
But O young beauty of the Woods,
Whom Nature courts with fruits and flow’rs,
Gather the Flow’rs, but spare the Buds;
Lest Flora angry at thy crime,
To kill her Infants in their prime,
Do quickly make th’ Example Yours;
And, ere we see,
Nip in the blossome all our hopes and Thee.
Little T.C. is “in” a prospect of flowers because she is “in” the picture, and the picture shows a prospect. I guess Nature could be seen “in” perspectives in the same sense.
But I believe my student meant that Nature can be seen from a multitude (why not “variety,” which is more to the point perhaps?) of perspectives: hence poetry.
Now, “can” might also imply sentience, or capability, on the part of Nature; acceptable usage lets that one slide. “Possesses the ability to” cannot be grandfathered in, though.
Well, on Thanksgiving Day, with a pie in the oven, one should not carp.
One should look up from one’s plate and gaze upon the variety (and, if you’re lucky, multitude) of faces looking back. One should consider the seemingly infinite variety of Nature, of which those dear faces are examples. One should be grateful not only that such variety—and such loveliness—exist, but also that they are visible. Whether everything is sentient or not, WE are sentient. Celebrate it.
Today, give thanks for everything. Tomorrow, the red pen. Tomorrow, gather the blossoms. Root out the weeds, by the way! But try even then to spare the buds. Mantra for a writing teacher?
November 22nd, 2012 at 10:08 am
Favorite line: One should be grateful not only that such variety—and such loveliness—exist, but also that they are visible. Happy Thanksgiving!
November 23rd, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Hope your Thanksgiving was happy too. Thanks for your visit!
November 22nd, 2012 at 10:09 am
“For everything that Lives is Holy.”
Happy Thanksgiving, especially to the literate and literary walking among us.
November 23rd, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Beautiful. And hope your Thanksgiving was as happy as mine.
November 22nd, 2012 at 11:08 am
HAppy Thanksgiving – and thanks for trying to herd muddled heads in a positive directions
November 23rd, 2012 at 1:46 pm
We do what we can…. hope your Thanksgiving was also happy!
November 23rd, 2012 at 10:12 pm
I hope you enjoyed the presence of all the lovely beings around your Thanksgiving table.
November 24th, 2012 at 9:48 am
Very much, thanks–as the Madwoman of Chaillot says, all the creatures, real and imaginary. Hope to say for you too!
November 27th, 2012 at 11:36 am
Dear RAB:
Thank you for sharing your amusing etymological and linguistic observations, which are enjoyable to read.
I also wish you a joyous holiday season with your family and friends, and a memorable new year.
Yours truly,
Grace Reeves
December 30th, 2012 at 11:49 am
Thanks so much! Same to you!
November 27th, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Still catching up after Thanksgiving activities, and I have to say what a beautiful example this is of a sentence perched on the fence between active and passive voices. Active in form and passive in content. Try replacing “possesses the ability to be” with “can be.”
Reminds me of something my father used to say, so many years ago that I can no longer remember whether it was “It didn’t fall; you dropped it,” or “It didn’t break; you broke it.” “It fell” and “It broke” are both active voice formations of “It was dropped” and “It got broken,” but both manage to avoid any mention of the real subject of the sentence.
December 30th, 2012 at 11:04 am
[…] in a while I will bow to the vernacular, but student writers seem to choose this structure and use it again and again. Are they reluctant to bring themselves into the sentence? Or do they […]