Paper Post

Hey guys!
I know I am crazy late on putting this up, but I wanted to wait until I got a chance to meet with our professor before posting my currently atrocious work.

1. Title:

The Relationship of Attention and Perception as Described in Jonathon Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Proctor and Johnson’s Attention: Theory and Practice

2. Introductory Paragraph:  
Many literary works demonstrate the relationship between attention and perception. In the 18^th century, attention was defined in Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language as, “The act of attending or heeding; the act of bending the mind upon anything”. The current day definition by Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary reads: “The act or state of applying the mind to something”. Johnson described perception as, “The power of perceiving; knowledge; consciousness; Perception is that act of the mind, or rather a paffion or impreffion, whereby the mind becomes conscious of anything”. Merriam-Webster’s definition is as follows: “The result of perceiving: observation or a mental image”.  Overall, perception is the result of attention. To gain a consciousness or knowledge of something, you must first attend to it. As demonstrated by Jonathon Swift in Gulliver’s Travels as well as Proctor and Johnson’s Attention: Theory and Practice, attention is the basis for perception, and more attention is paid to those things that more greatly affect us. 

3. First body paragraph sentence:
Jonathan Swift writes a great deal about attention and perception in Gulliver’s Travels. In Chapter Two, Swift describes the way of life of the Laputian citizens. One specific quote that touches on attention and perception is as follows, “It seems the minds of these people are so taken up with intense speculations, that they neither can speak, nor attend to the discourses of others, without being roused by some external taction upon the organs of speech and hearing”.   
(Longer than a sentence, I know. But I wanted to give a sense of where I was going instead of just leaving just the first sentence)

4. Second body paragraph sentence:
These quotes not only correlate the attention and perception of the Laputians, it also compares the narrator’s attention to his perception.

5. Third body paragraph sentence:
Swift continues to describe the Laputians throughout the chapter and gives many more examples of attention and perception, such as, “Imagination, fancy, and invention, they are wholly strangers to, nor have any words in their language, by which those ideas can be expressed; the whole compass of their thoughts and mind being shut up within the two forementioned sciences”. This quote also proves that how much attention is paid to something relates how everything else in the world is perceived.  
(Again, more than a sentence, yes.)

6. Fourth body paragraph sentence:
Another reading that discusses attention and perception is Proctor and Johnson’s Attention: Theory and Practice. One quote that directly relates to attention and perception is that of Proctor and Johnson quoting Malebranche: “The mind does not pay equal attention to everything it perceives. For it applies itself infinitely more to those things that affect it, that modify it, and that penetrate it, than to those that are present to it but that do not affect it and do not belong to it”.   

7. Terrible Conclusion
If both Swift’s and Proctor and Johnson’s works are taken into consideration, it seems safest to assume that how you perceive things is, indeed, based on the amount of attention paid to them, and while perceptions (in the sense of both actual observations and ideas formed after an observation is made) can be unlimited, attention is very finite and is usually only paid to things that are most relatable to our lives.  
(It definitely needs work. I just somewhat feel like a good body is needed before a good conclusion can be written ;))

Thanks so much to anyone that is still checking blogs this late and wants to give me some feedback.
:)

 

Blooming Thoughts

“Hence proceeds the superior distinctness of pleasurable or painful imagery in our sleep; for we recall the figure and the features of a long lost friend, whom we loved, in our dreams with much more accuracy and vivacity than in our waking thoughts. This circumstance contributes to prove, that our ideas of imagination are reiterations of those motions of our organs of sense, which were excited by external objects; because while we are exposed to the stimuli of present objects, our ideas of absent objects cannot be so distinctly formed.”

-        Darwin, Zoonomia, “On Sleep”

“So the question is why, among all these beautiful things, do flowers so often push themselves forward as primary candidates for our sense of what imagining is.”

-        Scarry, Dreaming by the Book, “Imagining Flowers”

In these two quotes, I believe imagination is described in two different ways: one scientific, one romantic. The first quote explains that we dream about things more accurately than we see them because we are so overloaded with stimuli that we cannot imagine absent things because of so much stimuli. If this includes daydreaming, I definitely agree. If it is only in reference to dreaming while asleep, I personally cannot relate because I don’t vividly remember my dreams; I only remember bits and pieces. The second quote discusses that flowers are the poster child for imagination. I think these quotes are both extremely related. Picture a flower. It has some roots, a stem, some leaves, maybe some thorns, and a pretty little topper. Petals and colors and stuff; all very complex. I won’t go into the inner workings of the flower, because I am tired of hearing about cellular respiration, photosynthesis, the Calvin Cycle, types of cells, etc. in all my classes. But we all know they are gorgeous little complex things. So think about the roots in comparison with imagination. Every thought you have, has roots. Whether these roots are old experiences, new experiences, or just ideas of future experiences, they are the beginning of imagination. Then, we’ll discuss the stem. The stem could be viewed as the building up of an idea or imagination. For example, the formulation of a more detailed plan: the details are the stem. In my mind, the leaves and thorns are similar. The leaves are kind of branching off of an idea. They are side ideas, that you don’t really have time to work on at the moment but are there anyways. They are the good beginnings of a new idea. The thorns are also side ideas, but they are more like bad side ideas. The kind that you immediately squash and think you are silly for having. The flower itself is the finished product of your imagination; the gorgeous bloom of an idea. The flower is full of petals, just like your ideas and imagination is full of layers. When I relate the first quote to the second, it puts this in my mind: you cannot grow a flower if there is too much going on in your life. You have to water a flower, make sure it has enough sunlight, and sometimes talk to it (yes, really. It helps them grow). If you are too busy with school, relationships, or work, you do not have time to do all of those things. It is the same with formulating an idea or using your imagination. Having too much stimulation (aka all of those things that keep you from growing a flower) keeps you from sitting down and forming a complex idea. As we’ve discussed in class, overstimulation seems like it is becoming a problem in society, especially when it comes to attention. So when we are sleeping and dreaming or daydreaming, we are pulled away from all of that overstimulation and are more allowed to formulate ideas and use imagination, as explained by the first quote.  Enough of my word vomit. I want to hear some of yours.

The Magic of Reading...?

“‘Why don’t you get your task, instead of playing with your playthings from morning till night? You are grown too old now to do nothing but play. It is high time you should learn to read and write, for you cannot be a child all your life, child; so go fetch your book and learn your task.’”

-        Maria Edgeworth, Practical Education

“I must confess that I dedicate no inconsiderable portion of my time to other people’s thoughts. I dream away my life in others’ speculations. I love to lose myself in other men’s minds. When I am not walking, I am reading; I cannot sit and think. Books think for me.”

-        Charles Lamb, Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading

 

The quote I chose from Edgeworth’s work describes a specific moment in time when a child comes to distinguish between the words play and task- that ‘play’ can have a more negative and negligent connotation and ‘task’ has a more responsible one. In this specific quote, the child’s task is reading. This is the first quote in Chapter II of Practical Education, which is mainly about teaching children to read and write. Taken out of context however, it raises a completely different question and thought process for me. Since when did reading become a task? Understandably, for those that have difficulty with written language, it may not be the most enjoyable activity available. However, how can it be a task to take yourself away from the real world and drink in the thoughts of others- placing yourself in a completely different world? I believe that fits more with the definition of play than task. I know, for me, the stress of college and schoolwork, as well as social drama or my job, can become overwhelming. One of my biggest forms of ‘play’ is to lose myself in a literary work. This idea coincides with Lamb’s opinion on reading. In the quote from Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading, Lamb discusses how often he loses himself in others’ thoughts in the form of works of literature. He words our shared opinions perfectly when he says “Books think for me”. It is incredibly enjoyable to pull yourself away from all your worries and stress and just enjoy a book. Allowing yourself to have another world built up around yourself and to put yourself in the shoes of the main character, enjoying their problems and dilemmas and letting yours melt away. Lamb’s work is, like the title implies, very detached. He jumps from idea to idea, using numerous different forms of literature to support them. However, his main idea is consistent throughout: reading is enjoyable. He even describes that most books should not be feared- that their obvious wear implies they are enjoyable and good forms of entertainment. He also discusses that those books with less wear are probably less enjoyable, but that there are many books that have been read over and over, proving their worth. Reading some of my classmates blogs, I realized that the topic of EBooks was brought up. The question was raised of what will our children’s books look like? A question I have is possibly even more cynical. Will books even exist in the same sense that they do now? Of course those families that are very focused around reading will instill those ideas in their children, but with video games, movies, music, the internet, and all the other forms of technology, will reading hold the same importance? Will children steal away to their rooms to read books or will they just sit on the couch and play video games to escape the real world? I believe the latter would be a terrible tragedy, although I know others think totally different. I believe novels, poetry, and other forms of literature (yes, even textbooks) all have a large piece of magic. The idea that we can sit down, read a series of words, learn infinite amounts, and enjoy ourselves is absolutely magical. Hopefully, that magic will not wear out in future generations.