• Question 1: Percy shows with his examples a way to break down the preconceived notions of the experience. With the examples to recover the experience of the Grand Canyon it gives ways to make the experience simpler. Every example gives a way to eliminate something that is clouding the way of discovering the Grand Canyon. After the examples of recovering the true Grand Canyon, Percy leads into the tourists from the Midwest in Mexico. These tourists struggle with differentiating between “authentic and unauthentic elements” of their trip in Mexico. They finally think that they have found “it” the authentic Mexico when they get lost and stumble upon a quaint village in the Mexican country. However, they are plagued by the notion that their jewel of an adventure may not really be “it”. They can only truly feel that their experience was real when they tell their ethnologist friend about the adventure, and he approves that experience really was one of a kind. The next example of Percy’s “loss of sovereignty” is a traveler in France who witnesses an altercation amongst French students over a play. The traveler believes that he has seen the true French, because he has read about this in novels and other writings. All of these examples portray Percy’s idea that we can never truly experience anything for ourselves. He starts with ways for us to recover the experience but then goes into details about how, even-though we can experience the situation, we still conform our experiences to preconceived ideas of how they should be.
• Question 2: In Percy’s essay he constantly refers to “loss,” the “loss of sovereignty” or the “loss of the creature”. This “loss of sovereignty” Percy is talking about is the tourists (consumers) giving up their right to have their own experiences. They instead need validation from a picture, an expert, or some kind of text to confirm that their experience was true and enriching. Students also experience this “loss of sovereignty” but in a different way than the tourists. The students learning experiences are spoiled by its presentation by the educator, and by the misunderstanding of the student when learning the information. Percy is conveying the idea that we have really all just become mass consumers. That we are not pushing ourselves to become the experts or the knower. He is saying that it is in our best interests to find ways to “go off the beaten track” or create a new experience of our own, and that we should no longer just be consumers but pioneers and adventurers to our own experiences.

Reactions to “The Loss of the Creature.”

• What are some questions the reading left you with? Is it possible for anyone to really enjoy an experience in their life? With the way Percy described the Grand Canyon and the dogfish it seems as if our opinions are clouded by everyone else’s opinions. Also, are we all just ignorant consumers, as Percy so lightly put it?
• What parts of reading did you struggle with?Why? I found it hard to get through some of the reading because he just overclouded the reading with an extreme amount of verbiage. I mostly understood everything, but the vocabulary I had trouble with I posted on the class wiki.
• Can you relate this reading back to our discussion of cliche? Percy’s attitude resemble’s many other essayists who believe that they have found the problem with society and are the only one’s who know the answer. Their attitudes are so well know that they start to be taken as self-righteous cretins(nice word) who are just full of a lot of hot air.

Liberal Arts Colleges

There are no secrets when it comes to finding your right path to a successful future. Liberal arts colleges provide all kinds of ways for you to figure out what you want to do in life. You’re not left hanging out there to dry, you’re given what you need to succeed.Picture by chimpsonfilm. Flickr.com

 

 

 

 

Feel secure that you will have a future career. With the requirements to take different classes and explore new fields you will gain the knowledge and experience that can help you excel in any career. The possiblities will be endless.Picture by cityoffederalway.com

 

 

 

 

There’s a variety of fields to discover and choose. Liberal arts colleges provide a variety subjects to explore. There is something for everyone to learn about and investigate.Picture by JulyCastle. Flickr.com

 

 

 

 

Allowing the mind to grow and explore new thoughts is a must at a Liberal Arts College. Nothing ever happened with people thinking the same way all the time. Liberal arts colleges push you to think differently and push the envelope. They want you think outside the box, as the cliche goes, and create new ideas that at the moment may seem unrealistic, but could actually be really innovative.Picture by AiYahh. Flickr.com

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