In reading “The Blue Humanities”, I was very intrigued by the discussion of the unfolding history of the ocean, a place becoming more and more widely studied.
“More is known about the dark side of the moon than is known about the depths of the oceans,” writes the sea explorer David Helvarg. Yet large numbers of people know the sea in other ways, through the arts and literature. From the beginning of the nineteenth century, fiction has been imagining undersea worlds that explorers were unable to reach.
This short passage from the preface to the text stood out to me in particular. We have been studying pieces of literature all year that have unraveled the history of how the ocean has been viewed for centuries. For a long time, fiction was all we had to tie ourselves back to the ocean from which we evolved at the beginning of time. Time after time, our fiction has been proven to be accurate in many ways. We discussed in class how Hans Christian Andersen’s description of a living sea floor was outlandish at the time, but almost completely accurate from a modern, scientific perspective. Now that we can reach these depths and have the technology to truly understand the sea and all that has transpired there, who knows what new fiction will be stirred up? I don’t believe that the scientific exploration of the seas and discovering the “true” history of the oceans will stop mankind from thinking up oceanic stories to enchant generations. Sure, we may know more about the moon than our oceans, but that hasn’t stopped the continuous flow of “moon media”. After all, even when we have explanations for, or seem to be able to grasp a concept or space (practically a non-human one), we still find ways to pull art and literature from them.
Great point about telling stories about the things we don’t understand and feeling concerned about knowing too much… I’m very eager to discuss this in class because this gets to the heart of the question of the role of literature. Thanks for this provocative post.
Hello Nellie,
I really liked your connection of science research of the ocean and its imaginative and inspiring role in the realms of art and literature. It is interesting how you mention that fiction sometimes predicts a scientific discovery; it is a great reminder of how our imagination is often how we create meaning or understanding. I also liked your point that describing the ocean will always create stories and perspectives even as we figure it out.
Hi Nellie!
I really liked how you pointed out the endless possibilities of new art creations even if we know more about the ocean—and as we continue to discover more about it. One of my favorite things about art is most of the time it is up to interpretation to the viewer/ reader. Even if there might be an underlying right answer from the artist/ writer themselves, it doesn’t mean the audience can’t come up with new ideas into what something means. This creates a domino effect and new ideas can come about from the next person and then the next.