Tag Archives: Week 4

Power of Blue Humanities

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In the “Deterritorializing Preface,” Steve Mentz suggests replacing “field” with “current.” At first this may seem small and hold little meaning, but it changes how we think about knowledge and ideas. A “field” is something that usually means stable, rooted in one place, and often controlled. When I think of the word “field,” I think of a piece of land that’s fenced off or a “field of study.” Both of these appear to be pretty defined with not much movement. By using the word “current” instead, we can think about knowledge as something that is moving and shifting instead of stuck in the same place. 

A current is always moving. It goes in all directions and connects one place to another. The text asks, “What if instead we redescribe the adventures of thinking as currents, as a rate of flow and change?” This quote really stood out to me because it suggests that knowledge is placed into specific categories, and the word “current” allows ideas to circulate between people, cultures, and environments. Knowledge is something that should never be stuck or kept in one place. The movement of knowledge is what is important. We would never be able to advance or grow if everything we discovered had to stay put. 

Just like the ocean, knowledge is something that no one can own or control. By describing knowledge as something that is “current,” it allows us to see that knowledge is always changing and moving from place to place. Describing it as a “field” doesn’t work because knowledge is something that has no limit and will forever be growing. Knowledge becomes even more meaningful when it flows from person to person. This means we should expect ideas to change over time, and we should learn to see value in motion rather than in stability. 

Replacing the word “field” with “current” does more than just change a word. It gives us a whole new perspective on learning, history, and even politics. Instead of looking for straight answers or permanent solutions, the metaphor of “current” teaches us to look for connections and that motion is good. It means we are growing and adapting to what is new. 

The Poetry of Water in Odysseus and The Sirens

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What is intriguing about poetry is its fluidity. It is a genre of writing that has subgenres so vast and so up for interpretation. In “A poetics of planetary water” Steve Mentz states that “The term“poetics” […]functions as a singular concept: a poetics of planetary water aims to clarify the relationships between humans and water in all its forms and phases” (Mentz 139). Using a poetic lens in literature, especially in reference to water, not only deepens our understanding of water in human and planetary life, but it complicates it too. Using Mentz insight, The Sirens portion of The Odyssey water is not just background or a mere setting, it becomes an active force that shapes human fate and meaning. 

Water may be material that sustains life but it has throughout time and place carried symbolic and poetic meaning. Homer wrote about Odysseus’ journey through the ocean, and at one point Odysseus encounters Siren seas described as: “Sunk were at once the winds; the air above, / and waves below, at once forgot to move” (Penguin 11). Homer does not simply use the water as a means of transportation or material environment but instead uses it as a metaphorical threshold. The imagery creates a feeling of stillness that is both eery and enchanting. A poetic style, in this case, does what prose cannot; with a poetic style the sea is used to embody human vulnerability and temptation, as it shifts between calm and chaos. Whereas with prose you can use imagery but the rhythm and rhyme that helps support that shifting may get lost. 

Beyond the symbolic meaning poetics can help us connect natural phenomena, like water, with cultural meaning. We see in The Odyssey that elements of earth, wind and water, are personified: “Some demon calm’d the air and smooth’d the deep, / hush’d the loud winds, and charm’d the waves to sleep” (Penguin 11). When talking about elements—earth, air, wind, fire—one usually thinks of Science. Something that provides people with all the answers. Yet, this moment in The Odyssey may be scientifically calm, but poetically it is full of imagery of the supernatural and the unexplainable. It has even more personification of the elements which goes against black and white thinking that humans crave so deeply. In this case human imagination transforms water into a source of narrative, intrinsically linking myth and environment together.

The Flow of Language: Perception Sets the Seascape

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Perception is how we see the world, how we understand it, how we explain it –– but it’s also how we create our world. In Steve Mentz’s “Deterritorializing Preface” for Ocean, he calls for the reader to adapt their territorializing perceptions with adjusting the language we use. Mentz offers seven words to adjust, one I found particularly interesting was flow instead of progress. Mentz states, “thinking in terms of cyclical flows rather than linear progress makes historical narratives messier, more confusing, and less familiar. These are good things” (xvi). I find with changing language to flow there is less emphasis on an outcome than progress, reframing expectations and allowing for developments outside of the perimeters of anticipated progress.

Here’s why I think it matters, words carry weight and word choice frames perception. How we perceive the world is limited within the words we choose. If the attributes of a word are rigid we will accept what is being described as being rigid and incapable of flexibility. This might and often is not true, but the language and habit of that language limits the approach and the ability to change it.

For example, in the Westerner perception a term that is used often when describing non-white people is “minority”. This frames the Western perception (and dare I say myth) of a white majority. While it may be true in some areas it is not an encompassing truth and should not be passed off as one. Adding to that in our political and cultural understanding a majority is the “leading” group, this sets a dangerous precedent that influences behavior and opinions. What of instead of minority we used the term global majority? The frame of reference changes when considering the entirety of the planet and not just one corner or current of it.

As Mentz points out with his word adjustment, it changes the narrative. In the context of a minority and majority, understanding humans only inhabit a small portion or minority of the planet it reframes our perception of humans’ place on it. This awareness and could influence the decisions we make as a territorial minority to the seascape. As we could breach into uncharted waters that reframe our approach and attitudes, perhaps there will be more caution and discernment. Perhaps there will not be one understanding but an acceptance of how we are all in common water. Maybe then we can create our world not in the rigidity of territories and borders, but in the flow of the environment we exist in.

The Forbidden Fruit of Knowledge

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For centuries, stories about Sirens have been used to tell morals or pass down certain values to the next generation due to their wisdom. Though some stories use explicit language to tell readers what they should or should not believe, other tales are more subtle in their messages, and it is through literary elements (such as tone) that the audience is able to come to their own conclusion about the story. The use of literary elements to send a message can also be found in “Odysseus and the Sirens” from The Penguin Book of Mermaids, as the author uses negative language to describe the Sirens and their seductive ways. In particular, the author paints the Sirens as more animalistic than human to paint them as “devious” and “dangerous.” By painting the Sirens in this negative light, the text aims to illuminate the idea that, though these creatures are harbingers of knowledge and wisdom, humans must resist the temptation of knowledge that is not meant for them.

An example of the author using animal language to create a negative connotation around the Sirens and the dangers they possess occurs when Odysseus and his crewmen begin to sail past the Sirens. He notes that “Celestial music warbles from their tongue, And thus the sweet deluders tune their song” (34). The word “warbles” is particularly interesting since it is commonly used to describe when a bird is chirping or singing, something that you would not associate with human song. Using the word “warbles” becomes a deliberate choice from the author since it positions the Sirens as more animalistic than human and, thus, more untrustworthy. Rather than describing the Sirens as softly singing, the author uses this term to instill in the audience that while they may have some human features, their animal hybridity gives way to their deceitful nature. Odysseus and his men must resist the temptation of wanting to “learn new wisdom from the wise” (34) since it may not be to their benefit due to the Sirens’ duplicitous nature. Much like in the Garden of Eden, the Sirens try to tempt sailors with “information” that could lead to their downfall. The story of the Sirens becomes a cautionary tale of forbidden knowledge and the dangers it can have on those who are not meant to have this information.