Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
by Annie Dillard
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Book Summary Information
Author: Annie DillardEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-06-12
ISBN: 0061233323
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780061233326
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
Book Review: Can the blind really see?
Summary: 4 Stars
A Pilgrim can be characterized as a sightseer on a journey, and Dillard attempts to view all there is to see in an effort to be what she calls a bell, reaching to the masses about the mysteries inherent to a third rock life. On her many excursions, she reported that she observed tremendous beauty and paradox, balanced disorder, and magnificent transformations intertwined throughout the nature surrounding Tinker Creek. Dillard does not attempt to explain what it means. Instead, she attempts to share her puzzled wonder about the earth, universe, and the elusive, inscrutable meaning of life.
The quote at the beginning of the book by Heraclitus speaks of a elemental force that had been in existence without human intervention. According to Wikipedia, Heraclitus, whose philophy was difficult to understand, was born 535 b.c.e., and so the question of how the earth came to be in all its layers and intricacies has long been pondered by humans on their earthly tours. Dillard seems to be one in a line of narrators speaking about the complicated ambiguities built into our existence. She writes about spending many days learning to see clearer, but she still did not detect the reasons why we fear, exist, or even see. Clearer vision only caused her to have more of what she hoped were pertinent questions.
One of the many questions Dillard brought up pertained to light and darkness. She told of men traumatized into not looking at water because they encountered too much sun light. Maybe too much light for human eyes is similar to having too much information. In this world of ever changing technology, I finally understand Dickens's character Fezziwig from the movie A Christmas Carol when he says he will die out with the old ways. There is always some new website or game to see, but I think too much unnecessary data stresses the brain, just like too much light can strain the eyes. We appear to have been created with a limited capacity for observing light.
Dillard also talks about her fear of the dark, and it is comparable to the human fear of mystery. Some people claim to know about how the universe was made and how it will end, but in my extremely humble and ignorant opinion, I think that this belief may be based on fear. My little brother was afraid to look in his closet when it was dark. There was nothing that could be said to convince him that the same things existed in the dark and light. Metaphorically, if humans saw what was in the closet, maybe we would react like some of the blind people in the book who had cataracts removed from their eyes. Conceivably, we could want to close our eyes again. I wonder if life is more comfortable if you have synthetic-like answers for things that are unexplainable. Unfortunately or fortunately, Dillard does not come up with any clear cut answers, except that she says she by seeing clearer she understands that she does not know the answers.
Damn! Whatever is going on it is definitely not boring. Dillard describes how we are spinning and traveling through space at breakneck speeds, how she collected dirty pond scum full of amazing creatures, being dazzled by free and breath taking sunsets, vision that briefly changed to let her eyes see something she had been blind to, animals killing each other for survival, and humans suffering for no apparent reasons. Classes and species are living next to each other with interconnected fates. What kind of splendid, brilliant, and fantastic creator could have put all this together? I'd wager that there is a partial answer somewhere nearby where we have not thought to look.
Summary of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Blue Ridge valley. Annie Dillard sets out to see what she can see. What she sees are astonishing incidents of "mystery, death, beauty, violence."
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