The Mote In Bobs Eye

The Mote In Bob's Eye

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TOPIC: The Mote in Bob's Eye
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/dba242a93b8c1465?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Fri, Aug 29 2008 11:12 pm
From: "Edward Forrest Frank"

The Mote in Bob's Eye

I am following Bob Leverett's account of he and Monica's western trip last summer as they appear. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment as soon as one is finished. I often tease Bob about the lack of photographs to accompany his musings, but perhaps that absence is not always a bad thing. Consider the writings of June 24th:

"The little shop advertising pasties had no coffee or donuts, and the owner's explanation of a pasty did not satisfy me, so we moved on until I saw another small shop also offering pasties. The second shop was bigger than the first. It looked more prosperous, so we stopped. Coffee was available as was a variety of novelty items - U.P. style. We bought thimbleberry jam (our first), a special nontoxic insect repellant recommended by the lady at the cash register, chocolate fudge, and oh yes, I bought a pasty. Monica wisely deferred, allowing me to be the Guinea Pig, or sucker."

In the text Bob describes the little shops selling pasties along the road. I am sure each of you can see those shops in your minds eye. What the words do is convey a feeling, an impression, and emotional sense about these pastie shop encounters. I am also sure that many of you have a favorite book or story that you read as you were growing up. Has this story ever been made into a movie? When one of my favorites has I have always felt a bit of disappointment with the result. The movie may have been well made, the acting may have been magnificent, and the special effects mind-boggling. But still the places did not look exactly as I had envisioned them in my mind. The people did not look how I thought they should look. The story did not feel the same. The movie may have been truer to the authors vision than the images in my mind, but the images in my mind is what is burnt into my consciousness.

With Bob's description I am sure each of you have an image of the pastie shop. I am sure each of your visions are different from each other, and that in turn is different from the actuality of the shops themselves. Would a photograph of the shops helped the description? I think not, the vision generated by his words provide a truer feel for the concept of the shops than would a simple photograph. A photograph would take away the images that have formed in our minds eye of the pastie shops, and replaced it with a reality that was much smaller, and much colder than our own.

There are things that a photograph does well. I like to see photographs of locations, great trees, and small. In these instances a photo brings home the details that are missing from a description. In most reports I think the more photos the better. However when conveying an emotional response, a lyrical description captures the mood in a way that a photograph can not. This is one of those cases.

Ed Frank

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