Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Sense
"The Hand" From her section on Touch:
Ackerman engages her reader throughout the book with her blend of historical facts and a humorous experience/story. In "The Hand" she begins this section with her experience at a psychics convention in New York. She makes the reader laugh through her mocking that "If it's a psychics' convention, shouldn't everyone just know where and when to meet?" This continues when she recalls her experience with the palm-reader that fails to predict anything about her or her future. Through this strategy of storytelling, she captures her reader before she goes off into the history of hand touching and importance of fingerprints. By having her reader's attention, she can then demonstrate how hands are the "messengers of emotion."
I thought it was really interesting that she said hands are the "messengers of emotion", so I thought it was really cool that you quoted that!
ReplyDeleteHow do you feel about the whole psychic thing? Do you think it has any truth behind it, or just hocus pocus?
You chose an interesting section to write about!
Good job!
Yeah, there are sections of Ackerman that I really do enjoy and feel like her words have so much power to them. That metaphor is definitely one of them.
DeleteHmm, I don't really know about the psychic thing. I kind of feel as though it is all hocus pocus and half the time they are making things up. Or they are so generic or vague that it could apply to anything. Like horoscopes? But then again when I read them, I still sometimes get wrapped up and think they are telling the truth.
What about you?
DeleteI'm glad you touched upon this section because I loved it. Have any of you read Douglas Adams? 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' author; he is my favorite of all time and his writing is very similar to the passage you mentioned, except Adams is much more erratic and crazy. And I too think its cool that she can tell a funny story and connect it to a sociological hypothesis.
ReplyDeleteAckerman's humorous comments are so funny to me because they seamlessly find their way into huge, descriptive, and (sometimes) ludicrous sections of writing. If I ever got to meet Ackerman I would just try to get her to tell as many jokes as possible. I imagine Ackerman's voice in real life would be overly dramatic and her laugh would be insane.
ReplyDeleteYou can meet her on April 10th, Zane. It's happening.
ReplyDeleteNice post here, E. You're doing it for real here, analyzing something that's actually going on in the writing, and not just summarizing. So, telling a little story works as a bridge to the commentary in Ackerman, and can do the same in our essays.
DW