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Steven Holzer

Prof. Elena Glasberg

WTE Section 037

November 10, 2013

Linger or Slip Away

Water carves into rock as it flows past, and thousands of years later,

there exists a canyon of beautiful painted rock so wide that it is called Grand.

Garcia Lopéz de Cardenas was the first person in recorded history to

discover this grand crevice in the Arizona desert. In The Loss of the

Creature, Walker Percy suggests that Lopez de Cardenas truly experienced

the Grand Canyon because he was the first to discover it-discovery came as

a shock. The conflict that follows is how a sightseer can recover that same

shock of beauty in their own experience with the Grand Canyon or any other

perceived experience in their life?

Recovery, according to Percy, cannot occur alongside expectation and

the influence of others. In reference to an archaeologist showing an artifact

in a museum Percy states, “He would have done better to keep it in his

pocket and show it now and then to strangers” (760). In order to maintain

sovereignty, an individual power and memory, over the artifact, one must

see it in a raw form, without really knowing what the artifact is. The

“packaging,” a compilation of the expectation and connotations of the

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object, obscures its true beauty and detracts from perception. Recovery is an

explosion and an overwhelming sense of “wow” that can’t be replicated

within the confines of the stigmas a society can put on a famous experience,

like seeing the Grand Canyon.

When it comes to a natural experience like the Grand Canyon, Percy’s

approach is perfectly valid. However, in observing fine art, would it not be

better to understand where the artist is coming from and some history

behind the work? Recovery is a shock but also a lasting appreciation for the

experience. In this way, in order to really recover a piece of art, appreciation

is necessary. Wandering through museums in Rome would not be very

interesting without a little expectation, due to the many reckonings of

“Madonna and Child” by every artist in the renaissance and beyond.

However, if there is an understanding of each artist, each re-interpretation of

the same image of Mary and Jesus can become more interesting; sovereignty

and recovery can now take hold.

E.M. Forster, in his essay On Not Looking At Pictures, spends a

considerable amount of time experiencing paintings with his friend Roger

Fry. “He found it an amusing change to be with someone who scarcely ever

saw what the painter had painted” (706). In this situation, Fry is the one who

has a greater sense of sovereignty and recover, because of his

understanding of the artists and their work. Forster claims that by improving

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her ability to see what the painting is intended to mean, appreciation grows.

Understanding and appreciation are thus connected.

Two opposing, but logical, sides are now in play. Forster believes

recovery can happen in association with the knowledge and expectation of

others by creating a broader appreciation while Percy feels the shock and

awe of a new, raw experience is the true path to recovery. Perhaps a

compromise when reached could prove to be the true way to reach recovery

and appreciative sovereignty. Forster brings up that our age is an “aural

age” where sound has more weight and natural understanding than sight.

Does an aural experience shock the listener more easily than a visual one?

As a musician, the concept of aural experience is one I am very

familiar with. In college, I take a myriad of classes that involve listening and

interpreting what I hear, in order to understand what I just experienced. It is

through my improvement of aural comprehensive ability that I can enjoy

music on a deeper level than those who may not understand exactly what

the composer was getting at. Beyond understanding, in a more Percy-related

way, I experience music through feeling. In music theory, each chord has a

quality, whether major or minor, major seventh or minor seventh. Each

quality of chord has a mood- major being happy, minor being sad-in simple

terms. My favorite chord is the major-major seventh chord. This chord has a

major triad, a happy foundation, with a major seventh, an added note that

gives the chord a longing, nostalgic quality. It is in my relationship with

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major-major sevenths chords that I understand how Forster’s and Percy’s

views are similar and dissimilar. I can use others and my own expectations to

understand what makes up a major-major seventh chord and know when it is

used and appreciate its use in music, but without gut feeling and shock, I

can’t truly experience the chord. My experience is heightened by my

understanding and appreciation, but the foundation of my experience comes

from the emotional effect a major-major seventh chord has on my mood and

attitude towards what I aurally comprehend.

The poem below is Celery by Ogden Nash:

“Celery, raw

Develops the jaw,

But celery, stewed,

Is more quietly chewed.”

Celery is a rather aural vegetable that is creatively dealt with by Nash. The

experience of eating celery varies on its preparation, but in both cases

something is gained. Raw celery works the jaw muscles but is loud. Stewed

celery makes less noise but provides no muscular benefit. Does it make a

difference which way celery is prepared when it comes to truly experiencing

the vegetable? According to Percy, it depends on if you had experienced

celery before or if you had any preconceived notions surrounding it. Forster

might say the preparation is important to understanding how the celery

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works and to have a greater appreciation for how the celery came into its

raw or stewed state.

What does this have to do with sound? Celery, being a notably noisy,

or if stewed, quiet, food, it is an excellent example of incorporating sensory

perception into recovery. Sound is another way to attain knowledge through

experience, and therefore allows for a smoother landing space for the

helicopter of recovery. In the same way the perception of a major-major

seventh chord is influenced by gut feeling, the experience of eating celery is

influenced by sound.

But what if the experience of a major-major seventh chord or a stick of

celery or a painting or a canyon was determined by your attitude, not how

you approach the thing itself? In Margaret Atwood’s commencement speech

titled Attitude given to the graduating class of 1983 at the University of

Toronto, she considers that the world is paradoxical in that it is both good

and bad at the same time. Perhaps a major-major seventh chord, despite its

happy-sounding triadic foundation could be sad but happy at the same time.

Celery is paradoxical by being both loud and soft at the same time,

depending what it is compared to. According to Atwood, a bald man, who

may be scorned with shame about hair-loss could benefit from thinking “God

only made a few perfect heads, and the rest lie covered with hair” (Atwood).

If I take the same approach, regardless of my expectations and

understanding of the Grand Canyon, if my attitude is set one way of the

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other, the overall experience will reflect in that same way. To close her

speech, Atwood suggests “You may not be able to alter reality, but you can

alter your attitude towards it, and this, paradoxically, alters reality.” My

reality is altered by my attitude towards major-major seventh chords

because I recognize they are my favorite, so I see them in a more positive

light, related to how they make me feel. Celery is loud if I compare is to a pin

dropping, but soft compared to a jack-hammer, regardless of whether it is

raw or stewed. The Grand Canyon can either be beautiful painted rock

carved by water, or a big hole in the ground. I want to avoid saying that

every experience is can be good or bad depending how you look at it. I really

mean to say that after you have experienced something, whether it is

sightseeing a wonder of the world, or simply eating some celery for lunch,

how you felt at that moment is the overall gut feeling you will have when you

close your eyes and remember. Percy may be right in saying that the shock

of an experience makes a truer viewing and Forster may be right in saying

that understanding something does the same, but attitude is the water that

cuts to the core of perception.

The next time I listen to a piece of music I am going to critique it as I

usually do. I’ll figure out what the composer meant and I’ll search for my

favorite little nuances like the major-major seventh chord. I’ll have my

expectations of what comes next and I’ll appreciate the music as an aural

art. What will be different each time I experience that piece of music is my

attitude. I can use my senses and reasoning as much as I please, but in

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retrospect, how I feel will make my memory of it linger or slip away. If music

makes me ache for a lost love, the memory is kept by a deep longing, just as

memory of water over rock is kept by a grand canyon being formed.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. "Attitude." Address. Commencement. Canada, Toronto.

June 1983. Byliner. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

<https://www.byliner.com/margaret-atwood/stories/attitude>.

Forster, E.M. “On Not Looking at Pictures.” Occasions for Writing: Evidence,

Idea, Essay. Ed. Robert DiYanni and Pat C. Hoy II. Boston: Thomson,

2008. 706-08. Print.

Nash, Ogden. "Celery." The Best of Ogden Nash. Ed. Linell Nash. Smith.

Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2007. 288. Print.

Percy, Walker. “The Loss of the Creature.” Occasions for Writing: Evidence,

Idea, Essay. Ed. Robert DiYanni and Pat C. Hoy II. Boston: Thomson,

2008. 751-61. Print.