Sunday, November 20, 2011

And finally...

So, your final reading this term was Willa Cather's "Tom Outland's Story," which brought our study of argument back to the region, in fact the state, in which we've been studying at New Mexico Tech.  What effect did this verisimillitude of place have on you, as you worked with the text and tried to bring some of its ideas/arguments into communication with others we've studied this term. Did this "in our place," in New Mexico, component of Cather's story have any impact on your reading, interpretation, or application if it?

17 comments:

  1. Living in New Mexico and seeing the beauty the state holds definately helped when reading Cather's story. Capturing the essence of what the state has to offer is near on impossible in words. Having seen first hand some of the beauty of the state, it let Cather's descriptions come alive in my mind based on what I've seen of the state. This produced a much more vivid mental image of the story, and allowed much more appreciation of what Tom was going through and discovering. Cather was trying to convey the awe of seeing the sites for the first time, and having been through that awe, I could greatly sympathise with what Tom was seeing and going through. All of this really helped make it a more powerful story and hit it closer to home. It would not have been nearly as good if I hadn't lived in New Mexico and seen the sites.

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  2. Having visited many ancient Native American ruins and cliff cities in the past, I felt I had a small connection with the story. I could picture the "buildings" Tom was describing, as well as the pottery. Also, having lived in New Mexico for my entire life - albeit in a large city - I can somewhat understand Tom's confusion of and distaste for the fast-paced life in Washington D.C. I have also had many chances to visit wide-open, completely natural places, and so I can also somewhat share in Tom's love and connection for the place. The history of this region is much more closely related to Native American influence than are other local histories in America. So, having learned much Native American history, and could therefore relate to it, and also could relate more completely to Tom and his discovery as I was reading the story.

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  3. I have lived in New Mexico for many years now. I have seen many different Native American ruins both in this state and out side of it. I have seen both Bandelier and Mesa Verde. The story of Tom Oultand, I could see the description of the cliff city and the mesa itself. I have also been to Wasington DC and can relate to the issues of being from a small city and trying to deal with a larger city like that. I think that being exposed to the region and to the Native American tribal people, it does have an impact to the reading, and at least to me, a better appreciation of the story.

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  4. For me, having a text where the location is based off of an area I'm familiar with is a rich and satisfying experience. From my travels across New Mexico and visiting the ruins of Mesa Verde in Colorado I was able to truly picture many of the places she describes throughout the text. The land is no longer a vague description of a distant land but my home where i'm familiar with the plants and animals, and i have walked amongst the very landscapes she discusses. Comparatively, I have never been to Washington D.C. and although I could picture the area between her descriptions and facts I know about the city, it did not contain the same vivid imagery available to me within Tom's time in New Mexico.

    As a side note - I have one scene in particular that stood out to me because of living in New Mexico. It is toward the end of the story when Tom is staying on the Mesa alone and walks out to a beautiful sunset. Although Cather does an excellent job describing the scene, it was made all the more special for seeing hundreds of similar sunsets. I have had the chance to see sunsets across America, and , although all were beautiful, none were quite like those i have seen within New Mexico. By the familiarity to this nightly miracle, I was able to not only picture the sunset, but also add my emotions and views from the times I, myself, got to view such beauty. Altogether I would have to say that living within New Mexico not only enriched but truly clarified the story for me. it also made everything a little more powerful and dynamic.

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  5. It seems as though Cather expresses two forms of American Culture in “Tom Outland’s Story.” She draws in aspects from the American West as well as big-city Eastern American values as she moves the reader through the story. Having lived both in New Mexico as well as a small town just north of Philadelphia for much of my life, I found myself connecting very well to what Cather was trying to say, especially for the section in which Tom analyses Eastern American culture as compared to the region he came from. As I read through this part of the book, I was better able to see what Cather was trying to say because I have lived in both areas involved.

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  6. As an outsider, I was born and raised in Washington State, Cather actually allowed me to understand this region in a deeper sense. It allowed me to place New Mexico instead the US, not geographicly, but culturally and historically. Tom's discovery of the cliff city highlights the fact that New Mexico has the oldest and richest recorded history of the fifty states and the importance of the native peoples (native Americans)to the history of the region. Tom's experience in Washington DC, alludes to the difference of New Mexico from other, more ubanized states. Coming from the Seattle area, I have certainly seen a difference of culture here in New Mexico, than Washington, and also the North East (with my limited experience traveling there). I have noticed that New Mexicans are less diversive than and laid back than those in more populated states. Thus Cather confirms my observations about New Mexico

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  7. By spending most of my life in New Mexico and experiencing not only the city life but also the country life, I was able to connect with Willa Cather’s text. Through her descriptions of the mesa and of the ruins, I could feel the excitement and wonder Tom experienced when he discovered this area. The mere choice of diction within this story allowed me, as a reader, to “walk” in the footsteps of Tom. I have also traveled many places across the country, even to Washington D.C. I can understand Tom’s distaste for the capitols fast moving and hectic life. The east coast is definitely different from the natural places in New Mexico. By understanding Tom’s admiration and connection to the cliff dwellings, I was able to relate more to Tom and his findings while reading the story.

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  8. In reading Tom Outland's story, I had a greater appreciation of the places that Tom visits and his experiences at those locations because of the time that I have spent in New Mexico. However, that is pretty much the extent of how living in New Mexico influenced my interpretation of "Tom Outland's Story." I don't feel that my final essay would be drastically changed if I were writing in any other state. Did I appreciate Cather's story more since I'm currently living in New Mexico? Yes. Was there some real application of this appreciation in the writing of my final paper? Honestly, I don't think there was.

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  9. Living in New Mexico doesn't make it feel any closer or "realer" to me than any other place that the texts have been located to me. Perhaps it is because i am so used to traveling that locations feel less "idealized" to me than to other people. When Cather sent Tom to Washington D.C. I've been there so it isn't hard for me to get the feel of D.C. even if Cather didn't write the atmosphere into her book. Following from my thoughts about New Mexico be "more real" to me than other locations I also feel that living in New Mexico has had no impact on my reading, interpretation, or application of Cather's story.

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  10. I have not spent much time in New Mexico prior to the beginning of classes so in reading "Tom Outland's Story" I did not feel any connection to New Mexico specifically. I did feel a connection to the type of terrain because of my time living in Arizona. Having been in a region with the same type of terrain as the Blue Mesa in the story helped me relate to Tom's fascination with the Mesa.

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  11. Having lived in New Mexico my whole i was able to feel a connection to Tom Outland. His descriptions of the cliff city were vivid and made sense to me because i have seen many ruins. Because of my life in New Mexico I can't say that I was impacted greatly by Tom's story because it was familiar to me.

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  12. having lived in New Mexico my whole i have been exposed to a lot of native American history, anywhere from visiting many of the pueblos in the north to personally seeing the Gila cliff dwellings in the western part of the state. as a child i was also fortunate enough to have had the opportunity of discovering artifacts from arrow heads to pottery on my parents land. so for me having grown up in New Mexico gives me a great appreciation of the reading and it was very entertaining having seen sites like the one described in the book in real life.

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  13. I personally felt a very close connection to "Tom Outland's Story." I have lived in Northwestern New Mexico my entire life and have gotten the opportunity to tour some of the most beautiful Anasazi ruins of the area. The Cliff City Tom finds was based on the real ruins of Mesa Verde. The way Cather described it painted a picture in my mind of the time I actually visited Mesa Verde a few years ago. I have always found New Mexico to be a beautiful and breathtaking place, a true "Land of Enchantment." Cather's story echoed these beliefs and that made the story so much more significant to me. Also, I have also visited Washington, D.C., so I felt a connection to that part of the story as well.

    It is obvious that Willa Cather tried very hard to relate New Mexico's natural beauty to the average reader. And although she did a great job of it, some things cannot be put adequately into words. Cather was obviously fascinated with the northern New Mexico area. And having lived there all my life, I can look at the words she wrote and see reflected there my own love for our area's natural beauty. I really enjoyed "Tom Outland's Story" and I felt a stronger personal connection to it than most other works of fiction I have read.

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  14. The fact that this story takes place in New Mexico didn't matter in the least. In all my time in New Mexico I never once discovered an Indian ruin nor connected with the past due to what I found there. I don't feel a connection to this story because since the events that take place in New Mexico could take place anywhere since they are entirely fictionalized. I can relate to other stories that take place in New Mexico such as Lesli Silko's Ceremony or Bless me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya because I have seen many of the locations. My great uncle was there when one of his friends drowned in a canal, an event that was copied into Bless Me Ultima. I can relate to these stories that I know but The Tom Outland Story is too distant from my experiences for me to understand.

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  15. I think that the notion of place is critical in understanding Cather's work. However, I noticed that in the parts that Cather puts in the Southwest, there seem to be a couple of distinct places at work. The first one includes most of New Mexico, the place in which New Mexicans herd cattle and play their poker. The second one is a more meditative place; the Native American ruins are somehow separate from the rest of New Mexico, because the civilization that made its home there is separated from Tom's by a long stretch of time, is embalmed in a sense. It has the same appeal as studying Latin does for Tom: you get insight into civilizations that were different than yours and similar in cultural advancment. Now, as a foreigner from Kansas who spends most of his time either asleep or in front of a screen rather than learning the nuances of New Mexican culture, I cannot say for sure that I even have decided what to think about New Mexico or the role the place at large plays in "Tom Outland's Story." Having seen few Native American ruins myself, and none of cliff-dwelling Native Americans, and not having lived in New Mexico for more of my life, I feel does put me at a disadvantage understanding this story compared to the rest of the class, since I have not ever personally experienced one of the places that Tom has, and had limited experience with the other (although I have had experience with government workers as my mom worked for the IRS briefly before I left for college and wasn't particularly transformed for the better by the experience.)

    Did the notion of place influence my reading of Cather's "Tom Outland's Story"? Absolutely. But I do wish that I had had the foresight to do more exploring in this land before I decided to write a final paper on it. >.>

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  16. To be quite honest, I did not feel profoundly affected by the location. I think it's mostly because I don't yet feel connected to New Mexico, as a state. However, I did feel able to connect to the idea of "the west", as a generality. I find that to be a major theme in American culture (East versus West, that is), and that was how I connected to the story. That, in itself, shows how quickly Americans can feel different, yet still connected, which I found to have interesting resonance in Outland's story.

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  17. It definitely made me think about what was being written about the Southwest and how incredibly lucky New Mexicans are. My opinion is, is that we live in such a diverse and incredible historic area full of rich and vibrant culture. The readings that I read made me appreciate much more the ruins we have and how it has survived.
    It wasn't just the ruins at Mesa Verde. That is only a small part of what defines, New Mexico, in my opinion. New Mexico is home to a lot of Native American people. I don't know the exact numbers but we have tribes from the Navajo, Pueblo, and Apache. There are also the Hispanic people that have thrived within the valleys of Rio Grande. The is a diverse state and I think, Will Cather's "Tom Outland's Story" definitely presents this in a broader view of what the Land of Enchantment detail. The diversity, the complexity, and the over all beauty of what this state is.

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