"The state of knowledge, or rather of ignorance, properly demanded blankness without even hachure. Ignorance covered the geography of the region, its topography, landforms, drainage, and scenery, its geological and orographic history, its inhabitants both vanished and extant, its products, resources, and potential usefulness. the few fixed points, the small amounts of verified information, were only enough to whet the appetite either of fabulist or scientist." ...(Stegner pg. 122, 2nd paragraph.)
As i read this part of the paragraph, it made me appreciate all that Powell did for nature. i read this and understood it as, before Powell endured all his hard work on the West people were satisfied with almost any kind of information. they were not really interested in whether or not the information was accurate or not. however, by taking all the untrue and inaccurate data as correct, people were also getting misconceptions about everything around that area. thus, making them ignorant to the fact that people actually inhabited that land, resources were available there. i feel as if Powell was almost bothered and frustrated with this kind of ignorance. he felt that people should want to go out and explore nature to find out for themselves rather than settling for anything. after i realized what kind of misconception and incorrectness one piece of false information can do, i also realized all the hard work Powell had to do in order to be able to analyze and record detailed information.
As i read this part of the paragraph, it made me appreciate all that Powell did for nature. i read this and understood it as, before Powell endured all his hard work on the West people were satisfied with almost any kind of information. they were not really interested in whether or not the information was accurate or not. however, by taking all the untrue and inaccurate data as correct, people were also getting misconceptions about everything around that area. thus, making them ignorant to the fact that people actually inhabited that land, resources were available there. i feel as if Powell was almost bothered and frustrated with this kind of ignorance. he felt that people should want to go out and explore nature to find out for themselves rather than settling for anything. after i realized what kind of misconception and incorrectness one piece of false information can do, i also realized all the hard work Powell had to do in order to be able to analyze and record detailed information.
No comments:
Post a Comment