Connecting Dillard with Lehrer

Acitivity 1.7

Annie Dillard Essay “Total Eclipse” focuses on language, communication, or expression and how to link ideas and thoughts to the reader. In the essay, Dillard shares a personal experience of watching a physical eclipse: where the sun covered the planet. The result of that action causes the earth to become total darken, without any light from the sun. An eclipse means “the obscuration of the light of the sun by the intervention of the moon between it and a point on the earth” (solar eclipse). Watching the full eclipse was more than just a physical event for Dillard it became a revelation to her current state of perception. She recognized how her life had become idle. She recognized how small her perception of life truly was. Dillard notice that her current knowledge could not assist her in comprehending the full eclipse. The main purpose of “Total Eclipse” was to communicate an important life event. The essay includes ideas about life in general - growing as an individual: and how life can change one’s perspective. The most important purpose is how to communicate those experiences to others, which mean conveying expression through language.
Another essayist, have similar ideas on language, communication, or expression and how to link ideas and thoughts to the reader. Within Jonah Lehrer Essay “The Method of Memory”-“Proust Was a Neuroscientist” also shared a personal experience of attempting to understand how the (human) mind created memories and maintain them. Memory is “the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences” (The American Heritage). Lehrer also wanted to point out the importance of saving the information of his experiment. Lehrer logged much of the information he gathered. Yet, during the processes of the experiment, he continued to write and rewrite over time to update new information. He inserted more information within already prepared documents. The main purpose of “The Method of Memory”- Proust Was a Neuroscientist was to a message about the opportunity to continue to re-arrange one understands though life experiences. Like an experiment, new information may possible come later that can be added to the old information. In the essay, Lehrer realized scientific experiment may not render an absolute trust yet the opportunity to “fix itself” is the beauty behind trying things again. Despite that both authors topics were different the common thread was communicating an important life events. The most important purpose is how to communicate those experiences to others, which mean conveying expression through language.