Michael Blankenship

January 11, 2000

English 102

Blankenship,

Reading Log # 1

Stegner, Wallace. "The Sense of Place." A Writer’s Reference. 8^th ed. Eds. Donald

Hall and D.L. Emblen. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc.,

1. 503-509.

Commentary:

Stegner seems to have two main ideas. First, much of our identity is based on a place that we call home. The values, morals, lifestyle, and general attitude of our place is perpetuated through us as individuals. Many, but not all Americans, seek out their place as a refuge from the world. Not only do we exhibit our ties to this place, but we seek out an identity through our place.

Stegner’s second point seems to regard Americans in general. Our ancestors left Europe, they immigrated to flee from tyranny, they were brought to this country as slaves, or they just wound up here. The thing that we all had in common, with the exception of the Native Americans, is that we were not from here, and in coming here we did away with history (508). In doing away with it, Stegner writes, we plunged "through a landscape that had no history, [doing] both the country and ourselves some harm" (508). We had places elsewhere, and only recently have we begun to see our place as within America. Stegner seems to be encouraging us to participate in this identification and appreciation of a place. (194 words)

1. What’s the difference between a "place" and a "location"?
2. Do we have to identify ourselves through a place, or can we find our identity elsewhere?
3. Is the age or history of a place (the nostalgia) necessary for that place to contribute to your identity?
4. Is it the past of a place or the present that shapes our ideology?
5. Is poetry the ultimate form of human attention that we give to a place? Does this make a location a place?

1. asocial: adj. Selfish, not social
2. ecologist: n. One who studies the environment
3. integrity: n. uprightness of character; honesty; the condition, quality, or state of being complete or undivided
4. dispossessed: adj. deprived of homes, possessions, and security
5. contemptuous: adj. feeling or showing contempt (viewing something as mean, vile, or worthless)