A Sense of Place - Slovic/Dixon

A sense of place demonstrated in literature is difficult because "of using words to convey a sense of place." Several times in class we have discussed the power of words - or the lack of power. Words play an interesting role in our society - we would often be lost without them. They can cause happiness, sadness, pain, joy - a variety of emotions and consequences. But what words simply can not do is be. What do I mean by this? I'm not really sure. What I'm trying to say is the word "bird" and the images it conjures will never be what a bird is. Words are limited. How can you capture the essence of a place? People have asked me what England is like and I could never describe it well enough. You can only experience the place - perhaps that is why it called the "sense of place" instead of "the place." One of my favorite essays about the sense of place is Wendell Berry's " A Country of Edges."

Berry does a fantastic job of using words to capture an image: "water leaps," "fresh...as a cold drink of water," and when discussing the Red River, he states that "in its being it is too small and too large, too complex and too simple, too powerful and too delicate, too transient and too ancient and durable ever to be comprehended within the limits of a human life, much less human words.