Miniatures: Humans and planet Earth

The lowdown

There were three readings. The Fascination of the Miniature by Steven Millhauser, an introduction from A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, and Reflections on a Mote of Dust by Carl Sagan. We shall start with Millhauser. In his excerpt, Millhauser suggests that humans often go about life looking at things the same way, never looking at things with interest until they are distorted in some shape or form. Millhauser uses the miniature as an example of this size distortion. Millhauser says that when these distortions occur, "The eye is irritated into attention" (121). Once this distortion has our attention, we tend to recognize things that we might not have seen before. Moving on. Bryson took things a little bit further. Instead of focusing on a miniature, he focused his introduction on the miniature particles that make up anything and everything. The atom. Bryson indulges us by letting us know about how many hours a lucky person might live, and how lucky we are to be alive based on the decisions and actions of our forebearers. Bryson mentions everything of coincidence, and nothing of fate/destiny (yes, fate/destiny is an incredibly romantic topic, but who the fuck really knows how everything "goes down" in our "existence". I'm rambling, I will stop........now.) Finally, Sagan reminds the reader how small he or she really is in the scheme of things. He points out that everything humans say and do, all take place on a pebble.

Disclaimer: The above might not be the best of summaries, but bear with me, let me share with you my insights about the readings. For I shall be Mister Rogers. Will you be my neighbor?

Ok, to begin with, I realize what the three articles have in common. They all talk about things on a very small scale. The interesting part about this relationship, is that while Millhauser speaks of army men, Bryson takes the human being, and looks at it from a very small scale "...if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust..."(123). Sagan takes this notion one step further, and looks at humanity on a very small scale (with the help of course from Voyager 1). (Reffering to "Pale Blue Dot") "That's here. That's home. That's us." Sagan (124).

Ok, so what I took from this is that the authors of the various works feel that not enough people look at the small things. Bryson and Sagan obviously feel that the majority of humanity doesn't understand how irrelevant we as a species are. Time goes on, things on earth are born, die, and are forgotten. According to Sagan, no matter how grand or feeble the accomplishment of man, it doesn't change the fact that earth is the universe's kidney stone. I find Bryson's introduction, and Sagan's "Reflection" to be enlightening, but at the same time very condescending. Maybe it's I'm giving the human race too much credit but I mean, regardless of how small we are or how insignificant our actions, we are still "here". We still exist. Whether it be by chance, or by the divine bowel movements of (the) God(s), we still live, breathe, eat, shit, and die. I think that regardless of our accomplishments, or as Sagan is so quick to point out, our flaws, the human race, our species means something. If we were put here by something, to carry out some sort of plan, who is to say that we are not currently carrying out that plan, and in essence, making a difference in the universe. On the other hand, if we are here as the result of millions of millenia of coincidence, have we not become learned in the process? Some would argue "No". Some might say that people have taken joy in killing other people since the dawn of humanity. Myself, I would reply "Yes". Humans have grown, and learned valuable lessons and harvested a multitude of ideas that could change worlds (assuming there are other worlds out there to change, and for some strange reason, I think that Sagan believes that there are other worlds out there. And based on his "Reflection" It seems as if he is ashamed of our world.) Amoeba's (as far as I know) are not capable of loving one another. Birds do not write prose. Shrimp cannot arrange symphonic bliss. By now, you might be thinking, "If you are Mister Rogers, then your neighborhood sucks." Well, forgive me for rambling, forgive me for having hope, and confidence in our species. It may be because I am young and naive, and have yet to be exposed to the many harsh "realities" of the (as Sagan would put it) tiny speck of dust we live on. But while Sagan, Bryson, and Millhauser prefer to look at things on a much smaller scale, you might say that I on the other hand, prefer to look at things on a bigger scale.