Different Views

Different views

I’ve been wanting to write this post for quite some time, but It got delayed due to a LOT of stuff.

I was reading a C.S.Lewis book, ‘Out of the Silent Planet.’ It is really good, and his English is superb, however; the pages were filled with so many long tiny words and complicated descriptive sentences that I almost gave up before finishing the first few pages. But after awhile, I got used to it and managed to finish the whole book. Wow, it is amazing.

Anyway there was this part on page58 where he was describing an alien.

“Then it became abominable-a man seven feet high with a snaky body, covered, face and all, with thick black animal hair, and whiskered like a cat. But starting from the other end you had an animal with everything an animal ought to have-glassy coat, liquid eye, sweet breath, and whitest teeth- and added to all these, as though Paradise had never been lost and earliest dreams were true, the charm of speech and reason. Nothing could be more disgusting than the one impression; nothing more delightful than the other. It all depended on the point of view.”

This is what I’ve been trying to say since, a long long time ago! It just depends on your view of things. One of the common examples is whether the glass is half empty or half full. If a girl asks me whether her hair is messy, to me it probably wouldn’t look messy, and to another person it might look extremely messy.

Yeah, anyway, my L.A. made me do an essay on Connotative Differences. Basically I had to think of a situation, and make two reports, one good and one bad.

Here’s what I wrote:

John Smith is said to pick up and cook dogs, cats, or even racoons that have been run over by cars. Living next to a highway, John often finds his lunch right outside his house. There’s nothing wrong, as it is after all, free meat.

John Smith has been spotted scraping up animals that have become roadkill and eat it. This uncivilized act is horrible and sooner or later, bring disease. Eating roadkill is a barbarous action that stains the wonderful image of our country.

Yeah, there you see, the same situation, just viewed differently. Look how easily words can mislead someone, so be careful not to believe everything you read.