Thomas
In "Lives of a Cell," Thomas talks about man's detachment from nature. He states that we are constantly trying to get away from it but humans are a part of nature, we are "embedded" in nature, therefore we will never get away from nature because we are nature.
He really pushes this point by comparing complex human beings to tiny little cells. We are made up of cells, we are really a moving blob of cells, yet we think we are so much different than these beings of nature. Also, nature is living inside of us. Viruses and bacteria swim in our veins. They are a part of nature just as we are. He uses the single cell earth idea as an extended metaphor through-out the essay.
The most confusing part about this passage was right at the end when he actually compared the earth in all its complexity to a single cell. To quote him, "Then, satusfactorily for that moment, it came to me: it is most like a single cell." What?! What makes him feel that way? This left me extremely confused.
Does any body understand what this guy is talking about?
He really pushes this point by comparing complex human beings to tiny little cells. We are made up of cells, we are really a moving blob of cells, yet we think we are so much different than these beings of nature. Also, nature is living inside of us. Viruses and bacteria swim in our veins. They are a part of nature just as we are. He uses the single cell earth idea as an extended metaphor through-out the essay.
The most confusing part about this passage was right at the end when he actually compared the earth in all its complexity to a single cell. To quote him, "Then, satusfactorily for that moment, it came to me: it is most like a single cell." What?! What makes him feel that way? This left me extremely confused.
Does any body understand what this guy is talking about?
posted by Lesley at 12:13 PM
1 Comments:
It seems like you mostly get what he's talking about in your summary. As for his comparison to the cell - he's trying to show how all entities, from the small cell to the huge earth (and everything inbetween, including humans), consist of other entities, working independently - with their own set of rules. So that we are both independent and interconnected - but no one entity can be placed above another in importance.
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