In class on Thursday you’ll be working in groups, two on "The Blue Mound People" and two on "The Search for the Heron," doing close interpretive readings which we will compare.  There will also be the chance to relate these imaginative pieces to the more straightforward essays of Crossing Open Ground.

If you’re writing for Thursday you might choose a single essay or try to synthesize your thoughts on Lopez as a writer.  Here are some suggestions:

1)  What problem does "Borders" explore?  Does it suggest a solution?

2)  For what purpose are "the lives of the seals" being sacrificed?  Is Lopez comfortable with this?

3)  What does Lopez gain from contemplating the Anasazi?

4)  "The Passing Wisdom of Birds" uses the ABA form we observed in "The Stone Horse."  What’s the connection between the A’s and the B?

5)  How do you account for the change of tense in part II of "The Hot Spring"?  What is the relation between repeated action and finished action in the story?

6)  "The Blue Mound People" looks like anthropology but turns out to be surrealism.  Is Lopez mocking science or appropriating its discourse for another purpose or both?  What is the point of this story?  How would you compare it to "Searching for Ancestors"?

7)  "The Search for the Heron" is surrealistic as well.  Compare it to "The Hot Spring"?  What do they have in common as stories?   What changes do they chronicle?

8)  Comment on the language at the beginning of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.  How does Dillard use blood, water, light, morning, awakedness?

9)  How does Dillard describe her sojourn at Tinker Creek?  What’s an anchorite?

10)  Read the description of the frog and the water bug with care.  Compare Dillard’s experience with Thoreau’s on Ktaadn.

11)  Look at the last six paragraphs in chapter one.  How does Dillard present herself here?  Compare her persona to Bartram's, Boone's, Kirkland’s, Cooper’s, Lopez’s.

12)  Lopez values the process of turning disparate events, facts, people, and places into stories.  Which of his stories work best for you?  Why?  What are his most successful techniques?