1. Consider the first sentence of The Haunting of Hill House: ""No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood for eighty years and might stand for eighty more."Do you believe that a house can have a form of consciousness?
2. Consider this quote: "Don't do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup of stars; once they have trapped you into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again; don't do it; and the little girl glanced at her, and smiled a little subtle, dimpling, wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head stubbornly at the glass. Brave girl, Eleanor thought; wise, brave girl.” Why do you think these words have had such a powerful impact on so many readers? What does the cup of stars signify?
Realistically, consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of internal and external existence. In simpler terms, the state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings. the state of consciousness can be defined in many different ways, however, opinions differ about what exactly needs to be studied or even considered consciousness. This question really intrigued me because within my research of consciousness, it is stated that the argument from consciousness is an argument for the existence of God that claims that human consciousness cannot be explained by the physical mechanisms of the human body and brain, therefore asserting that there must be non-physical aspects to human consciousness. Connecting this to the question, I think a house can have a form of consciousness. I have literally heard the same weird sounds in my house for the 15 years we have lived there. Certain creaks, the way the basement sounds, random knocking, I hear it often and no one else's house produces the same noises as mine. Taking to a few friends about this subject matter, they also claimed that their house has certain noises that they have heard for as long as they could remember; only in their house though. Interesting how this works.
ReplyDeleteava Perry
I found this quote as the first sentence of the haunting of hill house as an interesting choice. My take from it was that we need to dream or rest to stay sane otherwise we will go insane. I think when talking about the house not being sane because it holds darkness within implies that the house has not rested or existed without the darkness that lies in it and perhaps whoever goes in and stays there might not rest either. I don’t think a house can have a form of consciousness, maybe an aurora or feeling someone has when entering the house if the house has had a past that was very lively that it leaves remnants of the past that others can sense or feel.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Hernandez