Bweilderment

Fanny Howe draws on bewilderment in her writing in such a way that she almost makes sure to create a sense of confusion; not to say that the reading is confusing, but that there’s a huge level of uncertainty associated with it. I like Howe’s use of dreams to convey bewilderment in this poetic writing. I’m either twisting her ideas or completely agreeing; I can’t be sure because it’s so open ended, but dreams are a connection to bewilderment. As she says, “there is no plain path, no up and down, no inside or outside, but there are strange returns and recognitions and there is no conclusion.” Bewilderment in life is essentially the certainty that everything is uncertain, and that we can’t be in control of the uncertain; we must be bewildered. It is important to know what is certain in life in several areas. If we were uncertain that we were physically here, then that would create quite the predicament; we should be certain of physical life. Complete dream state would be a world with no certainty; we have to be certain that we’ll be here tomorrow, otherwise we’d live without hope. Bewilderment is necessary on the other hand in a similar opposite way; we cannot know the spiritual truths that humans have questioned since the idea of creation. Bewilderment is essential to man because we mustn't lose sight of what is good and natural, and to industrialize everything and eradicate nature to the whim of our wants is to destroy the very foundation of what got us here and how we became.