ENGL 111 Santa Barbara City College Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald Discussion

Read and annotate: “Vesper Flights”: “In Spight of Prisons”; “Sun Birds Cashmere Spheres”; “The Observatory”; “Ashes”; pages 136-159 (23); 190-194 (5) = 28 pages

Watch a YouTube video on Helen Macdonald to answer question no. 3 below.

Points: 35

Assignment Due Sunday: 3/14 by 11 pm

1. How does Macdonald use research in the chapter “Vesper Flights” to buttress/support her own interest in swifts? What’s an example? And how does the research deepen her understanding of the topic? (10 points). Your response should be 4-6 sentences.

1. While reading this week’s assignment, make sure you note as many details or patterns in Macdonald’s writing as possible. This means that you have to make close observations of not only what Macdonald is saying, but how she is saying it. John Elder once said that: “Nature writing combines aesthetic and spiritual sensitivity with scientific observation and knowledge.”

• Aesthetics are concerned with artful use of language, including details and imagery.
• Spiritual sensitivity refers to witnessing or to taking in an awareness of something that has spiritual qualities.
• Scientific observation and knowledge includes using technical terms, or explanations that are grounded in science.

Directions:

• In the essays on pages 145-159 (stories covering “In Spight of Prisons,” “Sun Birds & Cashmere Spheres,” and “The Observatory”), select one example from each of two different essays (you pick which ones), that supports Elder’s claim/quote. You will provide two examples only.
• Name the essay at the start of your response.
• You’ll need to note which passages (a passage is made up of a sentence or two) you have selected and how they each relate to Elder’s quote.
• Your reflection should be 4-6 sentences long for each example.
• Remember you need one example from two separate essays.

(15 points)

Here’s an example:
Essay: “In Spight of Prisons.”

Passage: “Kneeling by this glow-worm and transfixed by its light, this encounter in the summer night feels more like the workings of magic than chemistry, though I know that the light is the result of a reaction when the enzyme luciferase acts upon a compound called luciferine in the presence of oxygen, ATP and magnesium” (146). Reflection: In this passage, Macdonald’s language is aesthetic in it’s poetic description. For example the word “transfixed” drew me into the rest of the imagery