Reading Response 3

In Sven Birkerts’ essay “The Owl has Flown”, I believe that his project is to explain to his readers that we are lacking our sense of wisdom, and that we need to regain it back. Although Birkerts does not say so directly, he apparently assumes that we, as readers, must acquire wisdom, resonance, and depth, because without one you cannot use another.One passage from Birkerts’ essay that applies to my theory reads, “Resonance – there is no wisdom without it. Resonance is a natural phenomenon, the shadow of import alongside the body of fact, and it cannot flourish except in deep time. Where time has been commodified, flattened, turned into yet another thing measured, there is no chance that any piece of information can unfold its potential significance. We are destroying this deep time. Not by design, perhaps, but inadvertently. Where the electronic impulse rules, and where the psyche is conditioned to work with data, the experience of deep time is impossible. No deep time, no resonance; no resonance, no wisdom. The only remaining oases are churches (for those who still worship) and the offices of therapists. There, paying dearly for fifty minutes, the client gropes for a sense of coherence and mattering. The therapist listens; not so much explaining as simply fostering the possibility of resonance. She allows the long pauses and silences – a bold subversion of societal expectations – because only where silence is possible can the vertical engagement take place.”
To rephrase what Birkerts is insisting above, he is stating that without resonance you cannot achieve wisdom, and without depth you cannot achieve resonance. When you allow yourself to engage in a piece of writing, with nothing around to stir you but your own thoughts and feelings, you will be most likely able to gain your sense of wisdom, depth, and resonance. The last part of this passage that I believe Birkerts is trying to say is that it is only with you, some form of writing or art, and pure silence when the “vertical engagement” can happen. The vertical engagement being your ability to use wisdom, depth, and resonance correctly and plentifully while reading or writing. I believe that this passage is important to what Birkerts is saying in his essay because it seems to be placed right in the middle of the essay and it states his main point: “No deep time, no resonance; no resonance, no wisdom.” If you do not engage in your art form with any one of these key terms, you cannot do so with another. This passage is tying in every other passage that explains each term, and how clearly they are needed to fully understand a piece of work.
This passage and Birkerts’ essay as a whole sort of connects to chapter two of our book, “They Say/I Say” by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein because Birkerts is saying how you need to engage yourself not only in your work, but you need to acquire wisdom, depth, and resonance among other pieces as well. Graff and Birkenstein say that you must put yourself into other people’s shoes and see what they see, hear what they hear, and so on. Making true connections with your work and work from others seems to be the importance between these authors, and I believe they would agree with each other.