Note: If you want more information on the Quabbin Reservation, www.centralquabbinarea.org.

The significance of language in our study is quite important. Going Wild is quite important to this idea because the author uses really strong language to pull you into his arguments. This study is a particular kind of study- it is not based on experiments like in chemistry; this book is written by a sociologist (although the line between sociology and anthropology is fading). Ethnography is the study about the story of another group of people- and that the person who studies it would be able to tell that story- this is a long, intense observation and study- the researcher would often be with the people for many many months or years. Dizard does not tell us his part in the people that he is studying, but we can draw from the book that he is closely drawn into this. Dizard is not trying to be fully comprehensive but is going very far in depth into one aspect. There is a difference between inductive and deductive reasoning- Dizard uses inductive, qualitative, and symbolic reasoning. He has done numerous interviews, and from those has made larger conclusions.

We are a multi-lingual people- even if you think you only speak english, you speak in different senses- you switch parts of your brain for what you’re thinking. We are all multilingual. Is language an iceberg? Do we only know the tip- the words, the meanings? What’s at the base of the iceberg? Things that can be said without be spoken? The experience and expression of emotions? Is there a real scripted idea to expression of self? Language could be like a sponge- it has the capacity to draw so much of it into our lives and the capacity to hold so much of those emotions. Meanings and expressions are totally unique to each individual- that is the power of language.

Explore from both the side of the MDC and the critics of the MDC: What is nature? What is wilderness? What should humans’ relationship to nature be? What is the line between humans impacting and rearranging nature? What past experiences are has most affected you view of nature?

We all have different capacities to understand ideas of nature and the way we interact and relate to it. To understand Going Wild is quite difficult because we must attempt to understand how these people on each side of the issues think- what there background is, what is going on in their heads, how THEY are interpreting the ideas.

Where is the place inside of ourselves that we will find how we should or should not be involved in wilderness? Where is that line- where we want to see more and to experience the solitude of nature but where we also want to preserve it.

We begin to know things through familiarity as opposed to experiencing.