In “The Loss of the Creature,” Walker Percy presents the idea that our ability to appreciate and understand the world around us is often diminished by our preconceptions. He uses the example of a tourist visiting the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
The tourist, who has been told how grand and awe-inspiring the canyon is, arrives at the site with certain expectations. As a result, he has difficulty truly seeing and appreciating the canyon for what it is. His experience is mediated by his knowledge of what he should be seeing, rather than by an open and unbiased observation of the scene before him.
Percy argues that this loss of contact with the thing itself – what he calls “the loss of the creature” – is a common occurrence in our lives. We are so often caught up in our own ideas and assumptions that we fail to truly engage with the world around us.
This idea has implications for the way we think about knowledge. Percy suggests that, in many cases, our ability to know something is limited by our preconceptions. In order to gain a deep and true understanding of the world, we must learn to set aside our biases and see things as they really are.
In “The Loss of the Creature,” Walker Percy explores how modern society offers packaged encounters to people and how genuine value of interaction is being destroyed because of it.
Percy believes that the average person visiting the Grand Canyon nowadays won’t see the same beauty that Garcia López de Cárdenas did. This is because they would’ve already experienced the values of The Grand Canyon vicariously through an “appropriated symbolic complex.” Percy describes this as a divide between “sightseers” and “discoverers,” further explaining that, for many people, “…the thing is no longer the thing as it confronted” (459).
The Grand Canyon has been so commercialized that the government has even renamed some of its features to make it more appealing to tourists, which takes away from the true beauty and experience of the Grand Canyon. Percy believes that in order to have a “genuine” experience, one must confront the thing without any preconceived notions or ideas, and this is increasingly difficult to do in modern society.
The Grand Canyon is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States, with over five million people visiting each year. The majority of these visitors see the Grand Canyon from the South Rim, which is accessible by car. However, many people also take helicopter or airplane tours of the Grand Canyon, which give them a bird’s-eye view of the vast canyon.
Grand Canyon National Park is home to many different kinds of plants and animals, including over 1,500 species of plants and more than 200 species of animals. The Grand Canyon is also home to some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, with its red rocks, cliffs, and canyons.
The Grand Canyon has been a popular tourist destination for centuries, and its popularity continues to grow. The Grand Canyon is one of the most unique places on Earth, and its beauty is unlike any other place in the world. If you are looking for an amazing experience, the Grand Canyon is definitely the place to go.
The couple’s trip to Mexico went much differently than they had anticipated, and while they ended up enjoying themselves, they were still only ‘sightseers.’ In other words, even after all of their experiences, they still wanted someone else to confirm that their trip was worthwhile – instead of understanding the depth and meaning of what they went through themselves. As author Milan Kundera so aptly put it: “The highest satisfaction of the sightseer is that he has witnessed something that he can recount to his acquaintances with authority and conviction.”
It is not enough for the couple to have simply gone on the trip and come back changed – they need someone else to attribute that change to in order to make it real for them. They are worried about what their friends will think, if they will be able to hold up their end of the conversation about the trip. They want a story – something tangible – that they can share and that others will believe.
The Grand Canyon, too, is seen through the lens of Grand Tourist – those who come to see it do so from the safety of a tour bus, never actually getting close enough to see it as anything more than a hole in the ground. They take pictures and buy souvenirs, but they never really experience the Grand Canyon. It is something to be seen, not something to be felt.
Walker Percy’s The Loss of the Creature is a philosophical text that explores the idea of tourism and the ways in which it can prevent us from truly experiencing the world around us. Percy argues that we often see the world through the lens of what he calls the “Grand Tourist” – those who come to see the sights without actually experiencing them. This can lead to a sort of shallowness in our knowledge, as we only ever see things on a surface level.
One example Percy gives is that of the Grand Canyon. He argues that those who come to see it do so from the safety of a tour bus, never actually getting close enough to see it as anything more than a hole in the ground. They take pictures and buy souvenirs, but they never really experience the Grand Canyon. It is something to be seen, not something to be felt.
This idea can be applied to travel in general – we often go to places without ever truly experiencing them. We visit famous landmarks and take photos, but we don’t interact with the people or the culture. We come back from our vacations with stories and souvenirs, but without any real understanding of the place we visited.
Percy’s text encourages us to think about ways we can break out of this cycle and truly experience the world around us. Instead of just going to see the sights, he suggests that we try to interact with the people and the culture. We should learn about the history and the way of life in the places we visit. Only then can we say that we have truly experienced them.
