Will Bassing - Why we have a different perspective on the Sublime

We briefly discussed in class that a long time ago, people viewed mountains and rough high terrain as “pimples on the face of the earth.”  People would “close the curtains on their wagons, and avoid crags and sharp mountain peaks, and dark forests.”  This initiated the discussion on the sublime.  However, I wanted to think more about why these people were so afraid and thought so negatively about the sublime.  I believe that it is because these people had to actually live and survive in that terrain.  Today, most people that experience similar mountain peaks, or crags canyons and forests, view them as beautiful wonders of nature.  And most of these experiences are through pictures or magazines or the television.  Today, we have the option to not live in those harsh conditions, we can stay inside on our soft couches and climate controlled environments and watch the terrors and sublime through our televisions.  We do not actually experience the sublime.  We are simply glancing at it; we are not immersing ourselves into it.  We have been desensitized to the sublime because of the comforts that technology has given us.  Now if we need to travel, we fly over mountains and deep seas.  However, if we had to sit in a loud, cold, uncomfortable rickety wagon, and spend days trying travel over a mountain, then I am sure we would also view these mountains as “pimples on the face of the earth.”