They're Out

A detailed Summary of They're Out

Have you ever experienced a moment when destiny seemed to be shining up on you? You might have been having an ordinary night out with friends where everything just seemed to click. The food was great. The company was incredible. You had this feeling in the pit of your stomach that this must be "it". Maybe you even questioned if it was too good to be true. Then the next weekend, the same group of friends gets together, goes to the same places, does the same activities, but somehow the night falls flat. No matter how hard you try to regain the original excitement you just aren't able to accomplish it. I think everyone can relate. Each of us has had moments in our lives where at a particular moment in time, we felt it couldn't get any better, or the moment could not become any more real. For Clifford Geertz, in his essay entitled, "Deep Play; Notes on a Balinese Cockfight", there are some defining moments during his time studying Bali that I think he would say he felt he had experienced an authentic moment. I would go so far as to say that Walker Percy, in his essay "The Loss of the Creature", would agree. But this isn't how Geertz's experience begins.

Geertz begins his essay by describing the almost w

"If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few."(Shunryu Suzuli) Without even realizing what he had done, Geertz takes away the authentic Balinese experience from each of us. He even declares to the police (who were questioning what they were doing at the home of a local couple) "We were American professors; the government had cleared us; we were there to study culture; we were going to write a book to tell Americans about Bali". Going back to Percy's reaction, he discusses the role that the "expert" has in denying someone of his or her own experience. I was left with the impression that Percy feels that the expert is part of the institutionalized problem. Just like waste is an institutionalized problem for the government, so is the expert.

The manner in which Geertz experiences the Balinese is by getting off the beaten track. In fact, Percy would say that the less people there are, equals a better experience. This is not to say that the Balinese cockfight that changed Geertz's status, occurred in some secret location or that it was observed by only a few. Rather, I think what Geertz saw was something that maybe was not overly publicized at the time. Geertz tells us that there was much information readily available on the Balinese, but he does not indicate this was the case with the cockfight. Also, I think that it was the way in which Geertz perceives the cockfight, as being a truly authentic experience. He speaks at length of the cockfights as a metaphor for the Balinese mind. "In the cockfight, then, the Balinese forms and discovers his temperament and his society's temper at the same time." This is a deep and insightful interpretation. Had Geertz not had that deep and insightful experience, he would not have been able to speak about it in such terms.

Beyond running away from the police while watching an illegal cockfight, how can one come to have an authentic experience? Percy has several opinions on how to regain "the creature". One of the ways he says you can truly experience something is to see the sight from someone else's point of view. For example, you want to go to Hawaii. You have gotten all the brochures on the places of interest like the Polynesian Cultural Center or maybe the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Percy dares us to take these guided tours, do the cliche; all the while, try to see the sights from another's "shoulders" so to speak. However, this is not the method that Geertz uses to experience the Balinese culture however.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1925
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts