{"id":62962,"date":"2013-11-26T11:31:14","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T16:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=62962"},"modified":"2013-11-26T11:41:04","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T16:41:04","slug":"seeing-is-believing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/26\/seeing-is-believing\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing Is Believing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"idaholarge\"<\/a>

Sandpoint, Idaho.<\/p><\/div>\n

ROBINSON<\/center><\/p>\n

No, a mystical experience would be wasted on me. Ordinary things have always seemed numinous to me. One Calvinist notion deeply implanted in me is that there are two sides to your encounter with the world. You don\u2019t simply perceive something that is statically present, but in fact there is a visionary quality to all experience. It means something because it is addressed to you. This is the individualism that you find in Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. You can draw from perception the same way a mystic would draw from a vision.\u00a0<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER<\/center><\/p>\n

How would one learn to see ordinary things this way?<\/p>\n

ROBINSON<\/center><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not an acquired skill. It\u2019s a skill that we\u2019re born with that we lose. We learn not to do it.<\/p>\n

\u2014Marilynne Robinson, the Art of Fiction No. 198<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROBINSON No, a mystical experience would be wasted on me. Ordinary things have always seemed numinous to me. One Calvinist notion deeply implanted in me is that there are two sides to your encounter with the world. You don\u2019t simply perceive something that is statically present, but in fact there is a visionary quality to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9064],"tags":[9158,2056,8622,12267,8688,1786,264],"class_list":["post-62962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quote-unquote","tag-birthdays","tag-emily-dickinson","tag-marilynne-robinson","tag-mysticism","tag-quotes","tag-religion","tag-walt-whitman"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSeeing Is Believing by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"November 26, 2013 \u2013 ROBINSON No, a mystical experience would be wasted on me. Ordinary things have always seemed numinous to me. 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