Chrissy Jaeger-Cannot See Until You Know

I love this idea that you cannot really see something until you know what it is. For example when you are in the dark and you cannot see anything when someone tells you there is a desk in front of you the shape starts to appear before your eyes. Some would argue this is just your eyes adjusting. But what about when you see a picture that someone drew for you and you do not recognize the shape at all. But once they tell you it’s a dog, you can begin to make out the outline of the dog ears and paws and maybe a tail. Is the mind only capable of understanding what it can analytically understand? It is like myth and fantasy. It takes what is abstract and gives it concreteness through comparison. By saying “dog” one understands what to look for and how to analyze the picture. It is necessary to use common understanding to bring something out of abstraction into concreteness. This is like Lewis says about a story that does not have any relation to what is known, it becomes unbelievable and un-relatable to the reader.