Sublimity has many meanings and can be applicable to an array of topics. The American sublime focuses on the beauty and excellence of topics such as fine arts, philosophy, and literature, as discussed in David E. Nye’s work, “The Sublime” from American Technological Sublime. Nye touches on how sublimity has an intense sense of awakening, a “healthy shock”. I feel as if a sublime moment allows one to think outside of the norm and truly challenge one’s way of life in all aspects. Throughout this reading, the sublime actually takes on different roles for different situations. I believe that the sublime can be looked at through different viewpoints during the existing pandemic of COVID-19.
The sublime experience can be defined by two different forms, the mathematical sublime and the dynamic sublime. Nye defines the mathematical sublime as “the encounter with extreme magnitude or vastness” and the dynamic sublime as “the contemplation of scenes that arouse terror”. These two forms can easily be applied to the current circumstances of the pandemic and our state of life for the time being. I believe that the dynamic sublime initially began thinking back to the initial hearing of the Coronavirus reaching the United States. Even at this point, I do not believe it terrified everyone yet. As Davidson Students, our dynamic sublime is the email we all received from President Carol Quillen on Thursday, March 12th, 2020. This day still haunts us and probably will more so haunt the seniors for a long time. In this dynamic sublime, each senior has to confront the harsh reality that there is no more regular graduation commencement ceremony, there is no last frolics, no beach week, no more months with the best friends they have made in their life, and not even an acceptable “goodbye”. It is almost unreal. Worst of all this dynamic sublime continues to hang over there head and are constantly reminded each zoom class session.
Furthermore, the mathematical sublime is mostly just hopeful thinking. In this case, the mathematical sublime is the possibility that this will all be over in April, graduation will continue, and life will go back to some kind of normal pretty soon. The mathematical sublime is seeing all of us back on campus again, no more social distancing, and having a proper goodbye. In this mathematical sublime, “the mind is able to conceive something larger and more powerful than the senses can grasp”. It may sound somewhat pessimistic but the mathematical sublime here is not looking like it would turn out this way. It is sad to even have to look at it in this light. On the other hand, our mathematical sublime can just be imagining the day when this is all over and how great like will be no matter the circumstances. We can enjoy the truly sublime of the nature around us, enjoying the company we keep and appreciating life in a much better light. When this is over, we will experience a truly sublime, a “healthy shock”.
I agree that the COVID-19 pandemic that we are in can be described as sublime. When I first connected the two I did not initially think about President Carol Quillen’s email nor the fact that we might return in April and the chaos would be over. I focused more on the little things. For example, when I got home I paid a trip to the grocery store. Almost every shelf was barren or spotted with unwanted perishable food. I would describe this experience as eerie, but I think it also can be described by sublime because of how vast it was. I think eerie would be if one aisle was missing everything because everything else was normal so the fact that one aisle was deserted would stick out and give you that odd feeling in your gut. However, since every aisle was empty, I felt something completely different that I would describe as a combination of mathematical and dynamic sublime. Mathematical sublime is described by David E. Nye’s work, “The Sublime” from American Technological Sublime as something so big or powerful that you can’t wrap your head around it. He describes the dynamic sublime as similar to the mathematical, but it invokes a feeling of terror.
Another scene that I experienced while the pandemic has been occurring was the empty roads. On my way home from Davidson I drove with a friend all 16 hours to my house. The roads were sprinkled with cars, but we never hit any slowdowns or stand still traffic which is unheard of. The lack of traffic really struck me when we hit the George Washington bridge in New York. If you’ve ever driven the east coast you are familiar with the reputation of this bridge. My mom always adds another hour of travel time when we’re planning a trip because of the immense traffic that this bridge entails. When my friend and I crossed the George Washington bridge last week, there was no traffic. What normally takes us an entire hour took under a minute. And the best part was we crossed at rush hour, 5pm. I would describe this as dynamic sublime because while it was hard to wrap my head around, it made me fear the strength of the pandemic that we are in.