Dinesen and the Lost World

I think now more than ever that people would find Dinesen's description of Africa like it's a lost world. His descriptions of Africa are very detailed; describing the land and animals of this place.  Dinesen tells us how we are supposed to feel and think of this lost world, by putting us in the story by telling it in the second person.

"Everything that you saw made for greatness, and freedom, and unequalled nobility." When someone describes something to me as freedom and greatness, I imagined a scene from the Lion King where everywhere it's just an open plain where animals roam with nothing to worry about. I feel a little uneasy of not being able to think of a place that he is describing. I've hiked mountains, did trails, and went to jungles in Vietnam, however I always new just like a 30 minute drive away I could be in a city where I can get a wireless internet service.

By telling it in second person, I feel like it's his way of showing people what this place is really like. It would be easy to describe it in first person, however I'm sure he knew that a lot of people haven't seen like a place like this before, so it would be hard for them to relate. By doing it in second person, he can tell the reader directly this how you feel, act, and thought about being in Africa.

I read somewhere that a lot of people still think of Africa as jungle place where you would see a zebra just walking around in the streets. I guess that's not the case, since it's been really modernized in the past 50 years. Everyone has cell phones and computers over there.

My favorite part of the introduction is the first paragraph on page 348 where he describes the animals. He's describing it in first person, "I had seen a herd of Buffalo....I had seen a herd of Elephant...I had seen the royal lion..." When I read it out loud, I felt like I was reading poetry. It had a great flow to it and I can imagine what these animals felt like/looked like to Dinesen.

I'm currently in South Korea now and a lot of it has been Westernized. For some people it's really cool since if they missed American meals, they can go to a McDonalds or call McDonalds. Yes, McDonalds does delivery here.  You have to go far and know where to look if you want to get the real culture of South Korea.

After reading the whole intro, it makes me sad that their isn't a place like this close to me where I can visit. I want to ride a Giraffe.