50 pages • 1 hour read
Annie DillardTeaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1982A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay 6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Essay 6: “Teaching a Stone to Talk”
Essay 6, Part 1 Summary
The island Dillard lives on is full of “cranks” like herself, including Larry, who lives on his own with a stone he attempts to teach how to speak. Others on the island joke about this matter, but almost everyone respects what Larry is attempting. Dillard disguises Larry’s identity, noting he may be a man or a woman and that the inanimate item might be something else, though she also admits she’s seen the stone herself. Larry keeps the stone on a shelf, covered by a piece of leather, except for when it receives lessons or during “the ritual or rituals which they perform together several times a day” (87). Dillard doesn’t think Larry expects the stone to carry on long conversations but is simply trying to teach it a single word. Some have joked that Larry must have carved the rock a mouth. Instead, Larry has plans to teach his infant son to carry on this task after Larry has died.
Essay 6, Part 2 Summary
Dillard describes the innate silence of nature, writing, “Nature’s silence is its one remark, and every flake of world is a chip off that old mute and immutable block” (87). During the time of Moses, God used to regularly rage at the Israelites, and it “scared them witless” (89). The Israelites ask Moses to ask God not to speak to them anymore for fear they will die of fright, and God agrees, telling the people to go back into their tents.
Essay 6, Part 3 Summary
Dillard believes the silence of nature results from asking God not to speak to us anymore. She acknowledges that animals make sounds, as do waves and thunder, but these noises she still calls silence. Dillard is searching for something more meaningful: the voice of God. Now that humans have cut off that communication, the next best thing is to try to teach objects and animals how to speak. Dillard describes a chimp who was taught to say three words—“mama,” “papa,” and “cup”—but never anything further. Chimps have had better success learning American Sign Language, but Dillard finds it disheartening when a chimp signs that she is sad. Dillard suggests that the work of cathedrals and scientific labs attempts to reach the same goal: “Are they not both saying: Hello?” (91).
Essay 6, Part 4 Summary
Dillard has been trying to listen to the sounds of nature and see what, if anything, they might be trying to say: “The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out” (91). Dillard suggests that even if we ready ourselves to listen to nature, nature has nothing to say. Dillard once felt as though something might be suppressing what nature had to say, “as if someone were gagging the world” (92). However, despite waiting and listening all her life, Dillard believes, “The silence is not actually suppression; instead, it is all there is” (92).
Essay 6, Part 5 Summary
Human beings might try to build up civilization, but human activity is ultimately meaningless. Dillard believes our purpose on earth is to witness. Nature continues to exist all around us, whether we watch it or not, but if we take the time to stop and watch, we can view its marvels: “That is why I take walks: to keep an eye on things” (93). Dillard notes this became clear to her when she visited the Galápagos Islands, where the workings of nature occur “in full view, whether anyone is watching or not” (93). Dillard describes the passing of clouds, moving of currents, crashing of waves, and life or death of animals, all of which happen daily.
Overlooking all of this are the palo santo trees. On her first trip to the Galápagos, Dillard became enamored of the sea lions, who live life fully and joyfully. Dillard’s companions joke that in the next life, they want to be sea lions. However, when Dillard returns a year and a half later, she becomes much more fascinated with the palo santo trees, “thin, pale, wispy trees” that stand silently overlooking everything happening around them (95). Dillard now wants to come back as a palo santo tree, “so that I could be, myself, a perfect witness, and look, mute, and wave my arms” (96).
Essay 6, Part 6 Summary
Nature’s silence is in everything, a combination of God and waves and wings and “the blended note of ten thousand things” (96). Dillard encourages us to quit our tents and “pray without ceasing” (96).
Essay 6 Analysis
In Essay 6, Dillard muses on the silence of nature and mankind’s attempts and inability to get nature to speak. Dillard begins with the anecdote about her neighbor, Larry, trying to teach a stone to talk, connecting this story to attempts by scientists to teach chimpanzees to speak. Dillard believes that these efforts are worthwhile, even as she suggests that they might be ultimately meaningless. Nature doesn’t have the inability to talk, Dillard suggests; rather, nature’s silence “is all there is” (96).
Dillard herself has struggled to hear what the Earth has to say, as evidenced by her many travels across the planet to diverse landscapes and terrain. A part of her seems to hope that somebody will find success and that there will be some hidden answer or meaning that nature has been trying to relay to mankind; however, Dillard also concludes with the idea that rather than try to force some kind of response out of nature, “We are here to witness. There is nothing else to do with those mute materials we do not need” (92). Though at times Dillard’s messages within the essay may seem contradictory, they can also be read as Dillard illustrating her own struggle with the subject and the conclusion that has ultimately brought her peace.
That “Teaching a Stone to Talk” is the titular essay of the collection suggests that its themes connect to all the other essays in some way. The theme of nature’s silence, or the inability of man to understand all the earth’s intricacies and wildness, can be found in every essay. Similarly, the idea of being a witness to nature carries through each individual essay. One theme that may not be present in each of the essays, but that foregrounds Essay 6, is the connection between God and nature. Dillard equates the silence of nature with the story of the Israelites asking God not to speak to them because the experience is too frightening; in doing so, Dillard suggests that there may have been a time when nature spoke more freely to mankind than it does now: “Did the wind used to cry, and the hills shout forth praise?” (90).
Dillard compares the work of churches that seek out God to scientific endeavors that explore the natural world: “What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? [...] We spy on whales and on interstellar radio objects; we starve ourselves and pray till we’re blue” (91). Dillard concludes that we must approach speaking to nature like speaking to God, listening for it in the “stillness.” Dillard also suggests praying “to the silence” and “without ceasing” (96), leaving the safety of our homes to encounter the fullness of nature.
In most of the essays in this collection, Dillard writes in the first-person past tense, describing events that have happened to her and her thoughts on their meaning. In some of the essays, Dillard writes in first-person present, indicating that some of the issues still perplex her and have meaning for her. In this essay, Dillard sometimes slips into the second-person present, such as in section IV, when she writes a long paragraph beginning, “At a certain point, you say to the woods, to the sea, to the mountains, the world, Now I am ready” (92). Dillard continues to use the second person “you” in the paragraph, and she reverts back to it again at the end of the essay, instructing the reader, “Quit your tents” (96). This tactic of using the second person invites the reader to ponder this topic alongside Dillard and to join her in taking this action. Rather than limit the idea of listening to nature to her own experience, Dillard’s use of “you” suggests this could be a universal experience for anyone who wants to attempt it, not something that is particular to Dillard alone.
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