Eric Paul Roorda’s The Ocean Reader: Theory, Culture, Politics was for sure an interesting read. Instead of categorizing the Ocean into the different oceans we know right now (e.g. the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea…), Roorda suggests to rather see the ocean as one place (cf. p 1). Moreover, Roorda critiques that we humans “have often seen it as a changeless space, one without history. Because the Ocean can’t be plowed, paved, or shaped in ways the eye is able to discern, it has seemed to be a constant, while the land has changed drastically over the centuries” (p.1). Looking at this statement made me think about the definition of wilderness once again. When wilderness is something the humans have constructed and thus put a certain value to it for their own enjoyment, Roorda’s statement suggests that humans have not put value to the ocean for a long period of time. As it was not socially constructed to be a place with a long period of history, the ocean was so to say ignored to be ”changeable” (p.1). Nevertheless humans have always tried to exploit the ocean and to conquer it through using it as a road or through exploiting it by fishing because humans have just taken it for granted (cf. p.4). Just like in times of imperialism, humans have claimed the ocean to be something for their own purpose without actually understanding how powerful it is. By capitalizing Ocean, a new value is put onto it: “The deviation from conventional style is intended to claim a formal name for that vast place within the realm of World History, as if it were a country or a continent […] To capitalize Ocean is to challenge the conventional wisdom that the seas can be taken for granted. They cannot”. (Taking that in for a bit longer, I really feel like through this class I really start to question every concept existent on this planet. I never wondered why Ocean was not capitalized even though it makes up the biggest area on the Earth?!).

Side Note:

This reading reminded me of Disney’s Moana. The semigod Maui stole Te Fiti’s heart out of a selfish desire for recognition and power so that Te Fiti was no longer able to create life. The Ocean was later filled with darkness and life outside of the water was destructed. I wonder at this point if there is Polynesian folklore that is teaching humans about the exact same thing above??!