What are the contents of the aesthetic discovery? Formal properties of beauty may be pointed to in what I saw: the verticals as distinctively shaped and gathering space about them, and the interplay between the two kinds of vertical shapes over the enormous intervening space. The pleasure of perspective entered, for though the chimney is miniscule compared to Half Dome, my approaching it from the trail made it assume visual and spatial dignity equal to the mountain. Complexity of human meaning is encountered with poignant irony. The chimney is an enduring marker of the human value placed on the mountain visible from this point. Here human hands raised stones to shelter an experience of pure stone. So I have come to the right place; I am at home. But the human occupation has been lifted; our presence has turned to stone. Nature has reclaimed its elements. Half Dome presides over the petrifaction of the world. Chimney and mountain are in dialogue as I sense the switching between their perspectives. I am present in ruin and in unity.
這次審美體驗的發(fā)現(xiàn)是什么?我所目睹的景致或許可以說明美的外在特征：懸崖峭壁，造型奇特，給人以強烈的空間感，兩道石壁形狀迥異，廣袤交錯，凌空矗立。此外，還有透 視效果帶來的愉悅：雖然與半穹頂相比石煙囪顯得非常渺小，但我從山道這邊靠近，看上去無論在視覺上還是空間上其氣勢都一點兒不亞于半穹頂。人類的復雜意圖受到了辛辣的諷刺。從這一視點看過去，那煙囪是人的價值置于大山上的一道永久性標記。人類在那里壘石筑屋，以觀蒼石。這樣看來，我來對了地方，我找到了歸宿。不過人類對自然的占據(jù)被消除掉了，我們的存在與石頭融為一體。大自然索回了自己的要素，半穹頂主宰著石頭的世界。我感受到兩種不同景致的交替，仿佛聽見煙囪在和大山對話。我站在小屋廢墟上，也置身于和諧統(tǒng)一中。
