Lopez defines external and internal landscapes as the
relationship between our surrounding environment and how we convey that to others.
External landscapes can be seen as the physical world; what we immediately see,
smell, hear in front of us. Internal landscapes, on the other hand, are more
metaphysical. Two people can see the exact same thing yet their interpretations
of what they are seeing may vary greatly. Lopez argues that for a narrative to
reach its audience, it must hold some truth. To do so, the storyteller must
describe the external landscape to the best of his abilities. Then, the
audience’s internal landscapes can shape the story to their own understanding.
For example, when we tell stories to our friends and family-which we do on a
daily basis-we are attempting to get a point across. Whether that point is to
entertain, inform or persuade, we cannot expect to reflect our internal
landscapes directly on to our audience’s. We have to simply describe the
external landscape of the story to the best of our abilities to allow our
listener’s internal landscapes to align with ours.
To me an external landscape is the environment around individuals that are observable and identifiable. Mainly focusing on sight, sound, and smell in order to have an understanding of your surroundings. For example, if you were out in the woods you would see trees, hear birds chirping, and smell pine perhaps. External landscape is basically using your senses to have a feeling of where you are in the world, or what environment you are in. On the other hand, Internal landscapes are something that is formulated from within us and is a projection of our thoughts in many ways. Where I see the connection between external and internal landscapes is when someone is in an environment and they can clearly see their surroundings, but different people still may have completely different opinions of what is happening. These different opinions are derived from the way that individuals may feels that day, their pervious impression of the area, and all the emotions that are running through their body at that point in time in that specific location. A personal example of mine is when I went skiing in Telluride alone one day. I started out the day a little grumpy since I was not thrilled to be skiing alone, and noticed that I focused more on my feelings then the beautiful environment around me, tainting it in a sense. But when my sister showed up to ski with me my whole perspective on the day changed, and I noticed that once I was in a happier emotional state, I began to appreciate the beauty of the mountains and my surroundings.
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