by Henry David Thoreau
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Posted in: ENGL 340 S24 Geneseo
[I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers]
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Posted in: ENGL 340 S24 Geneseo
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Posted in: ENGL 340 S24 Geneseo
[The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation]
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Posted in: ENGL 340 S24 Geneseo
[As this business was to be entered into without the usual capital]
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Posted in: ENGL 340 S24 Geneseo
[I have thought that Walden Pond would be a good place for business]
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Posted in: ENGL 340 S24 Geneseo
i know what hes talking about but ive never thought of it that way before- I know ice holes are just circles and people put their line down to fish them, but because of club penguin I see it differently in my head and picture an orange fish every single time. With the way he described it as transcendent it makes me think of the rainbow fish from another childhood book. Reading his sometimes whimsical words makes me relive more colorful and imaginative images in my mind. I like that about his writing.
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Posted in: ENGL 340 S24 Geneseo
Even in the winter time, Thoreau sits and listens to the noises that nature and the animals make. This time with himself, allows him to appreciate and think about nature even if it is too cold for him to go outside and truly experience it. Additionally, while paying close attention to these animals, Thoreau makes sure to recognize their behaviors and patterns that they do.
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Posted in: ENGL 340 S24 Geneseo
He describes how the Earth itself is always changing and “there is nothing inorganic”. Everything is always constantly changing and this is very powerful on Thoreaus intake of nature and how he personally feels and how he chooses to describe nature from his own feelings and how everything is connected.
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Posted in: ENGL 340 S24 Geneseo
This section was interesting to me because just as Thoreau is speaking about the peace of nature, he then emphasizes the war between two ants. This, then specifies that all nature is not peaceful and there is conflict and war in everything even nature.
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Posted in: ENGL 340 S24 Geneseo
In this Chapter of Walden, we see Thoreau discussing the beauty of the first few days of spring, which he describes as, “the first tender signs of the infant year just peeping forth.” His observations are quite interesting, as he states that the early signs of the new season are the most fascinating and beautiful parts of nature that people tend to disregard. He also states that people tend to focus on the tiresome aspects of the seasons, such as the bitter cold of winter, and the long rainy periods of spring rather than being grateful to observe the intricate details of the changing of the seasons.
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Where I Lived, And What I Lived For 1-12 (1 comment)
We have an ongoing discussion on this chapter in Iran based on my Persian translation. It is hard for us to imagine that Thoreau is merely referring to early adulthood by the phrase “at a certain season of our life” in the beginning of this chapter. It also seems hard to imagine he is looking for a permanent residence. Thoreau may not be looking for a physical residence in the material world at all. The reason I think so is that later in the chapter, he says, “We are wont to imagine rare and delectable places in some remote and more celestial corner of the system, behind the constellation of Cassiopeia’s Chair, far from noise and disturbance?” A permanent house was never on T’s mind. He says, “Wherever I sat, there I might live, and the landscape radiated from me accordingly. What is a house but a sedes, a seat?” Even in the beginning of Walden he considers himself “a sojourner of civilized life.” Rumi says, “The whole seven universes are too small for me.” It is most pleasant mysteries of Walden for us in Iran. What certain season and what spot is really Thoreau speaking about here?
Spring 1-13 (1 comment)
I really loved this paragraph, as I relate to what Thoreau is saying. For my entire life my family has gone to Schroon Lake during the winter to spend time together, as my father grew up there and it is a place that is special to my family. While we stay at our family friend’s home that’s right on the water, we would go out onto the lake to ice fish, since the ice is several feet thick and can hold people with ease. My family would spend hours outside together, throwing our dogs a ball, eating lunch, and seeing how far across the lake we could walk. As spring comes in, we would see the ice slowly begin to melt as the weather gets warmer. I related to Thoreau saying that the ice is suddenly 6 inches thick instead of a foot. It seems as though the ice melts in a blink and suddenly winter is over. I felt that Thoreau did a great job explaining his connection with the lake and I related to his description.
Title Page - 1854 Edition (1 comment)
In his new book, Cryptic Subtexts in Literature and Film: Secret Messages and Buried Treasure (New York: Routledge, 2019), Steven F. Walker offers a new interpretation of Walden’s 1854 subtitle, “Life in the Woods.” It is well known that that subtitle was hardly original, having appeared in several publications prior to the publication of Walden, including an article of that name by Charles Lane which appears in the final issue of The Dial. Walker grants that Thoreau may have used the title “ironically,” that is, “as a vigorous rejoinder to the thesis of Lane’s Dial essay” (13). More intriguing, however, is Walker’s argument that Thoreau may have associated “life in the woods” with a phase of life known in Hindu as “vanaprastha” (literally translated as “life in the woods”)—“the third stage of life—that of the solitary, contemplative hermit living in the forest on the outskirts of the village—as described in The Laws of Manu” (14) which Thoreau read in Emerson’s library in 1840. “Such a new framing,” Walker says, “certainly provides a new perspective on Thoreau’s life-in-the-woods enterprise, which, for all its Yankee originality, also can be seen as a spiritual retreat based on an ancient Hindu paradigm of the stages of life” (16).