Walden

@livilelly Your excellent summary of this paragraph highlights for me a connection we discussed in class: Thoreau wants us to read with the same deliberation and attentiveness that he wants us to bring to our observations of Nature.

In the first paragraph of the next chapter, “Sounds,” he explicitly links the reading of books and the reading of Nature, playing on the very old idea of Nature itself as a book:

“But while we are confined to books, though the most select and classic, and read only particular written languages, which are themselves but dialects and provincial, we are in danger of forgetting the language which all things and events speak without metaphor, which alone is copious and standard. Much is published, but little printed.”

@averyw Your comment made me look back at this chapter and notice something new. It’s always struck me as interesting that for all his criticism of the railway in this chapter, including the way it snorts and screams, he’s impressed by it as a vehicle of “commerce,” and by the “enterprise and bravery” of the railway workers he describes in paragraph 11. What I hadn’t noticed is that paragraph 12 is filled with positive sensory language about the train, but that language is almost exclusively about sights and smells rather than the sensory input that’s the focus of the chapter, “sounds.” Not really sure what to make of that.

@toriwebster I really like it, too! It’s interesting that although Thoreau writes many long sentences and long paragraphs, leading some readers to find him long-winded at times, his prose is also chock full of highly quotable nuggets like this one. (This one is quoted frequently, in fact!)

I also like the connection you make with the disorienting effects of technology. At the same time, Thoreau seems to be suggesting that there’s a benefit to being disoriented. In fact not until we’ve been disoriented (“have lost the world”), he suggests, can we get truly oriented (“find ourselves”).

Given the context in which he makes this suggestion (not the use of technology but finding his way home in the dark), what kind of disorientation do you think he has in mind when he writes this?

[Not till we are lost, in other words, not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.]

I really like this quote, and I think it brings up a good point about self-discovery. Within both the context of Walden and our present-day society, the world around us can be incredibly disorienting. Parts of the internet are literally designed and curated to keep you hooked. With this, the divide between personas online and people in the real world continues to shift. It often takes stepping back to realize who we are as people. I think that is also why we are seeing an increasing number of young people stepping away from social media and becoming more “analog”. Many of us have grown up with constant distractions at our fingertips, so we haven’t fully realized who we are as people or what we want to do.

Leave a comment on paragraph 115

[It is not all books that are as dull as their readers. There are probably words addressed to our condition exactly, which, if we could really bear and understand, would be more salutary than the morning or the spring to our lives, and possibly put a new aspect on the face of things for us.]

I think this paragraph is interesting because Thoreau is explaining that books may be boring to us simply because we can’t understand them, not because the books are actually just boring. He argues that books can change a person’s entire life by showing them a new perspective on life. He strongly highlights the power of reading, even when it comes to the questions we ask ourselves every day. I also think he is explaining that shared human experiences can help us to be more open-minded and understanding.

I thought going into this chapter that Thoreau would speak of music, long drawn out soliloquys on the piano, classical pieces he admired, however instead Thoreau recounts the beautiful musical capabilities of the nature around him. He emphasizes and contrasts from the loud, unharmonious sound of the modern city, the harmonious and melodic nature of the environment around him. Thoreau surprised me and does not once speak on manmade music, other than in some criticism of the sounds he hears from the locomotive, but instead solely sinks into the sounds created by the aspects of nature surrounding him. I found this very important to Thoreau’s main messaging and his overall affection for the creatures and natural aspects of the world surrounding his cabin.

Thoreau’s detailed depiction of the Railroad and its surrounding importance to the city not that far from his cabin, illuminates that though Thoreau has detached himself both physically and mentally from the society in which he finds flawed and deprived of sense, the existence of such a society permeates through the woods in which he hopes would completely seclude him. I found this short paragraph regarding the influence of the railroad on the survival of the town very interesting. It parallels Thoreau’s unique experience as he makes food for himself, creates shelter for himself, and lives comfortably with purpose, to the experience of the city that lives each day with reliance on a train system, a system that deprives the inhabitants of the town with the same level of experience that Thoreau is getting. I still find the most interesting analogy in this paragraph to be the emphasis on the locomotive penetrating Thoreau’s woods; truly this detail illustrates that though Thoreau is pushing himself to discover meaning and purpose within life, there will always be people and community’s that are fine existing within the context of what society has deemed a proper and admirable way to live. Not only will this always exist, but despite your efforts to detach yourself from a culture or way of living that does not suit you, you must understand that this society will not dissipate, and remnants of such a way of life will remain observable to you, whether through sights, sounds, readings, or memories.

I found this paragraph in reading deeply meaningful due to the irony in which it is written. Thoreau obsesses over and depicts his affinity for reading, specifically for reading classics. I find this very ironic as Walden in its own right, has become a staple classic of American literature. Thoreau states, “For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man?”, He really leans into how classical literature is some of if not the most valuable and important literature when it comes to reading in general. I enjoyed Thoreau’s emphasis on reading deliberately and how classical books push us to do this. I really admired the way Thoreau speaks about books, and old literature; it not only resonates with his audience and further symbolizes Thoreau’s criticism’s on modern day society, society that seemingly does not have time to read as they are to engulfed in working, selling, and buying, but explicates how Thoreau is a great writer, and a passionate writer, because he reads. This paragraph alone offers insight into Thoreau’s inspirations and ironically and coincidentally foreshadows the success and importance of this book.

I find this really inspiring, and I like how he says this. He is explaining how just because you’re alone doesn’t mean you’re lonely, which is something I think society forgets frequently. He says how we are almost lonelier when we go out and are around people than when we are alone, because the greatest companionship we will ever have is with ourselves. I really like this point he makes, and it reminds me that it’s okay to be alone and to make the most of it when I am alone because I will always have myself.

[We boast that we belong to the nineteenth century and are making the most rapid strides of any nation.]

Reading this caught me really off guard for a moment, because I had genuinely forgotten this book is nearly two hundred years old.  Ironic that this realization came in a passage that proves just how little humanity has actually changed.  Everything about this book basically talks about our need to slow down and to really consider what we value as a civilization and why.  The same complaints Thoreau seemed to have are still completely topical today, and this is just crazy to think about.