/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.10252680]

I was so excited to read this but I'm only 30 pages in and I'm realizing that Thoreau is a bad writer. Sometimes I'll get stuck on a single line whose syntax is unnecessarily complicated. He also jumps topics to his own disadvantage quite a bit.
Someone else agree with me and confirm that I'm not just retarded.

[Anonymous No.10252695]

>thoreau is a bad writer
wew
>I'll get stuck on a single line whose syntax is unnecessarily complicated
you're retarded. try reading Henry James
>I'm too stupid to follow him when he strays from the subject matter

"So superb a stylist is Thoreau we always have the sense as we read of a mind flying brilliantly before us, throwing off sparks, dazzling and iridescent and seemingly effortless as a butterfly in flight."
Joyce Carol Oates

"To the dark immensity of material Nature's indifference we can oppose only the brief light, like a lamp in a cabin, of our consciousness; the invigorating benison of Walden is to make us feel that the contest is equal, and fair. It has emerged over time as one of the great testaments of American individualism, assuring the New World, traditional reassurances failing, of the value, power, and beauty of the unfettered self."
John Updike

[Anonymous No.10252701]

I've always found the transcendentalists to be insufferable, pretentious hypocrites.

[Anonymous No.10252705]

Thoreau blows. He's a meme invented by English majors and high school English teachers.

Read something cool for once.

[Anonymous No.10253002]

>Not reading Emerson

[Anonymous No.10254771]

>>10252680
>living out west in Colorado, working for an outdoor education expedition company
>lend it to this one student who’s really interested in naturalism
>one evening in the desert during downtime at camp he sees me reading it
>we start taking about Walden, Emerson, etc
>he’s a poor kid but smart as hell
>asks if he can take a look at it
>figure what the hell and offer to lend it to him , I’ll get it back from him at the end of the 3 week program and it’s my job to encourage this type of stuff
>2 weeks go bye
>he’s enjoying the hell out of it, burning through the pages every night at downtime
>we have a lot of great discussions
>one day he gets injured on the expedition and has to be sent home
>I’m driving him to the airport
>he’s sad as fuck and just buried in Walden, trying to distract himself
>see a bit of myself in this socially reclusive kid
>before he gets on the plane he reads as much of it as he can
>huv s it back to me with a gloomy loon on his face
>tell him to keep it and he perks up a little
>still sad about having to leave the expedition but at least he’s got something in to distract himself on the plane with
>a couple weeks later when I’m back from the field I get a package in the mail
>it’s from the kid, he sent the book back to me and folded a letter in it, thanking me for everything
>later we talk on the phone and figure out what other books were gonna read together from across the country so we can talk about them together

Sorry for blogposting, I just have a special place in my heart for this book. He’s a good kid. Not many 16 year olds these days even know how to mail a letter. Thanks Henry.

[Anonymous No.10256144]

If you can't enjoy Walden you are a materialist fuckwit.