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/lit/ - Literature

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866929 No.866929 [Reply] [Original]

What does /lit/ think of Walden

>> No.866950
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866950

complete joke. I really respected the writing and was into it for a long time... until it hit me:
The only reason Thoreau had time to think is because he stole shit from his neighbours. His life had nothing to do with wilderness survival.

Nature eats it's children. Theres a reason we live in communities

>> No.866959

>>866950
You read it completely wrong if you think the point of his book or his experience was "wilderness survival." What is wrong with you?

>> No.866964
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866964

>>866959
I don't see a problem here

>> No.866969

>>866950
That was part of the major irony in the book though, here's this city fuck who's in the middle of nowhere trying to get in touch with his wild side.

Transcendental movement was fun to say the least but at the end of the day sleeping under a forest canopy isn't all its cracked up to be when your nads are shivering.
Only reason I couldn't take them seriously, even though I understood the rejection of materialism and similar consumer/industrial philosophy.

>> No.866971

>>866959
Yikes, you just realized Mr. Hey-Look-I-Think-It's-/mu/-So-I'll-Post-The-Same-Person-That-I-Fap-To-From-A-Fucking-Disney-Movie has latent autism and contains not a single literate cell in his body?

>> No.866974
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866974

>>866971
>literate
>cell
you sure know your science

>> No.866979

Um, on this note, are there any books that seriously romanticize and encourage a completely modern, urban existence?

>> No.866981

>>866979
Ayn Rand?
I feel like a troll now.

>> No.866984
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866984

>>866979

Last Exit to Brooklyn.

>> No.866996

I haven't ever read it.
We read passages in 11th grade AP Eng but that's as far as I've read.

Is it worth the effort?
What's it about exactly?
That Finnegan's Wake thread has prepared me for anything this presents.

>> No.867008

key transcendentalist text, instrumental for the understanding of American philosophy, I personally think it would make a great complement if you read it along with Walt Whitman.

>> No.867010

>>866996
Effort?

It's fucking 300ish pages of very straightforward writing.

You can finish it in an afternoon.

>> No.867043

It was bland as fuck to me.

>> No.867048

>>866971
somehow, he isn't the only tripfag who constantly posts pictures of this guy.

>> No.867053

>>867010
300 pages of anything is time.
Time I could be spending looking at literary porn.
Just trying to decide which one I would rather be doing.

>> No.867055

>>866996
don't worry, it's nowhere near as difficult as Alice in Wonderland.

>> No.867081
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867081

>>867055
That.. that's a joke, right?

>> No.867088

>>867081
Go ask Arcuied.

>> No.867094

Walden Two is better.

>> No.867095

>>867094
Walden Two: Electric Boogaloo

>> No.867105
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867105

>>867081

>> No.867111

>>866929 What does /lit/ think of Walden?

While it may be a key transcendentalist text, it's also patently deceitful and rather laughable when shorn of the 150+ years of unquestioned praise it's received.

Thoreau was a failed grammar school teacher who, in order to avoid paying taxes, squatted for free in a rather nice cabin in Ralph Waldo Emerson's backyard. Thoreau walked into Concord nearly daily to drink and carouse with his fellow "thinkers" because his "wilderness" cabin was only about a mile out of town. Thoreau regularly sent his laundry out to be cleaned and his mommy visited weekly with a picnic hamper full of goodies for him. Out this "amazing" experience, he wrote about, among other things, getting back to nature, which was something he hadn't done at all. He also baldly lied about how long he lived the "simple life" in the cabin too.

If Thoreau was alive today, he'd be nothing more than a neckbeard living in his mother's basement writing a daily blog on existentialism.

The fact that Thoreau was held up to be a "deep" or "original" thinker, instead the antebellum neckbeard he actually was, should tell you a lot about transcendentalism and the assclowns who dreamed the whole movement up.

>> No.867127

>>867111
By opinion formed by this review, I have decided to read this book.

>> No.867129
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867129

>>867094
I read that. It struck me as a combination of very utopian ideas and VERY outdated science all slung together into one useless cool story.

>> No.867131

>>867111
The whole time I was reading I was imagining some stuck up english teacher getting all defensive about Thoreau like he was god's gift to literature.

>> No.867144

>>867131
I think you got lost somewhere between "While," and, "it.."

>> No.867168

>>867127

You should read "Walden". You should also keep in mind the story behind the story while reading "Walden". The book will be far more satisfying if you remember what a douchenozzle Thoreau actually was.

>>867131

I served in the Navy for six years before going to college. Let's just say the TAs and professors weren't used to 25 year old freshmen who held down a job and could think for themselves. I reduced a EngLit grad student working as a TA to tears when I pointed out the real story of Walden during a workshop discussion. The prof, who rarely dealt with "his" students at all, had to call me into his office to find out what had happened because the TA got too emotional every time she tried to tell him.

I aced the course, but they were glad I was an engineering student and wouldn't be taken more lit courses. You gotta toe the party line and never think for yourself if you're studying literature.

>> No.867199

>>867168
wow you sound like a badass. it's funny that you're proud of this story.

>> No.867208

>>867168
I don't exactly have the life experience you do but I've thought before that it's the same with all art, if you mess up a math problem someone will tell you are wrong and can point to the rules that you fucked over. It's a closed system, the answer already existed in practice at least when not trying to forge some new paradigm.

Art is just reputation and the pretense is skill. I've grown more bitter for the written word just coming here.

>> No.867218

>>867111
I lol'd. My English teacher had nothing but praise for this book, and I thought it was the stupidest shit I have ever read.

>> No.867281

>>867199
I think he's justified in this regard, if he was saying something like "and then I punched her in the face and even though she sued me it was worth it" then I would have to red card him.

>> No.867293

>>867281
keep in mind the other people in the class who, i'm sure, didn't want to hear this guy prattle on and argue with the teacher. not being able to disagree with someone without causing a scene is nothing to be proud of.

>> No.867301

>>867199 it's funny that you're proud of this story.

Not proud, bemused. Bemused and saddened.

It was a bit of an eye opener realizing that an adult planning on teaching literature for a living would so emotional upon upon hearing the truth about Thoreau's stay at Walden Pond that she'd leave the room crying and would still be crying so much that she couldn't explain to her supervisor what had happened.

That's pretty fucking sad. I truly hope she either grew up or didn't finish her degree because no kids needed to be stuck with the teacher like that.

>> No.867318

>>867293
There's a line between stating your opinion and forcing it on someone, I didn't get the sense he did, more like the teacher was infirm and a woman, so therefore prone to emotional frailty.

>> No.867342

>>867293 didn't want to hear this guy prattle on and argue with the teacher

I neither prattled or argued. I pointed that Thoreau lied about his time at Walden, described how the cabin was actually situated, and explained how he spent his days there.

We were discussing whether the book had any impact on us after reading it and what that impact was. I said it didn't impact me because Thoreau was a charlatan. She asked to me explain, I did and backed it up with references, and she left the room crying.

If you want to spend your time in class playing the role of a drone dutifully lapping whatever the TA or professor is ladling in your bowl that day, more power to you. I'd rather think and state my opinions when they're asked for. That's what college is supposed to be about, thinking, and not mailing it in by mindlessly repeating back whatever has been told you like some human answering machine.

>> No.867377

>>867342
>If you want to spend your time in class playing the role of a drone dutifully lapping whatever the TA or professor is ladling in your bowl that day, more power to you.

lol i don't like Walden any more than you, and i'd probably agree with everything you said, but it sounds like you definitely have some issues with aggression. like i said, there are lots of ways to disagree with people, you come off as a self-important jerk.

>> No.867444

>>867377 it sounds like you definitely have some issues with aggression...

I didn't yell, I didn't argue, I didn't shake a finger in her face. She asked my opinion, I gave, she challenged it, I supported it, and she left crying. Later I had to tell the professor what had happened because she couldn't stop crying.

No aggression, in this day and age I would have been thrown out by the PC college crowd if there were any aggression. I even got a 4.0 in the course.

>> like i said, there are lots of ways to disagree with people

I was stating my opinion, the opinion she asked for.

>> you come off as a self-important jerk.

And you come off as someone with reading comprehension issues. I've explained what happened three times now and you still seem to believe I swung into the classroom on a vine, kicked the TA in the cunt, and wiped my ass with her laptop.

There was no argument, there were no raised voices. I opined that Thoreau was a charlatan, backed it up with the references at hand, and she left weeping. Nothing more.

>> No.867454

>I swung into the classroom on a vine, kicked the TA in the cunt, and wiped my ass with her laptop.

that sounds pretty cool

>> No.867507

Its one of my favorites, its a classic. I couldn't agree more with Mr Thoreau and his viewpoints.