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Walden
by Henry David Thoreau
by Henry David Thoreau
Riku Sayuj's review
bookshelves: favorites
Dec 28, 12
bookshelves: favorites
Read from September 21 to 28, 2011 — I own a copy, read count: 1
The first half is written by Thoreau, the accomplished philosopher and soars much above my humble powers of comprehension; the second half is written by Thoreau, the amateur naturalist and swims much below my capacity for interest.
After reading about the influence the book had on Gandhi, I had attempted reading Walden many (roughly four) times before and each time had to give up before the tenth page due to the onrush of new ideas that enveloped me. I put away the book each time with lots of food for thought and always hoped to finish it one day.
Now after finally finishing the book, while I was elated and elevated by the book, I just wish that Thoreau had stuck to telling about the affairs of men and their degraded ways of living and about his alternate views. Maybe even a detailed account of his days and how it affected him would have been fine but when he decided to write whole chapters about how to do bean cultivation and how to measure the depth of a pond with rudimentary methods and theorizing about the reason for the unusual depth of walden and about the habits of wild hens, sadly, I lost interest. I trudged through the last chapters and managed to finish it out of a sense of obligation built up over years of awe about the book.
The concluding chapter, to an extent, rewarded me for my persistence and toil. In this final chapter, he comes back to the real purpose of the book: to drill home a simple idea - "I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws will be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings."
This I think was the core philosophy of the book - if you pursue the ideal direction/vision you have of how your life should be, and not how convention dictates it should be, then you will find success and satisfaction on a scale unimaginable through those conventional routes or to those conventional minds.
I will of course be re-reading the book at some point and thankfully I will know which parts to skip without any remorse.
After reading about the influence the book had on Gandhi, I had attempted reading Walden many (roughly four) times before and each time had to give up before the tenth page due to the onrush of new ideas that enveloped me. I put away the book each time with lots of food for thought and always hoped to finish it one day.
Now after finally finishing the book, while I was elated and elevated by the book, I just wish that Thoreau had stuck to telling about the affairs of men and their degraded ways of living and about his alternate views. Maybe even a detailed account of his days and how it affected him would have been fine but when he decided to write whole chapters about how to do bean cultivation and how to measure the depth of a pond with rudimentary methods and theorizing about the reason for the unusual depth of walden and about the habits of wild hens, sadly, I lost interest. I trudged through the last chapters and managed to finish it out of a sense of obligation built up over years of awe about the book.
The concluding chapter, to an extent, rewarded me for my persistence and toil. In this final chapter, he comes back to the real purpose of the book: to drill home a simple idea - "I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws will be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings."
This I think was the core philosophy of the book - if you pursue the ideal direction/vision you have of how your life should be, and not how convention dictates it should be, then you will find success and satisfaction on a scale unimaginable through those conventional routes or to those conventional minds.
I will of course be re-reading the book at some point and thankfully I will know which parts to skip without any remorse.
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Reading Progress
| 09/21/2011 | page 22 |
|
6.0% | |
| 09/28/2011 |
|
100.0% | ""If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."" |
Comments (showing 1-18 of 18) (18 new)
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Petra X
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Mar 11, 2012 09:37am
I've always thought about reading Thoreau, partly because he is one of my favourite author's Bernd Heinrich heroes. But its the natural history that I fancy, the philosophical stuff put me off. The opposite from you!
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Petra X wrote: "I've always thought about reading Thoreau, partly because he is one of my favourite author's Bernd Heinrich heroes. But its the natural history that I fancy, the philosophical stuf..."I have no issues with natural history... but here it was too amateurish and, well, they felt like fillers at times I guess. Maybe I'll improve my opinion on a second reading.
"I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,... he will live with the license of a higher order of beings."Oh, by Your, I mean One's.
Mohit wrote: ""I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,... he will live with the license of a higher order of beings."":) true
and yet, despite it all, you give it 5 stars!great review. i remember feeling many of your feelings when reading this. both the positive and the negative. if "negative" is even the appropriate word... "confusion" may be more apropos for how i felt.
After having finished reading Thoreau, your review couldnt have summed up my thoughts any more perfectly! First halfwas brilliant and, wonderfully shed insight on how corrupt society is but i had to unfortunetly lug though the second half with every ounce of will power I had after being so intent on finishing it. The conclusion really did redeem this though.
I just read the first ten pages and put the book down questioning my own ability to digest philosphy when forced to concurrently think about my own follies, "... public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion." I kept pushing through until the analogy of the authoritative carnivore laying claim to his ways whilst plowing his fields by power of oxen. This is where steam from my brain began accumulating on my window. However, this is not a forfeit of wills. I am simply consciously pacing myself. I am letting go of wordly expectations to speed read a book to prove one's worth... The first ten pages... they are not difficult, just jam packed. You always walk slower in a jungle than in a barren field. This pace seems to be weighted differently throughout the work from the reviews I am reading... So I feel better about completing my first leg at page ten unforced and the fact that a grade doesn't depend on the speed I read this helps...
mark wrote: "and yet, despite it all, you give it 5 stars!great review. i remember feeling many of your feelings when reading this. both the positive and the negative. if "negative" is even the appropriate wo..."
It would have gotten as much for just the first page :)
Janell wrote: "I just read the first ten pages and put the book down questioning my own ability to digest philosphy when forced to concurrently think about my own follies, "... public opinion is a weak tyrant com..."Don't worry. It took me five attempts or so (of being overawed or overcome enough to put off till I can process it better) before I finally read the whole thing and I still might need 2-3 re-reads before I appreciate it fully.
Riku, No Americanist, I--though I was surrounded by them in grad school at U Minnesota which practically invented "American Studies," and at Amherst College, which published widely used pamphlets in the 40s and 50s. But I believe Ghandi was more influenced by Thoreau'slittle essay on his (one) night in a Concord jail for refusing to pay taxes he didn't believe in. He made much out of little suffering, I must say.
The essay is "Civil Disobedience." My favorite Thoreau is the Maine Woods, which I know as woods as well, and a few funny, a few tragic chapters in his Cape Cod--which is the only Cape Cod I like. (It's now filled with the bourgeoisie who don't know a Woodcock from a Quail, and who pull out the native berries (birds use for overwintering) and plant Hydrangea. His Journals are marvelous, but require even more patience than Walden. I would not call Thoreau an amateur naturalist; if ever there were a pro, it's him. See his Journals.
Oh, and Thoreau's often funny, though I don't recall it in Walden. Here he is in hi Journals, 28 Oct 1854: "For a year or two past my "publisher," falsely so called, has been writing from time to time to ask what disposition should be made of the copies of "A Week on the Concord and the Merrimack Rivers" still on hand, and at last suggesting that he had use for the room they occupies in his cellar. So I had them all sent to me here, and they have arrived to-day by express, filling the man's wagon,--706 copies out of an edition of 1000 which I bought of Munroe four years ago and have been ever since paying for, and have not quite paid for yet. The wares are sent to me at last, and I have an opportunity to examine my purchase. They are something more substantial than fame, as my back knows, which has borne them up two flights of stairs to a place similar to that to which they trace their origin. Of the remaining two hundred and ninety, seventy-five were given away, the rest sold. I have now a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself.Is it not well that the author should behold the fruits of his labor?"
Alan wrote: "Riku, No Americanist, I--though I was surrounded by them in grad school at U Minnesota which practically invented "American Studies," and at Amherst College, which published widely used pamphlets i..."Gandhi is what turned me to Thoreau...
When I called him an amateur naturalist, I am only calling the author of Walden so, he might have become a pro later on, of course!
Alan wrote: "Fair enough."Besides, I am just reading Walking, and in its introduction it is said that a fair many professionals were angry and put off by an 'amateur' invading and trivializing their fields. He went on to prove them wrong...
Riku wrote: "Petra X wrote: "I've always thought about reading Thoreau, partly because he is one of my favourite author's Bernd Heinrich heroes. But its the natural history that I fancy, the philosophical stuf...."Riku--No, no, not amateurish. Thoreau was a world-class botanist, and close to it as an animal behaviorist. Try his complete journals--which really require patience. In fact, he died a martyr to science, having caught a cold (thence, pneumonia) from counting the rings on trees. (See my teacher Theodroe Baird's essay on him, "Corn Grows in the Night," in the old Norton critical edition of W.
