Walden
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Kathleen
(last edited Aug 25, 2016 01:30PM)
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Nov 02, 2007 06:23AM

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Beautiful sentiment and language, and I enjoyed it. Good thing to read on a long, solitary trip in the spring.

It’s so true, so natural, so inspiring!! The world, society and individual living are perceived in different tones from then on…




Thoreau's notion of radical self-reliance requires competence in the skills necessary to provide for ourselves.



I just got done reading his 'Cape Cod' and found it as rewarding as his other works.


I think his book about civil disobedience is a little bit about revolution.


Here's one of my favorite stories that says a lot about the man Thoreau: -- when Nathaniel Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody and moved to the Old Manse in Concord, Thoreau planted (in advance) their garden for them. After breakfast , I go forth into my garden, and gather whatever the beautiful Mother has made fit for our present sustenance; and, of late days, she generally gives me two squashes and a cucumber, and promises me green corn and shell beans, very soon.
N. Hawthorne Journal entry, Saturday, August 13, [1842]
The garden was a wedding gift from Thoreau to the young couple, and has been a working garden ever since 1842 -- 172 years!

Would a modern-day Thoreau have a computer in his cabin?

Geez, I can't see Thoreau having a computer in his cabin (but maybe at his mother's house). I think he would just go into the woods (mostly likely northern Maine woods) and do the same thing he did in the 19th century, although he wouldn't be able to visit his friends in Concord everyday. He'd have to make new friends in Jackman or Greenville. Fortunately, that's easy to do!

If not in his cabin, having the web close at hand seems like a good balance. This in itself, though, already constitutes quite a compromise to the simple living ideals that he propounds (although, for that matter, so does relying on family and friends for meals, if your sources are reliable!)
As to whether he would do the same thing today as back then... I'm not sure. The world has changed too much. Put the same man in this new world and it's difficult to predict what his reaction would be. If he did go off and do the same thing, would anyone take any notice nowadays?
I suppose another way of phrasing my question is: what would a modern-day Walden be like? Would this new Thoreau dedicate himself, as then, to contemplation alongside a single pond, or would the increased possibilities of the modern world take him down a different path, as revolutionary for the present time as Walden was for its own?

really , sometime ourselves become enough .


"If you have to sweep your door mat everyday, get rid of it, because it owns you." Thoreau Are these words of wisdom?


"If you have to sweep your door mat everyday, get rid of it, because it owns you." Thoreau Are these words of wisdom?"
Yes, I will embroider them on my doormat.

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