Status Updates From Émile ou de l'éducation

"Men have been buried at one hundred who died at their birth." This makes me remember I've essentially died at eighteen. A shame, since I hadn't even read War & Peace yet by that point, let alone Solzhenitsyn, Trotsky, Marx, or Lenin. "I do not see what [the baby] gained by being born." ... "We'd gladly cripple [babies] to keep them from laming themselves." ... "The first gifts [babies] receive from you are chains."

WHY HADN'T I READ THIS BEFORE? "Every patriot is harsh to foreigners." :/ And Tartars are loved by philosophers so their neighbours don't have to be. Ugh. That's why I didn't force myself through it. Livy and Plutarch are his next sources, both of whom I studied. When I was more than a quarter awake. Rousseau is the first to use bourgeois right, after Marx! Says the endnote. Colleges aren't public? Not even WCU?

The point of the intro is context. *patient* Maybe Cong needs a summer letter. Aw, I know I come across bourgeois. I know Tocqueville wrote on America, but I skimmed over that... Emile/Sophie OTP? Wow, Briseis, Agememnon and Achilles, I haven't read about them for YEARS. Intro conclusion: THIS IS ALL AN ALLEGORY FOLKS if you were looking for porn LOOK ELSEWHERE (like Kant or Schiller) (c)1762 NOW ONTO THE PREFACE

Self-sufficiency undermines civil society and fulfillment of obligation... Hmm, society would be shallow and uncultured without the sexual undertones...? This introduction says in the body of the text Rousseau will show how the higher can be deduced from the lower without falling to its level. This would make good fodder for my next discussion.

Wait, scarcity is a result of extended, insatiable desire? ...actually, that makes sense, doesn't it. So one way to overcome lack of resources is not to want it any more? I don't think that quite works with fresh water, but it's one way to think about it.

Who is Rousseau and why did Carl speak so highly of him? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rousseau At least I got his most influential work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsziD... - A pleasant-enough composer! This introduction says it's the first Bildungsroman, what I want to write next month! 1770s, this is from the time of G. Washington, imperial Russia, middle-ish of Qing... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1770

I love to read the Introduction now! I originally skipped it for the meat of the book, but now I see how it provides a wider context for what is to come.

End of Book 4 and about to embark on Rousseau's idea of The Perfect Woman...

I don't think I'm going to have this finished by next Tuesday *sigh*

Hooray, end of Bk 2. "Books, what dull food for a child" he says, to which I respond, if that is so, change the books you give him!

I last read this book about 15 years ago, and still to this day it is one of the most profound books I have read. After quoting it so many times, especially to my two boys, I want to revisit/reexamine it to see if memory serves me right.

Still a slog. .

Livro V

Livro IV

Livro III

Livro II

Rousseau discusses the early teenage years.

Emile is generally getting a liberal education and plenty of exercise. He shouldn't sleep in a really comfortable bed because then he'll be picky when he gets an comfortable bed. and the water he drinks should be room temperature so not to bring out strong emotions.

Rousseau is looking at child development.

Whatever one can say, Rousseau can be funny. Bathe baby in milk and a touch of wine?

I might not make it...

To live is not to breathe; it is to act; it is to make use of our organs, pur senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the sentiment of our existence. The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years but he who has most felt life. Pg. 42

إن أولئك الذين يريدون تأمين الشباب ضد فخاخ الشهوات والحب يصورون الحب للشباب في صورة الجريمة كأنما خلق الحب للعجائز فحسب. إن هذه الدروس المضللة الخادعة لا تنطلي على قلب الشباب أو عقله بل ستلهمه فطرته أن يسخر من هذه المواعظ و إن تظاهر بالخضوع لها والعمل بها فكل ما يناهض الطبيعة باطل لا يرجى له الدوام

إن المرء ينبغي أن يصون طفله وهذا لا يكفي، بل ينبغي أن نعلمه كيف يصون نفسه حين يضحى رجلاً، وكيف يحتمل ضربات القدر وكيف يواجه البؤس والنعيم وكيف يعيش إن اقتضى الأمر في الزمهرير والقيظ .. وعبثا تحتاط حتى لا يهلك فما من الموت مفر، إن واجبك أن تعلمه كيف يعيش لا كيف يتحاشى الموت

Rousseau seems to have an opinion on everything!

Very interesting and surprisingly easy to read. His discontent with French society of the time shows in full bloom from the start!

Se il poveretto fa un solo passo sulla terra, se discende di un solo gradino, è perduto. Questo non è insegnargli a sopportare il disagio, questo è esercitarlo a sentirlo.

"Mortals, will you never cease to calumniate nature? Why do you complain that life is short, since it is still not short enough for your taste? If there is a single one among you who knows how to temper his desires so that he never wishes for time to pass, he will not regard life as too short. To live and to enjoy will be the same thing for him, and even if he were to die young, he would die with full days."

"One has to be foolish to love fools."

FINALLY finished Book IV!! On to Book V: "Sophie" UGH!!