Monday, November 06, 2006
Ralph Waldo Emerson II
Katja
ENGL 48A
Journal # 10, Emerson II
6 November, 2006
"To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society" (1107)
"To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. The tradesman, the attorney, comes out of the din and craft of the street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again." (1111)
The first quote is from chapter 1, (Nature) and the second quote is from chapter 3, (Beauty). Here, Emerson touts nature as a restorative resource available to all. Immediately, Henry David Thoreau’s Transcendentalist experiment on Walden Pond comes to mind. Thoreau stayed at Walden Pond, on Emerson’s property, from 1845-47.
While Emerson’s assertion that nature is a balm for a sore soul is at least partially true, one wonders again about how inclusive his statements are. How large a part of the American population at that time could leave "his chamber" (note "his," doubly exclusive!) in order to seek solitude? A great number of slaves were naturally excluded, and so were women by Emerson’s own acknowledgement, as were children, the infirm and the poor. In all, it seems this notion only applies to those able to leave their chamber, whether financially, legally or corporeally, indeed not a great number.
The second quote also confirms the Emersonian stratification of society. Work is "noxious," but fortunately for Emerson he never needed to do much of it. In addition, Emerson allows only those of a certain status to escape the overwhelming city streets to the curative effects of forest living. The hard-working housewife, farmer, blacksmith, sailor, beggar need not apply.
I do not know if Emerson’s friend Henry David Thoreau was an attorney or not, yet somehow he managed to qualify to live in a handmade (I guess that makes him a tradesman) cottage in the woods on Emerson’s private land. There he researched the healing effects of nature and wrote about it in his famous account of that stay. I wonder if this social experiment was Thoreau’s own idea, or perhaps Emerson’s. Nature was published some nine to ten years prior to the Walden Pond experiment.
In truth, Emerson’s ideas regarding the importance nature should have in people’s lives are quite valid. He calls for a return to nature so that humankind may be re-informed of the deeper spiritual connections between themselves and the Earth. However, early Victorian language and sentiment gets in the way of his message.
ENGL 48A
Journal # 10, Emerson II
6 November, 2006
"To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society" (1107)
"To the body and mind which have been cramped by noxious work or company, nature is medicinal and restores their tone. The tradesman, the attorney, comes out of the din and craft of the street, and sees the sky and the woods, and is a man again." (1111)
The first quote is from chapter 1, (Nature) and the second quote is from chapter 3, (Beauty). Here, Emerson touts nature as a restorative resource available to all. Immediately, Henry David Thoreau’s Transcendentalist experiment on Walden Pond comes to mind. Thoreau stayed at Walden Pond, on Emerson’s property, from 1845-47.
While Emerson’s assertion that nature is a balm for a sore soul is at least partially true, one wonders again about how inclusive his statements are. How large a part of the American population at that time could leave "his chamber" (note "his," doubly exclusive!) in order to seek solitude? A great number of slaves were naturally excluded, and so were women by Emerson’s own acknowledgement, as were children, the infirm and the poor. In all, it seems this notion only applies to those able to leave their chamber, whether financially, legally or corporeally, indeed not a great number.
The second quote also confirms the Emersonian stratification of society. Work is "noxious," but fortunately for Emerson he never needed to do much of it. In addition, Emerson allows only those of a certain status to escape the overwhelming city streets to the curative effects of forest living. The hard-working housewife, farmer, blacksmith, sailor, beggar need not apply.
I do not know if Emerson’s friend Henry David Thoreau was an attorney or not, yet somehow he managed to qualify to live in a handmade (I guess that makes him a tradesman) cottage in the woods on Emerson’s private land. There he researched the healing effects of nature and wrote about it in his famous account of that stay. I wonder if this social experiment was Thoreau’s own idea, or perhaps Emerson’s. Nature was published some nine to ten years prior to the Walden Pond experiment.
In truth, Emerson’s ideas regarding the importance nature should have in people’s lives are quite valid. He calls for a return to nature so that humankind may be re-informed of the deeper spiritual connections between themselves and the Earth. However, early Victorian language and sentiment gets in the way of his message.
# posted by Katja @ 2:41 PM 
