…A good part of Thoreau’s new-found free time he was able to devote to writing. The first work he completed at the pond was an extended essay on Thomas Carlyle. As early as 1842 he had begun making notes on Carlyle’s works, but it was probably not until he got to the pond that he gathered the notes together and wrote the essay, which he tried out as a lecture before the Concord Lyceum on February 4, 1846. Although it was apparently a success, it was not what his townsmen expected or wanted to hear.
—Because of the expanded experience from living simply, and because of confusion with the art movement, I find the term minimalism wanting. I propose Essentialism. Sounds a bit like Existentialism, but I like it.
In any case, a movement is afoot and there is nothing stopping it. It has its own volition and a magnetism that is irresistible to many seeking a truer and more meaningful life. It gives me hope and even excitement about the future of the planet I have not felt in a long time. Though rarely a joiner, I whole-heartedly dedicate myself to this force. Whatever we name it.—Read More:http://www.urbancontemplative.ca/blog/minimalism-an-expanding-movement/
They wanted to know why he, a college graduate, had given up conventional life and gone to live in a cabin in the woods. And so it was that Thoreau started writing a series of lectures that eventually grew into his masterpiece, Walden, or Life in the Woods. “Some,” he said, “have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained.” And those were among the questions he attempted to answer in his lectures and in his book.
It was a year later, February 10, 1847, before he delivered the first of these Walden lectures to his townsmen. That evening he read a paper entitled “A History of Myself”- a portion of which was eventually to become the “Economy” chapter of Walden- and it was received so well that, quite out of keeping with the regular practice of the Lyceum, he was asked to repeat it a week later for those who had missed it.
Prudence Ward, who had boarded at the Thoreau house, reported that “Henry repeated his lecture to a very full audience…It was an uncommonly excellent lecture- tho’ of course few would adopt his notions- I mean as they are shown forth in his life. Yet it was a very useful lecture and much needed.”
The favorable reactions to this and following lectures persuaded Thoreau that it would be worthwhile to wtire a book-length account of his life at the pond. So earnestly did he set to work that by September, 1847, he had completed the first draft. It was seven years and eight complete revisions later, however, before the book was finally published. ( to be continued)…
ADDENDUM:
(see link at end)…About the news I think it fair to portray Thoreau as loathing it. He couldn’t understand why people were so avid to know what was happening to others, especially those who lived in faraway countries. The news seemed to Thoreau some kind of gossipy spectacle which he compared to everyone running to a fire when they heard the church bell peal in the middle of the night. It didn’t matter if the building was saved or burned to the ground. They just wanted to see it or hear about it.
Worse, according to Thoreau, all news amounts to the same predictables in play. All that changes are the names, dates and locales. In the end, paying attention to the news is hardly a harmless pursuit. The news leads people astray.
“Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous . . . By closing eyes and slumbering, and consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit every where, which still is built on purely illusory foundatio
#8221;
I can’t help wondering what Thoreau would have to say about our large screens, 3D movies, books that arrive via pixels on an e-reader, or conversations with disembodied voices as we walk along talking on cell phones; in other words, our conscious cultivation of something other than physical, sensual, wrap-your-hand-around-it reality.
He might ask someone like me to add up the costs, the way he totaled precisely his expenses in constructing his cabin–$28.12, including 14 cents for hinges and screws and one cent for chalk.
The cost of my following the news and lapping up the latest greatest entertainment can’t be expressed in dollars, though. The cost comes in the amount of reality I subtract from my own life. Read More:http://thevanwinkleproject.blogspot.ca/2010/10/thoreau-unplugged.html
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