Thoreau

[mousme]

After finishing Animal, Vegetable, Miracle yesterday, I found myself strangely uninterested in reading fiction as my next book. So I picked up Thoreau's Walden, which I'd never read.

I'm only 13 pages in (started on the metro this morning on the way to work), but so far it's not quite what I expected. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, or perhaps because it's so far removed from the simple, happy, modern and jocular tone of Barbara Kingsolver, but he seems kind of... angry and bitter, I guess. Thus far he's gone on at length about how no one knows how to live, that old people (i.e. anyone over 30) have nothing useful by way of life experience to offer (because their "wisdom" is suspect), and that generally people suck.

I'm only a few pages in, like I said. I am not entirely put out yet, and I'm sure that once I get used to the style it'll get easier. I'm intrigued to see where he's going to go with this. I guess I was just surprised by the tone, which I expected to be, umm, less judgmental. Like I said: perhaps I'm being unduly influenced by the occasionally-apologetic Kingsolver.

We shall see.

Comments

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly, actually. I think that Thoreau was probably a bitter, cranky loner in real life. He reminded me of my mother. Never finished it.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of glad I'm not hallucinating the tone. :)

I'm going to keep reading a while longer. I figure if I can get past the first chapter, the rest might be less sanctimonious and crabby-sounding. ;)

[fearsclave.livejournal.com]

Let me know if he relaxes. Like I said, he's a little reminiscent of my mother for me to pick up up again and see for myself.

[pasley.livejournal.com]

Please stick with it.

Thoreau begins by expressing the bitterness that drove him to his hermit-like existence at Walden in the first place. That bitterness continues through the text, but is tempered by beautiful sections about his two year stay in the woods near Walden Pond, what he learned about life, survival, art, himself, people, etc. This is a very personal account of his spiritual quest for a simple life. Yes of course he was a sometimes cranky misanthrope, otherwise he wouldn't have left everything to go live in a remote cabin! (He was also an environmentalist and an abolitionist; he even fought against corporal punishment and other injustices against humanity. There's a great deal to admire about the guy.) The work is also chock full of fascinating details about daily life at the time he was writing, humour, and a great deal of wisdom. In other words, you have to take the bitterness with the joy, and keep in mind that then, as now, the times certainly warranted both.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

I agree. There's too much good in there to pass it by.

[merccom.livejournal.com]

i keep trying to read it. i can get about half way through the book but the old english is just to painful.

[chasingthenuns.livejournal.com]

I remember having to read this in high school and hating it. Your review kind of makes me want to read it again.

[ladyiolanthe.livejournal.com]

There's something about environmentalists - the most rabid ones all seem to become misanthropists. Farley Mowat also has quite a few choice things to say about humanity.

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[ankhorite.livejournal.com]

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