One of my favorite periods of literature - perhaps my absolute favorite - is early American literature (I should probably say 'early US literature'). I've always been fascinated with what people were like at the beginning of the nation. There was a lot of high idealism (utopians, transcendentalism, the Revolution) mixed with crushing inhumanity (i.e., Native Americans, the slave trade).One of the best things about the period is Emerson and his essays. For me, they represent the best of the early American spirit: being a pioneer in act and/or thought, skeptical of authority, idealistic but very pragmatic, and self-reliant. There's a lot of wisdom in his words, and his transcendentalism has a lot of Zen to it. It is often that I think of my thick paperback of Emerson essays the same way Christians think of The Bible. It's where I go for fuel, and I always keep a copy of his writing in the nightstand next to my bed.
I love hardcover books and always get them for anything I like to read. However, I can't ever have a hardcover for Emerson's writings, because I just mark up the margins and underline things as I read too much! Part of this is to help clarify what I'm getting out of him, because he can write some pretty long, winding sentences. Part of it is that he is just so 'quotable'. All throughout his writing are phrases that you can pull out as rules to live by.
Anyway, I thought that in my blog I would every so often share some of my favorite Emerson nuggets. Sort of my way of proselytizing on behalf of good old Ralph.
No comments:
Post a Comment