I don't think I knew much about Ralph Waldo Emerson. I certainly didn't read anything of his prior to Volume 5, and honestly - I got him confused with Walt Whitman a lot. I knew he was a poet and a philosopher but that was it.
The Volume itself is broken up into two parts: the first is his essays - 18 of them. The second is English Traits - a series of essays about a trip to England. It's not exactly a travelogue, but reflections.
What struck me about the essays is that Emerson conveyed a subdued intelligence with a lot of introspection. You can tell he was overly educated (went to Harvard, naturally) and yet not a fan of the rigid confines of intellectualism. Part of his infamous The American Scholar essay involved this "Man Thinking" concept whereby you quit parroting the thinking of others and think for yourself. And by thinking for yourself, you'd be able to broaden your mind and understanding of the world. In a way, we look at this and go "well, obviously..." but still repeat what we hear from other supposed intellectuals in an effort to sound intellectual.
Emerson was also part of the Transcendental Club, a group of young intellectuals who got together to discuss literary and philosophical topics. This was when people actually had things like debate societies and clubs where they'd get together and talk about ideas versus things like reality TV and popular culture. And it was also a middle finger to Harvard as well. Sure, they may have taught students facts but they didn't teach them how to think. And like any Club, they naturally had to publish their own short-lived literary journal. Nowadays they'd just start a blog, but in the late 1830s, they didn't have to contend with the idiocy of Facebook commenters mocking them.
During this time he was giving lectures, and gave a commencement address at Harvard's Divinity School (now called the Divinity School Address) and managed to piss off the school so much by proclaming that Jesus was awesome but he wasn't God that he wasn't invited back for 30 years. Granted, it's what I believe too but c'mon son - you went and gave a commencement speech at a freakin' Divinity School. What did you expect would happen?
Emerson's writings made him the great intellectual hero of the mid 1800s. What I liked was that a) I agreed with him and b) his writings were well-spoken and easily accessible. Most works by "public intellectuals" aren't because they try to convince you that they're an intellectual (it's like that Margaret Thatcher quote about "power is like being a lady - if you have to tell people you are, you aren't.") And in a way, Emerson being thought of as an intellectual idol means people who have studied him repeat his words and thus, becoming the thing he wrote against: intellectual parrots. DAMN YOU FULL CIRCLES!
Emerson wrote in his essay on Self-Reliance that "Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say 'I think,' 'I am,' but quotes some saint or sage." The takeaway is think for yourself, and perhaps that when I finish this set of books I'm able to do that, despite the weight of knowledge I've accumulated.
(oh and I know that by quoting a quote about quoting makes me look like a fool, but...)
The Volume itself is broken up into two parts: the first is his essays - 18 of them. The second is English Traits - a series of essays about a trip to England. It's not exactly a travelogue, but reflections.
What struck me about the essays is that Emerson conveyed a subdued intelligence with a lot of introspection. You can tell he was overly educated (went to Harvard, naturally) and yet not a fan of the rigid confines of intellectualism. Part of his infamous The American Scholar essay involved this "Man Thinking" concept whereby you quit parroting the thinking of others and think for yourself. And by thinking for yourself, you'd be able to broaden your mind and understanding of the world. In a way, we look at this and go "well, obviously..." but still repeat what we hear from other supposed intellectuals in an effort to sound intellectual.
Emerson was also part of the Transcendental Club, a group of young intellectuals who got together to discuss literary and philosophical topics. This was when people actually had things like debate societies and clubs where they'd get together and talk about ideas versus things like reality TV and popular culture. And it was also a middle finger to Harvard as well. Sure, they may have taught students facts but they didn't teach them how to think. And like any Club, they naturally had to publish their own short-lived literary journal. Nowadays they'd just start a blog, but in the late 1830s, they didn't have to contend with the idiocy of Facebook commenters mocking them.
During this time he was giving lectures, and gave a commencement address at Harvard's Divinity School (now called the Divinity School Address) and managed to piss off the school so much by proclaming that Jesus was awesome but he wasn't God that he wasn't invited back for 30 years. Granted, it's what I believe too but c'mon son - you went and gave a commencement speech at a freakin' Divinity School. What did you expect would happen?
Emerson's writings made him the great intellectual hero of the mid 1800s. What I liked was that a) I agreed with him and b) his writings were well-spoken and easily accessible. Most works by "public intellectuals" aren't because they try to convince you that they're an intellectual (it's like that Margaret Thatcher quote about "power is like being a lady - if you have to tell people you are, you aren't.") And in a way, Emerson being thought of as an intellectual idol means people who have studied him repeat his words and thus, becoming the thing he wrote against: intellectual parrots. DAMN YOU FULL CIRCLES!
Emerson wrote in his essay on Self-Reliance that "Man is timid and apologetic; he is no longer upright; he dares not say 'I think,' 'I am,' but quotes some saint or sage." The takeaway is think for yourself, and perhaps that when I finish this set of books I'm able to do that, despite the weight of knowledge I've accumulated.
(oh and I know that by quoting a quote about quoting makes me look like a fool, but...)
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