Ugh that last scene - Whitman with Emerson. My mentor is in his late 80s now, and I see him once a week for coffee. I've been secretly recording our conversations as we go through his manuscripts and talk about Paris in the 60s. Good soul work for both of us.
Yeah "A Plea for Captain John Brown" is amazing. What really struck me is you see a side of Henry that you don't see elsewhere. That essay qualifies as a diatribe. He was as emotional as I've seen him. He seemed angry and disgusted. It's been a decade at least since I read it; but that's what I remember most about it.
That's super that your dad read T-reau to you as a kid. I didn't read T to my son; but I had him memorize quotations from T as well as others. I bribed him with an X-Box. He was only 10 years old or so but I thought that anyway I could get that stuff in his head would serve him later as he got older. In "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" Pirsig read T to his son when they camped at night. Nietzsche's dad use to read Emerson to him and his sister-which is as good as reading T. And I can tell from reading Nietzsche that he had been exposed to Emerson and his Concord compatriots. I think they ought to have kids in public schools start reading T from 1st grade on. T is the man! I use that old photo of him as my avatar on line.
Bloom leaves out Emily Dickinson, who was a huge Whitman fan. Her verse was quite different, but brilliant none-the-less. As a woman, she had to write "slant" and in secret. The pressure was immense and the output – genius.
Ugh that last scene - Whitman with Emerson. My mentor is in his late 80s now, and I see him once a week for coffee. I've been secretly recording our conversations as we go through his manuscripts and talk about Paris in the 60s. Good soul work for both of us.
Mr. Bloom didn't mention T-reau. Sorry, but that makes anything else that Mr. Bloom says on the topic of American classics suspect.
not suspect, incomplete
as is all our awareness
no one
including you and me
will ever see everything
i do agree with you however:
to omit Thoreau is a huge failing
His transcendent oration
on John Brown
is peerless
Yeah "A Plea for Captain John Brown" is amazing. What really struck me is you see a side of Henry that you don't see elsewhere. That essay qualifies as a diatribe. He was as emotional as I've seen him. He seemed angry and disgusted. It's been a decade at least since I read it; but that's what I remember most about it.
He was appalled.
He was on fire like Brown.
His words constitute the most eloquent and impassioned honoring of a man
that I have ever seen.
My father delivered Thoreau's plea aloud to me many times as a child.
It has been in my blood ever since.
That's super that your dad read T-reau to you as a kid. I didn't read T to my son; but I had him memorize quotations from T as well as others. I bribed him with an X-Box. He was only 10 years old or so but I thought that anyway I could get that stuff in his head would serve him later as he got older. In "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" Pirsig read T to his son when they camped at night. Nietzsche's dad use to read Emerson to him and his sister-which is as good as reading T. And I can tell from reading Nietzsche that he had been exposed to Emerson and his Concord compatriots. I think they ought to have kids in public schools start reading T from 1st grade on. T is the man! I use that old photo of him as my avatar on line.
First grade on for sure!
And yes to Emerson.
The Poet is sublime.
I read it over and over.
I’m in love with him and now I have to reread all of the poems mentioned. 😁
Bloom leaves out Emily Dickinson, who was a huge Whitman fan. Her verse was quite different, but brilliant none-the-less. As a woman, she had to write "slant" and in secret. The pressure was immense and the output – genius.