Thoreau and Emerson: Nature and Spirit
By: Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson / Narrated By: Russ Barnett
Length: 2 hrs and 12 mins
All seems so timely; I’m kinda distressed but am also a weeee bit hopeful…?
Yeh yeh yeh: I named my cat after Thoreau, and yeh yeh yeh, I think Ralph Waldo is going to be the name of my next boy cat (Preferably a sweet little black cat!). But other than that? Oh goodness, I’m just getting to Thoreau and Emerson’s essays right now.
And I’m utterly distressed…
As in “Civil Disobedience” which was revived for the Civil Rights movement. Nifty, right? Uhm, howEVER, if one listens to Thoreau with today (Here in 2021) as context? Good cow, it makes it seem like it’s just peachy keen to try to overthrow the government by, saaaaay, storming the Capitol and causing suffering and mayhem. Cuz ya see, it’s all about a law higher than the Laws of the Government. I TOTALLY understand his treatise in context—I mean, who wants to support a government that enslaves its own people based on skin color, and who wants to support a war machine (Mexican/American) for an unjust war (Think Iraq? and never the chance for WMD)?
History ALWAYS repeats itself, so it’s no wonder that Thoreau’s words ring true for today. As for “Walden Pond”? That’s just lovely. I believe I’ve mentioned before that the last place we lived was in an apartment elevated so that we might feel like we were amongst the treeeees. Lovely! And then we moved to this place, where it’s aaaaallll asphalt, concrete, and pavement. Which distressed me gravely. But I’ve taken to living Thoreau’s words and have been trying to capture as much Nature as I can (Birds EVERYWHERE). It’s a nice little extended essay, and it’s good to take to heart in this era of rapidly growing cities, or when houses are razed so that McMansions can be built to cover all available landspace.
On to Emerson (Seriously! My first two black cats were named Jerzy and (William) Trevor. I’ve GOTTA use Ralph Waldo!). Dude, the man should reeeally be in print rather than audio as I had to go back and re-listen to various gems. Non-conformity? Emerson is truly your man. Plus, this audio format contains verrrrry short essays on Education and Politics. The favorite for me? “Nature” but of course, where one looks to the vastness of the stars for the sublime.
These two sets of works by both Thoreau and Emerson are relayed to us by narrator Russ Barnett. While he doesn’t add greatly to the profundity of the works, he doesn’t detract much either. His is rather a voice like that of a voiceover for a documentary. I could’ve used a bit more enthusiasm for the material, but ‘twould appear that ain’t his style here. So a triiiifle ho-hum, but at least the text, the deep philosophizing wasn’t outright butchered, which is always a mighty Huzzah…
While these are short works, they’re fairly dense and have somewhat archaic language. Yessss, there was a time when literacy and flowery language were the name of the day!
You’ll wanna hit rewind a bit whenst listening to this little ol’ audiobook. There are pearls of wisdom in here, they’re just fuzzy and moss-laden as they both reside in Man’s Nature and in the wondrous Nature of the Planet.
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