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Walden
Feb 4, 2019 19:19:28 GMT -8
Post by hikerjer on Feb 4, 2019 19:19:28 GMT -8
So, how many of you outdoor aficionados have actually read Thoreau's Walden? I had to read it decades ago for a literature course in college and remember just skimming through it enough to sound knowledgeable and get me through the class. I really didn't get much from it. My fault, I suppose. I'm in the process of rereading it now and frankly, it's a bit of a struggle. I know it's a classic and all, but it's just not appealing to me like I hoped it would. Any thoughts?
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swiftdream
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Walden
Feb 5, 2019 16:41:26 GMT -8
Post by swiftdream on Feb 5, 2019 16:41:26 GMT -8
Read it when I was a kid. I liked how he built a little box to crawl in and live in, don’t much like the idea now. Of course we now know that he walked to his momie’s house so she could cook him his dinners. It was more a meditative thing I guess.
I did read his The Maine Woods in the last couple years and enjoyed it for its time capsule quality more than anything.
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Walden
Feb 8, 2019 21:23:23 GMT -8
Post by plaidman on Feb 8, 2019 21:23:23 GMT -8
I hear you, Hikerjer. I've picked it up and put it down several times. Despite some terrific insights and phrases, there's a lot that just really puts me off. I think Walden is going to to remain a mystery to me.
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Westy
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Walden
Feb 13, 2019 7:37:04 GMT -8
Post by Westy on Feb 13, 2019 7:37:04 GMT -8
Never read the book...but drove by Walden Pond a zillion times on the way into Bean Town.
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Post by hikerjer on Feb 13, 2019 10:26:39 GMT -8
drove by Walden Pond a zillion times on the way into Bean Town. Sorry, Westy. That doesn't count.
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amaruq
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Walden
Mar 8, 2019 5:25:27 GMT -8
Post by amaruq on Mar 8, 2019 5:25:27 GMT -8
It's on my shelf, but I haven't gotten around to it. I read through Civil Disobedience and some of his other essays/letters/articles/etc in a bit of down time I had between books, but they didn't really spark a fire under me to pick up Walden. That being said, some of the topics and themes he was touching on in those writings could be applied to the goings-on in the world today.
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Walden
Mar 10, 2019 19:49:53 GMT -8
Post by starwalker on Mar 10, 2019 19:49:53 GMT -8
I read the copy my library has, but it was over 20 years ago and I just don't remember much except it was cool to see some of the quotations of his in context.
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rebeccad
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Walden
Mar 11, 2019 19:10:44 GMT -8
Post by rebeccad on Mar 11, 2019 19:10:44 GMT -8
I read it long ago—probably as an undergraduate—and liked a lot of it. That was before I learned more of the reality of the situation, but that didn’t wholly ruin it for me. My interests was renewed (and I was bemused) by a visit to Walden Pond last fall. So close to Concord, not at all what you’d think from reading it! But when you look closely, you realize that it’s not at all a book about living off the land or any such thing. I think swiftdream pegged it: it’s a meditative thing. He built himself a little zen retreat center, and left most of the work to others. No wonder he and Bronson Alcott got on so well
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BigLoad
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Post by BigLoad on Mar 11, 2019 19:52:14 GMT -8
hat was before I learned more of the reality of the situation, but that didn’t wholly ruin it for me. My interests was renewed (and I was bemused) by a visit to Walden Pond last fall. So close to Concord, not at all what you’d think from reading it! Even back in Thoreau's day, it wasn't far off the beaten path. I knew that before I read it many years ago and it did affect my interpretation.
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rebeccad
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Walden
Mar 12, 2019 0:20:47 GMT -8
Post by rebeccad on Mar 12, 2019 0:20:47 GMT -8
hat was before I learned more of the reality of the situation, but that didn’t wholly ruin it for me. My interests was renewed (and I was bemused) by a visit to Walden Pond last fall. So close to Concord, not at all what you’d think from reading it! Even back in Thoreau's day, it wasn't far off the beaten path. I knew that before I read it many years ago and it did affect my interpretation. Yeah, I think that came up in class, but I was a romantic young thing and pretty much ignored the reality until I hit my cynical period
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tomas
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Walden
Mar 12, 2019 4:49:28 GMT -8
Post by tomas on Mar 12, 2019 4:49:28 GMT -8
Having lived in Boston for 12 years I've been to Walden many times and had many a delightful or meditative walk along the foot path. The book, however, I must wasn't my cup of tea. I don't know if it was not meeting an unrealistic expectation that I had or just the way it was written.
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desert dweller
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Walden
Mar 12, 2019 14:18:25 GMT -8
Post by desert dweller on Mar 12, 2019 14:18:25 GMT -8
I also read it in college. It was on a list of "environmental" books we had to choose from. I enjoyed it and learned some things.
A quick story about Walden Pond. I was working for a company called Tracer Research Corporation back in the 1990's doing testing of oil and gas lines and tanks. We drove a mobile laboratory (a converted Econoline 4x4) to get to remote places. In the lab we had Tyvek suits, hard hats and gas masks (for enclosed areas) along with syringes and other sampling stuff. Me and my partner visited Walden Pond on April Fools Day and thought about suiting up, in full protective regalia, and walk down to the pond shore like we were going to sample the water. We thought it would be fun and funny. However, after seeing the park rangers all around and all the families we thought better of it and didn't do it or even suit up. Probably a good thing. They may have arrested us on the spot.
We decided to walk the circumference of the pond instead.
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Post by matt1934 on Mar 14, 2019 16:32:16 GMT -8
Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopoldo May be more your cup of tea. It is a great treatise on land conservation.
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Walden
Mar 18, 2019 3:21:03 GMT -8
Post by geezinbutnotweezin on Mar 18, 2019 3:21:03 GMT -8
It's a good book and several times when I walk out to my shed and think "this shed is about the size of Thoreau's cabin". I then back out my CO2 belching lawn tractor with beer koozie and cut the lawn. OK not exactly in alignment with Thoreau's philosophy but I am starting to reduce the size of the lawn, converting it to an expanding garden of native plants. Maybe this will eventually be mostly garden and I'll cut the grass with a reel mower. Hard to hang a drink koozie on a reel mower though.
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