awake & reading: walden"...to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem."With the third chapter of Walden, Thoreau seems to be taking his walking stick and trenching a line in the sand by the pond. He glares across at the rest of us wondering who could dare to view books and the mental exercises within them as anything less than the best way to spend our time.
It's a very challenging chapter in the sense that when he says something like:
"I confess I do not make any very broad distinction between the illiterateness of my townsman who cannot read at all and the illiterateness of him who has learned to read only what is for children and feeble intellects."I have to admit that not only do I agree, but in an honest self-assessment, I allow myself to slide toward the feeble end too often. This is especially true if we factor in the idea that when we read true books, we must read them in a true spirit. I've often found myself a page and a half past the last word I paid any attention to. Thoreau gives us an idea of what he means by reading in a true spirit by saying:
"Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written."That's a fair standard. If our great authors and poets labor over their pages for hours before they're ready to offer them to us, we can honor them by doing the same as we read.
2 comments:
The image of Thoreau drawing a line in the sand really nails what I was feeling when I read this chapter, well said Brian. But especially the quote about reading with the same intensity and deliberation as the author. That is why I have so enjoyed reading outside of college. I can finally just sit on one paragraph and read it over and over until I get it.
But lets be honest, when Thoreau mentions literature for children and feeble intellects, one must be careful. After all do you remember this quote from the "Where I Lived, and What I lived for" chapter,
"Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men..."
I love to watch kids movies and read young books like Newberry award winners. I think that they are clear and concise about some of the greatest things in the world. Like friendship, loyalty, and courage. And they put it in such a way that is easy to understand (after all it's for children) and often very uplifting. So Joe, I heartily agree with your love for children's books. But I think we should take what Thoreau says about reading deliberately and apply it just as intensily to Dr. Sues as we do to to Homer, Virgil, and Dante. And if it hold up under such scrutiny, well then we've got something.
Absolutely. I think we might all agree that the true meaning behind the "children and feeble intellect" phrase has to do with the potential for discovery and change that a book offers. After all, there are children's books that are not suited for feeble intellects and there are adult books written for feeble intellects that are not suited for children.
Post a Comment