Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.48 AVERAGE
3.48 AVERAGE
Fun short read. Hard to follow at times, but brilliant in talking about the importance of nature and how it is disappearing because of civilization. The book was a plea for men and women to go back to the wild, where they are truly free.
I know Thoreau's faults as I know my own--his sanctimony, his arrogance, his hypocrisies. Most troublesome is his contradictory stance toward Native Americans, at times admiring, almost envious, and at other times erasing them, claiming the right of the colonizer.
But at the core of "Walking" is the very antithesis of the colonial mentality, a plea for wildness over dominance, immersion over alienation, "a Dismal Swamp" over "the most beautiful garden." I pray the environmental movement never loses this soul--the conviction that there is a better way of being in this world, that the necessary rejection of our industrial excesses is not a sacrifice but a return to and embrace of the bounties that surround us.
But at the core of "Walking" is the very antithesis of the colonial mentality, a plea for wildness over dominance, immersion over alienation, "a Dismal Swamp" over "the most beautiful garden." I pray the environmental movement never loses this soul--the conviction that there is a better way of being in this world, that the necessary rejection of our industrial excesses is not a sacrifice but a return to and embrace of the bounties that surround us.
I’d teeter between thinking, “Wow, HDT was really insightful,” and “Man, HDT is so white.”
I’d love to go on long walks like he did, and I wonder if it isn’t akin to meditation. But alas, I have a job and a dream that requires production, and miles of mind-walking with my ass firmly planted in my chair. Maybe one day, though. I still have some hope for myself.
I’d love to go on long walks like he did, and I wonder if it isn’t akin to meditation. But alas, I have a job and a dream that requires production, and miles of mind-walking with my ass firmly planted in my chair. Maybe one day, though. I still have some hope for myself.
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Sehr inspirierend. Ich hab direkt einen Campingtrip geplant weil mich der Drang, in die Natur zu gehen und völlig abzuschalten übermannt hat. Allerdings auch ein sehr fragwürdiger Ansatz mit dem Thoreau Amerika, Kolonisation, Native Americans und Slavery betrachtet. Not the biggest fan. Inspiriert hat er mich trotzdem irgendwo...vielleicht eher herausgefordert.
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
il mio primo libro di filosofia, una perfetta esplorazione del mondo naturale e gli insegnamenti che possiamo trarre dal suo essere selvaggio. È necessario ricordare che Thoreau è nato nel 1800 quindi alcune espressioni e pensieri sono ovviamente figli del suo tempo, ma il concetto alla base è alla fine condivisibile (almeno per me).
According to Thoreau, there's an art to walking. Essentially, it's being home yet not having a home; being on a pilgrimage, yet idling. And since this is Thoreau, he ties his favorite hobby to environmental nature, and then to human nature.
Strange mix of primitive anarchism and American exceptionalism.
I really like Thoreau's disdain for private property and utilitarian instrumentality. Like, he feels pretty Taoist at times, emphasising the embodied experience of walking, in and for itself, against walking as a tool towards a dissociated ends. Same with private property; its enclosure desolates the wild and entangled energy that made the land desirable in the first place. Wilderness cannot be captured nor instrumentalised. It is the exuberant excess of every capitalist project.
But then he has these weird passages about how humans have always progressed to a higher state of being by moving westwards, which seems to implicitly justify American imperialism and the genocide of indigenous peoples. Cough syrup Hegel can fuck off.
I'm totally for having a dismal swamp as a front yard tho.
I really like Thoreau's disdain for private property and utilitarian instrumentality. Like, he feels pretty Taoist at times, emphasising the embodied experience of walking, in and for itself, against walking as a tool towards a dissociated ends. Same with private property; its enclosure desolates the wild and entangled energy that made the land desirable in the first place. Wilderness cannot be captured nor instrumentalised. It is the exuberant excess of every capitalist project.
But then he has these weird passages about how humans have always progressed to a higher state of being by moving westwards, which seems to implicitly justify American imperialism and the genocide of indigenous peoples. Cough syrup Hegel can fuck off.
I'm totally for having a dismal swamp as a front yard tho.