What am I missing?

Why does someone who is so explicitly trying to break with tradition use SO MANY unnecessary allusions in his writing to some of the most traditional writings out there (i.e. the Bible, Shakespeare, &c.)?

A Thoreau reading of Walden

Ok, this is our book club blog! For the moment I think we've pretty well discussed our ideas and impressions from the first few pages. I'm going to keep reading until I get to the section with the itemized lists and then we'll reconvene to discuss some more.