He definitely rants. Are we supposed to have some underlying fabric of a philosophy to fit these rants into? I don't have the book in front of me right now, but I'm sure he is jumping around, expecting us to be able to jump with him. Either that, or his bits of wisdom are intended to stand on their own, and they really shouldn't be presented as a single book.
But then, as you said, he is obviously well educated. So, what is he doing? At one point in "Uncommon Learning" he says conventional schools force learning - which in his mind is represented by a meandering brook- into a rigidly carved, straight trench through the countryside. So, is Economy and the second chapter his expression of the meandering brook?
I do like that Thoreau feels that how he has to say what he has to say is as meaningful as the explicit arguments he makes. I'm trying to immerse myself in his half-crazed hobo trance just to see if I can mentally go some of the places he is going here. Actually, you know what, the next time I read a chapter of his I'm going to go out into the woods to read it. I'm going to be cheesey like that.
Side Note* Imagine how kids would respond to Thoreau walking into their classroom, and then leading them into the countryside for a lesson.
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You definitely should! I do most of my reading at my desk with my window out to the trees on my road. And I love reading this book at this time of year: even if I don't love his prose, his descriptions of the woods around Concord in my mind might just as well be Amherst. It's a nice "unity of experience" kind of thing. Anyway...
ReplyDeleteI think you might be on to something with your point that he didn't like the rigid structures of traditional education. I could easily imagine Thoreau rebelling against all that by writing as things came to him and not rigidly categorizing every sentence and thought like he might have been taught to do at school. It's all pretty speculative, but it'll definitely change the way I approach the book from now on.