Henry David Thoreau

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>>876653
Actually a pretty decent book. Read it during a backpacking trip through Wyoming.
Sometimes it gets a little existential but overall it was nice to get the perspective of a life in "solitude."

>>877038
Halfway through it right now. I find the passage with the native american basket seller enlightening. Why should I spend my whole life figuring out how to make money when I can instead live my life without the need for much money and do what I love?

I like it, it's a good read. But I feel like it gets pretty over hyped. His life wasn't that much more simple compared to a lot of others at the time. He basically just took a sabbatical at his friend's cabin.

Still, even if it's not a tale of survivalism or primitivism it's a book people should read. Partly because HDT was one of the first American literary works that wasn't a political pamphlet, and also because it's a good story about stepping away from your normal life and learning about yourself.

>>877047
I do agree a bit on the over-hypeness. I feel he repeated himself quite a bit and the work could have been 1/4th as long at no degradation in quality.

However, he does appear to advocate a minimal life without many modern conveniences like travel and electricity. I would argue that with van-dwelling, one can make a good compromise between the monetary savings espoused by HDT and many modern conveniences.

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>>877047
He does seem to see himself as the only enlightened one, which can make him seem like a douche, but he makes some good points about what man truly has a necessity for. Walden's Pond is a really beautiful place too, I r8 10/10.

I feel like somehow a lot of his detractors got the impression that he intended to write some kind of self sufficient survival thing when it's clear to any who read the book that he doesn't pretend to this at all, but they criticize him for not doing that.

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>>876653
I enjoyed Thoreau more than his fuckboy counterpart Emerson. A few years ago though I came across an article stating that "Walden" was all bullshit and that Thoreau hung out in town an awful lot while his "accounts" happened.

Which leads me to say that much of what we "know" likely isn't legit.

Just sayin!

>>881581
> more highly regarded and influential than I will ever be in life or in death
Just sayin'!

>>876653
You can always have whatever you want if you don't want for much

>>877038
Im curious what parts you thought were existential? I brought up Albert Camus with a friend and he dismissed it because "existentialism is for pussies" even though I explained that his works were more "absurdist" and took the optimistic route of existentialism, but my friend touted Walden Pond as some sort of irrefutable masterpiece of transcedentalism.

>>876653
As a local I object to people commenting unless they have spent any time here. Just reading the print only scracthes the surface.

>>881581

Emerson was a better writer and thinker. If it weren't for him Walden would have never been written. Thoreau lived ideas Emerson's ideas. Their relationship was entirely about the thought and practice.

>>876653
He was the forest version of Schopenhauer.
Why do jews put stones on his grave?