Audio: 1/1/2012; 14 hrs., 2 min.; Blackstone Publishing 9781483067704;

SUMMARY / EVALUATION:
I have long wanted to read Emerson, so finally downloaded this collection of his Essays from Overload. What reminded me that I'd wanted to get familiar with his essays was the book on Oliver Wendell Holmes. It had mentioned that Emerson was one of his father’s friends whom he’d met as a boy and came to admire especially while in college and forever after. I did enjoy listening to these essays, but I have to confess much of it called for more thinking than listening straight through allows for. The man liked to write poetically, in fact every essay begins with a poem. It seems to me he writes ambiguously and obscurely. Or maybe it just seems so to me because so much of the language, or the way it was used wasn’t familiar.
From the “Gifts” essay for example: "Flowers and fruits are always fit presents; flowers, because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. These gay natures contrast with the somewhat stern countenance of ordinary nature: they are like music heard out of a work-house. Nature does not cocker us: we are children, not pets: she is not fond: everything is dealt to us without fear or favor, after severe universal laws. Yet these delicate flowers look like the frolic and interference of love and beauty."
I understand the passage now, but at first listen, I needed more time. The first line is clear enough, although I am not certain I agree. I know many a recipient of a gift of flowers who have deigned them impersonal, common, and slap-dash. The next line though, requires that I consider nature and search my mind for what might be meant by “ordinary nature” as opposed to flowers, and what about it presents a stern countenance. And, of course, I’m not familiar with work-houses, but presumably they were devoted to some sort of labor so a little thought makes it clear that music coming from one might seem cheerily incongruous and might brighten its mood a little. “Cocker” isn’t a word I commonly hear, but I assume it is the same as cockle, similar to coddle. But I don’t understand how nature treats us more childlike than pet-like—or what nature would have to do to cocker us, and if it did, would we then be pet-like? See what I mean about it taking more consideration than one has time for listening to it straight through? So, audio, for me, isn’t really the most appropriate format for this.
I did learn that Emerson had no interest in the occult arts—in one of the essays he states that to the selfish, astronomy becomes astrology, and then I think, anatomy becomes phrenology, and there is a third one.
And then, compassion doesn’t seem to be a valued trait, as in the “Self Reliance” essay, he says, “Do not tell me, as a good man did today, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong.” I shouldn’t say I never feel this way myself, but its not something I admire in myself or others or would necessarily advise emulating.
I did enjoy listening to these essays though.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays are available at the Gutenberg Project, complete with a glossary for many of the terms. This would be the better mode to consume I believe.

AUTHOR:
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882). According to Wikipedia, he went by his middle name, Waldo, and “was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.”

NARRATOR:
Jeff Riggenbach (January 12, 1947?) I’m not sure I found the right Jeff Riggenbach online, but if it’s the fellow with this birthday, he is an advocate of the Libertarian movement. It makes sense to me that such a fellow would enjoy narrating Emerson’s essays, so I’m thinking I found the right one. At any rate he has a good narrative voice for this.

GENRE: Philosophy
LOCATIONS: Boston, Massachusetts

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From "Nature"
"It seems as if the day was not wholly profane, in which we have given heed to some natural object. The fall of snowflakes in a still air, preserving to each crystal its perfect form; the blowing of sleet over a wide sheet of water, and over plains; the waving rye-fields; the mimic waving of acres of houstonia, whose inumerable florets whiten and riplle before the eye; the reflections of trees and flowers in glassy lakes; the musical steaming odorous south wind, which converts all trees to wind-harps, the crackly and spurting of hemlocki in the flames; or of pine-logs, which yield glory to the walls and faces in the sitting-room,---these are the music and pictures of the most ancient religion"

RATING: I give this a three, but I suspect if I spent some time reading the print I would come to appreciate it more.

( )

At this point I know two things.
Emerson is a genius.
And I'm not, because my head hurts. ( )

Politics

IN RETROSPECT, I DON'T THINK THAT DAD REALLY CARED FOR THESE CONTEMPLATIVE THINGS. HhISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY, AND GEOGRAPHY AND OCCASIONALY CHURCH BOOKS WERE MORE TO HIS TASTE

Westvaco is the West Virginia Paper Co., makers of fine papers. For 47 years, they did a special Christmas book each year that they distributed to their customers, all featuring works from American history or literature. They all include a decorated slipcover, fine endpapers and many have embossed images on the book covers. Some feature gilt edges and silk ribbon bookmarks. Although they had a limited press run the number is not stated nor are they numbered or signed.