Terminology

I know that I let myself wide open with the last discussion board post about the worth of reading Walden, and I steel myself for the negative responses.

However, some clarification is needed.

Walden is not a 'story' with the usual elements of a short story:  characters, plot, conflict.  It is an essay, a reflection, a journal of a man's thoughts as he spent 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days in the woods in Massachusetts.   Journals are like blogs, in a way, that record one's thoughts, meanderings of the mind, random flashes of insight.  If you are expecting to read something action packed with a cast of characters, you will not find it in Walden.  It is not a 'story.'  It is an essay.

I have written in previous Pods of Thought blogs about how my tastes in reading have changed over the years.  I used to hit the Best Sellers or New Fiction on the shelves in the library and at Barnes and Noble.  While I still enjoy reading John Grisham (and a cousin recommended that I read his new novel, Gray Mountain), my tastes have turned more toward biography, historical accounts, and books from Proverbs 31 ministries and some of my favorite Christian writers.  The latter are not action-packed books, and they can't be read more than a chapter or two at a time. There are no characters, either, except for the first person accounts the author often shares.  However, I find these readings to be interesting and thought-provoking.  If I want action and good plot and character development, I will choose a book by Grisham or another popular author. Maybe reading sections of Walden at a time would have been more beneficial.

But I also want to comment on the irony of some of your responses.  Even though many of you felt that reading Walden (and that view leaked over into Emerson's works at times) was about as 'exciting as watching paint dry," most of you took something from reading the work of Emerson and Thoreau. Reading the discussion boards about the aphorisms was one of the most interesting reads I have had this semester.  It was fun to see which aphorism you selected, how it had affected you or how you interpreted it, and interesting to read how others responded.  Lessons learned for life?  Sayings to life by?  Thoughts to share and impress upon your children (get off the cell phone or video game and go outside and play!)?

Conclusion - know the difference between a short story and an essay.  Walden is NOT a story, never has been, never will be.  But it does rank up there as a pretty powerful essay with a lot of lessons to be learned.