Nature and Selected Essays - Ralph Waldo Emerson
OK, this is the first book I've read on the challenge so far that I didn't enjoy immensely. This is not to say that it wasn't without merit or that I didn't get some enjoyment from it. It is a thought provoking book, full of interesting thoughts on Nature, art, poetry, the soul, religion, etc. However, I had to read it for my class, and I'm not sure that I would have finished it if that was not the case.
First of all, the essays took a lecturing tone, which was not surprising as Emerson was a preacher and a teacher. However, after a while this tone started to wear on me, detracting from my enjoyment of the ideas. I also found him to be overly wordy. Maybe it is just because I'm coming off of Hemingway, but it just seemed to me that his ideas could have been expressed more succinctly. However, once you penetrate the prose, many of Emerson's ideas are surprisingly modern. Self-reliance, constant change, the creation of our world in perceiving it, the fact that we alter a situation through the act of observation, all seem surprisingly relevant and distinctly American.
So don't get me wrong, I'm not sorry I had to read this, and not just because of my grade. Ultimately I got through it, and I feel like I learned something. I feel enriched, but its the kind of enriched feeling I get from eating oatmeal and fresh fruit, rather than the enjoyment I might get out of steak and eggs.
I'm not big with essays myself and steer away from them unless of course have to read for a course. I felt the same way about stream of consciousness writing. I like the analogy of the fresh fruit to eggs. Sounds like something my husband would say.
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