More Thoreau trivia

Reading Laura Dassow Walls biography:

Emerson advanced him $75 to search for Margaret Fuller on Fire Island after her boat crashed into a sand bar. 

I went to Fire Island today.

The one foreign country Thoreau visited was Canada in 1850. He never traveled really far, though read quite widely and traveled important steps for himself. In a way it's really cool that he traveled locally.

Thoreau was furious when an editor changed his essay. He wouldn't have much Reddit karma because he'd say what he wanted and dam everyone else if they didn't like it. He would not change it. 

I take something down quickly if there are even 3 downvotes more than upvotes. I still think I can think those thoughts and that I'm right given the context of my life, but I'm not into getting downvoted, I simply remove the offending comment or post. I have not sufficiently wrought out a message that is empathetically received on Reddit. There is a time and place and style for every thought to be expressed, but I don't imagine I'm always right and the public is wrong. 

The public and the private are different. I want to learn what the public doesn't like, so I can tailor my presentation to the world. I don't imagine there will be a equal line up with private and public. And I value my private experience beyond compare, I just don't assume everyone else has to. There are things I snap judge quickly as harmful to society and I downvote. That is my vision. 

On November 8th 1850 Thoreau quit cutting out paper from his journal and began to write an entry every day.

The fugitive slave act of 1850 offended Thoreau's sense of morality and beauty, which he combined. The land grabe of the Mexican-American War was offensive to him as well. The compromises of the new states not having slavery meant that the fugitives had to be seen as property and the whole nation had to return slaves. It was a national law. But the whole nation didn't agree and protected escaped slaves.

Henry David Thoreau

I got the biography by Laura Dassow Walls back from the library. It's a long book and I have a big pile of books I mostly ignore, but I hope to finish it.

He's just published his first book, and he assumed the risk of publishing and his first book ended up costin him $290 in a time when the square hut he built on Walden Pond cost him $28.12 and 1/2. It took him 4 years to pay it off. Meanwhile his sister Helen dies in 1849, the 4 siblings are down to 2 now. Helen had refused to go to church because slaveholders were allowed in, but the minister performed her funeral at her home. He got some bad reviews, but couldn't get anything but faint praise from Emerson. 

That reminds me of my stalling to read a friend's book, and in a way that kind of hindered our friendship. I wasn't into it. He eventually got it published and friends bought it, but I'm pretty poor and didn't buy it. My friend hasn't answered emails as he moved away, and perhaps it's his wrong email address, but it's quite possible we don't know what to say to each other any more. Publishing is a strain on friendships. It was a real source of pain for Thoreau. All great writers have to write a few bad works before they can hit on their masterpiece. Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman all published substandard books before they hit on their masterpieces. To me it would have been a mistake to write about his brother and not confess his grief that he lost his brother. This is my problem with Transcendentalism, the writing is just really hard to read. I like the ideas, but the execution is difficult. A difficult birth to the first literary movement in America.

Ruins

 

Dusk

 

Kathleen Raine poem

 

Afternoon

 

Dec. 25th

According to the saga of King Haakon Haraldsson of Norway, who ruled in the 10th century, the Norse Yule celebration and Christian Christmas celebration were merged during his reign.

The winter solstice, also called the hibernal solstice, occurs when either of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, and when the Sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky.^[1] Each polar regionexperiences continuous darkness or twilightaround its winter solstice.