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The exact cost of my house, paying the usual pricefor such materials as I used, but not counting the work, all of whichwas done by myself, was as follows;
Thoreau is keeping track of every cent he spends and exactly how much material he uses. But it's not because he's stingy or poor. He does it because he finds deeper meaning and value in paying attention to this kind of thing. Based on what you've read, what kind of deeper meaning or value do you think he gets out of this?
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We belong to the community. It is not the tailoralone who is the ninth part of a man; it is as much the preacher, andthe merchant, and the farmer. Where is this division of labor to end?And what object does it finally serve? No doubt another may alsothink for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so tothe exclusion of my thinking for myself.
Thoreau is saying that in today's society, because we divide all our labor and rely on specialists, there are so many basic things that none of us actually know how to do. What example(s) can you think of?
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By the middle of April, for I made no haste in my work, but rathermade the most of it, my house was framed and ready for the raising.
What might Thoreau mean when he says that he wasn't in a hurry to finish his work because he wanted to "make the most of it?" After all, he's out alone in the forest in late winter, doing backbreaking work, chopping down trees all by himself. Why wouldn't he just want to be done with this?
Give me an example of a time when you've experienced something similar.
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Oneday, when my axe had come off and I had cut a green hickory for awedge, driving it with a stone, and had placed the whole to soak in apond hole in order to swell the wood, I saw a striped snake run intothe water, and he lay on the bottom, apparently withoutinconvenience, as long as I staid there, or more than a quarter of anhour; perhaps because he had not yet fairly come out of the torpidstate. It appeared to me that for a like reason men remain in theirpresent low and primitive condition; but if they should feel theinfluence of the spring of springs arousing them, they would ofnecessity rise to a higher and more ethereal life.
Thoreau's text is full of moments where he takes life lessons about humanity and modern life from the non-human world around him. Here, he sees a snake waking up from its winter hibernation and Thoreau thinks about how the people he knows are similarly "asleep" in their daily lives because they don't bother actually trying to live on their own terms.
Think about your own interactions with nature -- pets, wild animals, being on a farm, going for hikes, etc. What is a lesson you have learned?
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The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
READING FOR WEEK 2 Day 1 STARTS HERE
highlight ONE idea or passage that helps you think about your own consumption habits differently, and tell us HOW you find it helpful. How might you alter (or even just think differently) your consumption, based on Thoreau's ideas? Then, pick one passage highlighted by a classmate and build off what they said. This means you'll be making two posts.
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Inmost books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will beretained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. Wecommonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the firstperson that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself ifthere were any body else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I amconfined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience.Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simpleand sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heardof other men’s lives; some such account as he would send to hiskindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must havebeen in a distant land to me.
IN-CLASS PROMPT: It seems like this could be such a lonely, isolating way of experiencing the world. Indeed, Joseph Conrad says "We live as we dream, alone." Orson Welles has said "We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone." But Thoreau finds this liberating. In what situations do YOU maybe experience something similar?
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hen I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them,I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in ahouse which I had built myself, on the shore of WaldenPond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the laborof my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At presentI am a sojourner in civilized life again.
IN CLASS PROMPT: How do you think this setup might change the way you think and write?
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Walden
PLEASE SIGN UP FOR HYPOTHES.IS AND THEN REPLY TO THIS COMMENT WITH YOUR NAME
We will be working on selections at the very beginning of the text and also pp32-38
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- Jan 2024
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* * *
FIRST READING PASSAGE FOR WEEK 2 ENDS HERE. GO TO PAGE 32 TO START THE NEXT PASSAGE FOR WEEK 2.
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woods and became a wild cat, and, as I learned afterward, trod in atrap set for woodchucks, and so became a dead cat at last.I took down this dwelling the same morning, drawing the nails, andremoved it to the pond side by small cartloads, spreading the boardson the grass there to bleach and warp back again in the sun. One earlythrush gave me a note or two as I drove along the woodland path. Iwas informed treacherously by a young Patrick that neighbor Seeley,an Irishman, in the intervals of the carting, transferred the stilltolerable, straight, and drivable nails, staples, and spikes to hispocket, and then stood when I came back to pass the time of day, andlook freshly up, unconcerned, with spring thoughts, at thedevastation; there being a dearth of work, as he said. He was there torepresent spectatordom, and help make this seemingly insignificantevent one with the removal of the gods of Troy.I dug my cellar in the side of a hill sloping to the south, where awoodchuck had formerly dug his burrow
Thoreau keeps coming back to this idea of borrowing or repurposing what others have made. On pp 32, he said "It is difficult to begin without borrowing, but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow-men to have an interest in your enterprise." What might this mean? Why do you think he does this?
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dinner of bread and butter, and read the newspaper in which it waswrapped, at noon, sitting amid the green pine boughs which I had cutoff, and to my bread was imparted some of their fragrance, for myhands were covered with a thick coat of pitch. Before I had done Iwas more the friend than the foe of the pine tree, though I had cutdown some of them, having become better acquainted with it.
Thoreau just got done chopping down a bunch of pine trees. How could he possibly claim to be their "friend"? What do you think he means by this?
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- Feb 2023
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As you read the excerpts from this essay, please respond to this series of prompts:
In the early 20th century, Freud was living and writing at a time of unprecedented technological advancement and social change. Why does Freud think that "civilization" might actually be a bad thing? As you read: 1. Highlight at least one passage (a sentence or a few sentences) where Freud discusses “civilization” as something negative 2. Pick annotated passages from two of your colleagues and give a modern-day example of how you think we might suffer some similar negative experience today
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- Jan 2023
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Near the end of March, 1845
READING FOR WEEK 2 -- FROM HERE TO PAGE 38
BACKGROUND: Thoreau has decided to go into the woods to build a home. By the mid-1800s, most homes in Thoreau's area of Massachusetts would NOT be built this way. They would be built a lot like our homes are: by crews of experienced workmen, using standard building materials and tools. Thoreau is choosing to do it differently.
AS YOU READ: Click on highlighted passages and answer the prompts.
WHEN YOU ARE DONE: Go to your Analysis Journal and answer Prompt #3 (Week 2 Entry 1)
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