21 out of 21 people found this review helpful.
The Most Well-written and Wise Self-Help Book Ever.
Date of Review: Apr 28, 2001
The Bottom Line: Absolutely read this! BUT...keep in mind that most of the details do not apply to you. Thoreau is honest and passionate AND an individual to the core.
Henry David Thoreau and his masterpeice, Walden or Life in the Woods, has a curious reputation. The reviled enemy of highschool students throughout the US, it is simultaneously gaining respect and admiration from intellectual circles. Truth be told, I am guessing that about 50% of smart, literary, adults find Walden fist-eatingly boring and preachy. Why the discrepancy?
My theory is that most people read this book the wrong way. The key to understanding Walden is to read it as if it were a travel essay. Allow me to explain.
Walden is not a theory of life and how it should be lived; it is a very condensed version of one man's single experience. Famously, Thoreau goes into the woods to "suck the marrow out of life," (Where...What I Lived For) Though he never leaves Concord, Thoreau is doing exactly what all good travelers do. He is opening his eyes to life by removing himself from patterns and complacencies. And in end, Walden Pond itself becomes habitual, and he moves on.
The book consists of 18 chapters, some of which come in pairs, ?Sounds? with ?Solitude?, ?Higher Laws? with ?Brute Neighbors,? etc. Over all, it is two years condensed into one, following chronologically throughout the year. Walden fits no particular genre and becomes a melding of fiction and non-fiction, essay, poetry, nature-writing, etc. Truly, it is Thoreau meets Walden Pond, the result is unique and wildly different from what Anyone Else meets Walden Pond would be. It is not meant to be definitive anything and to learn from it, one must distil what is universal for all humans out of Thoreau?s experience.
Many common complaints involve words like, "hypocrite" and "unrealistic". It is important to remember that Thoreau openly states that this advice is for those who are unhappy and that he doesn't want people to rush off into the woods. His key advice applies to almost any mode of life that keeps a person awake and vital. Here's the most basic:
1. Simplify. As in travel, the lighter the pack, the easier the trip. As possesions can weigh you down when you are trying to see pyramids, they do the same for everyday life. Thoreau is extreme because he is pushing the limits to test his theory...but even he still paid to have his clothes laundered in town, so the degree to which you simplify is personal. Be honest with yourself and see if this advice makes sense.
2. Be optimistic and have faith. These two go hand in hand. When we travel we often naturally expect the best. In fact, we become more open and innocent because we are simply there for pleasure. This works in life as well. In one of the most beautiful passages in the book, Thoreau puts forth a most splendid theory, "I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. . .? (Where...What...) Here, he encourages us to look at life with optimism and have faith that life will provide for both our strengths and weaknesses. Again, Thoreau is extreme, he saves no money or even fresh water for the winter, but he has a point. . .Being preoccupied with investments simply distracts you from enjoying what you have, and more importantly, living in the moment makes you more awake to opportunities and more skillful at using the resources that lie within.
3. Re-evaluate your Values. Thoreau decides that his time is more important to him than money. The cost of something is thus how much time it takes to get it. Using some delightful little math, Thoreau calculates that it is actually better to walk to the neighboring town: he can walk there in a day while enjoying the countryside. The one who rides the train works a days labor to afford the train, and then rides the train for a half-hour. When we travel, certainly, money and status fall by the wayside in favor of exploration. We don?t understand the language, so who cares about the local gossip? Often, these are the very natural occurrences that make travel such an educational and wonderful experience.
4. Explore Yourself. In travel, even while we learn about other cultures, we are constantly comparing them to our own. Often we learn more about ourselves and about what is truly universal. The woods are Thoreau?s foreign land, and he finds there a lot about life as a human including a striking paradox between his animal nature and his spiritual nature.
These are only a few of the myriad life lessons that this book has to offer. I could never list them all. Nor could I begin to do justice to the beauty of Thoreau?s writing. If you?ve tried and found it boring, skip around, the first long chapter, Economy, is important, but not the best. Walden is best read deliberately and if you take Thoreau at his word, he is truly inspiring. Enjoy!
"And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."
-Shakespeare, As You Like It
