[MD] Emerson

[gav]

hi there,
this reminds me of miller's 'colossus of maroussi' - his journey to greece before ww2 in which he discovers the soul of this nation that produced literally thousands of geniuses - he gets to the spirit of the place, the culture which informs and nurtures this genius - whilst also drawing some of the most beautiful, insightful, loving portraits of the individuals he is befriended by....

miller is a big fan of emerson

'the quote at the beginning of tropic of cancer is emerson: 
these novels will give way, by and by, to diaries or autobiographies—captivating books, if only a man knew how to choose among what he calls his experiences that which is really his experience, and how to record truth truly.'

such an important insight




--- On Wed, 10/3/10, X Acto <xacto at rocketmail.com> wrote:

> From: X Acto <xacto at rocketmail.com>
> Subject: [MD] Emerson
> To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
> Received: Wednesday, 10 March, 2010, 1:30 PM
> "Our native love of reality joins
> with this experience to teach us a little reserve, and to
> dissuade a too sudden surrender to the brilliant qualities
> of persons. Young people admire talents or particular
> excellences; as we grow older, we value total powers and
> effects, as, the impression, the quality, the spirit of men
> and things. The genius is all. The man, — it is his
> system: we do not try a solitary word or act, but his habit.
> The acts which you praise, I praise not, since they are
> departures from his faith, and are mere compliances. The
> magnetism which arranges tribes and races in one polarity,
> is alone to be respected; the men are steel-filings. Yet we
> unjustly select a particle, and say, 'O steel-filing number
> one! what heart-drawings I feel to thee! what prodigious
> virtues are these of thine! how constitutional to thee, and
> incommunicable.' Whilst we speak, the loadstone is
> withdrawn; down falls our filing in a heap with the rest,
> and we
>  continue our mummery to the wretched shaving. Let us go
> for universals; for the magnetism, not for the needles.
> Human life and its persons are poor empirical pretensions. A
> personal influence is an ignis fatuus. If they say, it is
> great, it is great; if they say, it is small, it is small;
> you see it, and you see it not, by turns; it borrows all its
> size from the momentary estimation of the speakers: the
> Will-of-the-wisp vanishes, if you go too near, vanishes if
> you go too far, and only blazes at one angle. Who can tell
> if Washington be a great man, or no? Who can tell if
> Franklin be? Yes, or any but the twelve, or six, or three
> great gods of fame? And they, too, loom and fade before the
> eternal."
> 
> 
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