Thoreau and Web 2.0

Moving away in this post from Celtic themes because today, July 12, is the birthday of American writer Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). Thoreau is known in popular imagination as the hermit living in a tiny cabin by Walden Pond and writing his book, Walden. Not quite an accurate portrait. Sure, Henry lived there for a little over 2 years (1845-1847), and his journal passages written there formed the nucleus of Walden -- but his real reason for living there? He needed to get away from it all to write his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. He was being socialized to death in the little town of Concord, and so decided to go on a kind of sabbatical. He didn't just sit there all day long either; he hoed beans, visited friends, took a trip to Maine. Book draft completed, he moved back to town. A Week was published in 1849.

Now Thoreau was not a hermit, but he was not the most social guy in town either. He had family and he had a few close friends, such as the Emersons, the Hawthornes, and the Alcotts (Louisa based a character in her novel Moods after Thoreau). There were a few others as well whose company he enjoyed. He was choosy, though. in his social dealings. So -- if Thoreau had had the social networking tools we have today, what would this quiet philosopher have chosen to use? My guess is text messaging, instant messaging, and twitter. Why? Because, in the 1850s Thoreau was very much engaged in assisting runaway slaves to freedom. A cryptic IM message or twitter post such as "Let's have tea at Fairhaven Hill at 7 p.m." would really mean, "Meet me there; I'll hide you overnight, and help you on to Canada."

As a librarian, I'd like to close with this passage from Walden:

" . . . . A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated from every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips; not be represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself . . . . Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. Their authors are a natural and irresistible artistocracy in every society, and more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind."

In these days of instant this and that, of quick electronic messages, of information that comes and goes, these words should be remembered and pondered.

Want to know more about Thoreau? You should read his works. Want to discuss Thoreaus and his writing? Well, there's the Thoreau Society:

http://www.thoreausociety.org/

"Only that day dawns to which we are awake."