The Totalization of Shadows, Part XXIV
Thoreau sets as his objective,
“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”
In this sentence, I see a tangential force impacting between,
“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to cut a broad swath…”
And,
“…and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”
The second part shows what I take to be the influence of Descartes (I originally set out to discuss Descartes) and one has to question: is the Cartesian approach suitable to Thoreau’s purpose?
Does one live deep and suck out all the marrow of life by reducing it to its lowest terms?
Thoreau poses a problem (to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life)foreign to any problem in Descartes I know …But seems to uncritically assume Descartes' method will work as applied to his very different problem. There was nothing uncritical or assumed in Descartes' use of his own method...He knew what he was doing. Decartes reduces thought to its lowest terms because he wants certain knowledge. Thoreau wants to reduce life to its lowest terms because he wants to live deeply. I'm not sure Thoreau knew what he was doing.
We who idolize Thoreau like to think he succeeded, but could he if his approach is the wrong one?
“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”
In this sentence, I see a tangential force impacting between,
“I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to cut a broad swath…”
And,
“…and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”
The second part shows what I take to be the influence of Descartes (I originally set out to discuss Descartes) and one has to question: is the Cartesian approach suitable to Thoreau’s purpose?
Does one live deep and suck out all the marrow of life by reducing it to its lowest terms?
Thoreau poses a problem (to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life)foreign to any problem in Descartes I know …But seems to uncritically assume Descartes' method will work as applied to his very different problem. There was nothing uncritical or assumed in Descartes' use of his own method...He knew what he was doing. Decartes reduces thought to its lowest terms because he wants certain knowledge. Thoreau wants to reduce life to its lowest terms because he wants to live deeply. I'm not sure Thoreau knew what he was doing.
We who idolize Thoreau like to think he succeeded, but could he if his approach is the wrong one?
posted by Yusef Asabiyah at 10:18 PM
6 Comments:
I think you are on a tangential sidetrack ..
It striked me with all this talk about 'going to the woods', 'reducing life to its lowest terms', and 'a tangential force', that there might be a source of inspiration for this theme, in Von Triers new movie 'Antichrist'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmKv_57fOvY
This trailer is rated for most, but I should warn that the movie is not (just) a psychological thriller, but also very violent, like a horror movie.
I watched the trailer. There is inspiration for this theme in it. I think I will work it into the schizoanalysis. See, no matter how tangential and out there I seem to get, it really is NOW.
-Y
America is such a tangled clotting of codes. Nathanial Hawthorne and Thoreau were well acquainted. Contemporaries. (Hawthorne leaves us a vivid picture of the impression Thoreau made on him.) Thoreau seeks a kind of desexualized tranquility in nature. Hawthorne creates 19th century Goth. Judging from the trailer,Von Trier's movie seems to find a connection between the two.
-Y
Von Trier has said that with this movie he has 'made what I despise the most: a symbolic movie'. It is about a couple, having sex in another room, their small child falls out of the window and is killed. They go to their cabin in the woods, to try and work through their guilt. I think the main theme, is that of Cannibalism. That nature under the nice surface, is cannibalism. The tree of life, can only grow in as much, its roots are buried in an earth full of corpses. What is the earth? is it that which the flower grows from, or that which it will die in? death comes first, and last.
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
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