Review of “Walden; Life in the Woods”
Book review by AlexanderTheWake
Walden; Life in the Woods
by Henry David Thoreau
Penguin Random House, UK, 2017.
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."[1]
-Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Henry David Thoreau, a staple of the American education system and anti-tech discourse alike, is perhaps most well-known for his magnum opus, Walden; or, Life in the Woods (more commonly known simply as “Walden”). His ideas on both philosophy and nature have made him palatable to a variety of groups and ideologies, highlighting the broad appeal of living a simple life close to nature. Walden describes Thoreau's experience living by Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts: he lives off the land, foraging, farming and fishing, and living a “simpler life.” Due to his time-period, writing in early industrial America, he comes off less so a critic of technology as a whole, and more so of overcomplicated living. Perhaps primarily due to his being exposed to, and influenced by, a less developed industrial system, his writing is reared more to the ideals of the Amish rather than a critique of technology. This is what makes Thoreau's renown in anti-tech communities so perplexing: his milquetoast approach to technology makes him appear more as a 19th century hippie or bog-standard environmentalist rather than a strong-willed radical vehemently opposing the path of industrialism tearing through the Concord landscape.
Thoreau moved to Walden in 1845 due to fears that society was hindering his learning and existence as a human, rejecting ideals of consumption and aiming to live as simply and purposefully as possible. He romanticized the concept of the Native American tepee as the pinnacle of purposeful living, keeping them warm throughout winter and cool throughout summer. Deciding not to completely abandon all traces of civilization, he built a small wood cabin that championed the simplicity of the tepee while retaining some degree of modern convenience. The house, built for $28.13 ($798.40 adjusted for inflation[2]), was furnished only with a bed, a table, a stove, a small desk with a lamp, and three chairs. Few books were kept in his cabin, as though he enjoyed reading, Thoreau states that after a hard day's work he rarely had either the time or the yearning to read. However, when the opportunity arose, he would often read the Vedic texts and the Bhagavad Ghita. This literary exclusivity influenced not only his transcendentalist philosophy, but more importantly his way of life by Walden Pond. In accordance with Hindu ideals of passivity, he forbade himself from the consumption of meat (with the slight exception of perch that he fished out of the pond himself) and as an aide to his simple lifestyle he opted for a simple Indian flatbread in a large portion of his diet. The choice of vegetarianism did not solely come from the Hindu influence, or out of pity for the animals, but also from his contentment at living within his means, and no higher.
“One farmer says to me, 'You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;' and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle.”[3]
Thoreau’s escape to Walden pond was not explicitly justified by ideas like that of Kaczynski’s thoughts on meaningful work and personal autonomy (though parallels are definitely visible), his aim in the retreat to Walden was to learn and live “deliberately.” He felt the hustle and civility of Concord, Massachusetts was hampering his learning and progression, that by living purposefully and immersing oneself in natural conditions, one could freely learn and develop as a person. Here is where his ideas on Transcendentalism and a vague anti-tech sentiment overlap, with his aim of a deliberate being somewhat comparable to Kaczynski’s concept of the “power process.”[4] Thoreau uses the more ambiguous term of “deliberate living”, his ideal of deliberate living probably stems from the aimlessness of the rapidly industrializing society he was witnessing, and so a life of simplicity and purpose was the antidote he found. Kaczynski elaborates by outlining the steps in the process of meaningful work, and the steps are roughly as follows: having an achievable goal, one that is directly necessary for one's survival; working towards this goal in varied and interesting ways; achieving this goal through a reasonable amount of effort; and, for the portion of society that needs it, autonomy in working towards and achieving said goal. The evolutionary need for the power process is something that has been entirely disrupted by the industrial system, wherein the average modern person has been deprived of meaningful work and has been subjected to unfulfilling lives with little to no autonomy. Thoreau's lack of development on these ideas can be owed to the early development of the industrial system at the time of his writing, and also due to his philosophical rather than scientific approach to ideas of autonomy and meaning.
Solitude in Walden never became Thoreau’s goal in living by the pond, and he never became lonely, visited by townspeople and animals alike. Thoreau is dumbfounded at times by modern man's fear of that which is natural. He recounts an occasion where a swarm of wasps visited the outside of his cabin during winter: Rather than swat the wasps away or attempt to have them removed, he instead leaves them be, in recognition of their right to exist as native inhabitants of the plot his cabin resides on. Besides his company among wildlife, people visited him often to share stories and learn from the then little known transcendentalist. Despite his isolation for extended periods of time, Thoreau himself confessed that he never felt lonely, being completely immersed in the beauty of Walden and the neighboring ponds. Among his various visitors, perhaps the most representative to the ideas of Walden is one of the many workmen who collected ice from the thick freeze of Walden pond over winter. An ice cutter who had fallen into the pond was granted refuge in Thoreau’s cabin. The simple—and to most of Concord, far too small—stove was enough to heat both the small cabin, and the ice cutter.
"...[the ice cutter who fell in the pond] was glad to take refuge in my house, and acknowledged that there was some virtue in a stove..."[5]
Thoreau’s isolation was superficial at most, the isolation remained a sacrifice of principle rather than strictly a path to his learning. His reliance on economy far overshadowed his sacrifices in other regards. Though living away from civilization, he still got the large majority of his food from selling the beans he grew rather than directly sourcing his own food. Still, his immersion within nature is commendable, and it's clear he harbored a deep respect for his environment regardless of the degree of simplicity he lived at. His writing highlights the intrinsic value of nature to the human psyche, how simply existing in the wilderness has such a strong impact on the soul. His adoration of nature is admirable, coming from his transcendent values as opposed to an anthropocentric view of calculating value off of material and psychological worth.
“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”[6]
Though Thoreau has found himself a key figure in anti-tech literature, little of this can be attributed to his writing itself which never directly confronts the problem of industrial society as a whole, but only alludes to some of its symptoms. His philosophical standpoint in transcendentalism can be contradictory, embracing ideas like vegetarianism dissimilar to the diets humans are biologically inclined towards, and he narrowly misses important takeaways in his favoring of “a simple life.” Though Walden follows an important narrative of harmony with nature and self-sustainability it doesn't quite address the source of the problem, placing instead a vague and general blame on living full of greed or void of nature. His rejection of materialism puts him more closely in line with certain religious sects like the Amish instead of more hard-nosed and analytical tech critics like Kaczynski or Ellul. The ignorance to the core issue of industrialism isn't the only problem with Walden, his lukewarm takes and superficial views on nature and technology underscore a strong romanticism akin to modern environmentalist groups like Extinction Rebellion or Earth First!. While Thoreau can be forgiven for his lack of analytical depth and poor understanding of the fundamental conflict between wild nature and modern technology because he lived in a time when industrial society was still in relative infancy, it is a truly sorry state that there are still many modern self-described “anti-tech” individuals who lend Walden appreciable credit. I suspect most credence given to Walden and Thoreau’s overall philosophy comes mostly from people who haven't read his works, only a handful of quotes.
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NOTES:
[1] Thoreau, Henry David Walden; Life in the Woods, Penguin Random House, UK, 2017, p. 80.
[2] https://goldams.com/cost-of-thoreaus-walden-house-in-todays-terms/
[3] Thoreau, Henry David Walden; Life in the Woods, Penguin Random House, UK, 2017, p. 8.
[4] Kaczynski, Theodore John, “Industrial Society and Its Future” (1995), para. 33-37.
[5] Thoreau, Henry David Walden; Life in the Woods, Penguin Random House, UK, 2017, p. 287.
[6] Thoreau, Henry David Walden; Life in the Woods, Penguin Random House, UK, 2017, p. 281.
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