Category Archives: Week 2: Historical Context- Emerson and King

Emerson & King

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Waking up at 6:30am to read Emerson’s ,” The American Scholar”, (TWICE) and I still don’t understand it, sadly. What I got from it was a little bit on how to be the perfect “American scholar” is the past (books), which probably means having the right understanding and be yourself because you won’t get to experience life in order to have.

Emerson kind of mentioned on how you can find knowledge by learning the real truth with books and how they are basically the key to understand life fully, “Books are the best type of the influence of the past, and perhaps we shall get at the truth,–learn the amount of this influence more conveniently,–by considering their value alone.” (Emerson) I agree with this concept becasue I actually do agree on how books open up more creative minds and ideas with a full experience on what the book mentions or the type of genre it is. “Books are written on it by thinkers, not by Man Thinking; by men of talent, that is, who start wrong, who set out from accepted dogmas, not from their own sight of principles,” this quote got to me, no words.

“There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. ” (Emerson), this quote caught my interest because I majored in Creative Writing (even got a certificate) and enjoy creative writing because it I think creativity can expand the mind to it protentional of creativity when it comes to writing.

For some odd reason, I found King’s article interesting, but sad at the same time. The fact that those men had to endure for months in the sea and their only way to survive was cannibalism, its heartbreaking and the fact that they had to choose who to eat was just horrible to read about that. It reminded me about the Uruguayan rugby team whose airplane crashed into the Andes mountains and endured so much a traumatic event and also to recourse to cannibalism as well. To know that Herman Melville was inspired by this true event makes it more interesting, nerve-wrecking and fully grasp the need on wanting to read it now and know what the deal is with Moby Dick. It still was a bit hard to understand so hopefully can someone help me understand it a bit more in class.

Emerson’s “The American Scholar”

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To talk about Emerson’s “The American Scholar” was a fun read, in a way to see how one brain works and thinks. This idea of what it means to be a man scholar, I want to focus the word man because that is all he talks about in this essay is about man, man thinker, man farmer. There was one part of the text where he talk about women and how men need women which was nice but most of the time he talked about men. Back to the idea or structure of being a scholar, it was very interesting to hear about this guideline almost because it makes me think do I agree or do I not, but he did have some great points that did have me hooked. “who can doubt, that poetry will revive and lead in a new age” love this, totally agree with this idea and think it is somewhat true, i think for it’s time it really sticks out because in a way he is right, poetry did lead into a new age of thinking and literature. He talked a lot about Shakespeare influence which in this statement that I just quoted, his influence has lead a new age of poetry such has T.S. Eliot.

His ideas of being a scholar were fun, Man Thinking which is just a bookworm, books are the mans strongest tool then he says that if there is no book a man will have a resource, which I mean yeah. Then one could argue that the book is the resource. the scholar should be free and brave to collect all this information and write freely from the brain. Many aspects of being a scholar and where it can take you almost. These thinking skills give the man soul and thats the one thing man values the most, is an active soul.

This easy was a little hard to follow but after a while I feel like I started to understand him and his thoughts, his idea and they way he portrays them, make them seem factual. I feel almost to really take in what he is saying and apply it to my way of being a scholar.

Emerson and King

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Of both readings, Emerson’s was most challenging. However, I think I was still able to pick up what Emerson was laying down. Emerson points out that the American scholar’s first influence is nature. Nature draws curiosity and inspires scholars to be hungry for knowledge and search for the truth. Emerson also points out that books are thee most important thing to influence others. He writes “Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. The books of an older period will not fit this.” (Paragraph 14). Each generation has their own books that reflect their beliefs and values, so when the readers read the books of their time, they can continue to get inspired and eventually write their own. Something that stood out to me that Emerson wrote was “The world is nothing, the man is all…” Man is who brings curiosity into the world and also takes knowledge from it. By challenging nature and books, scholars gain their knowledge and experience. The soul in ‘man’ is what inspires us to look for the truth and answers.

After reading King’s article, it made me wonder if Melville included any cannibalism in Moby Dick. Now, I am even more interested in reading the book to see how the real life incident shaped this story. I found King’s article both terrifying and interesting. Terrifying— because I am not very fond of the ocean. The ocean is very large plus it has a huge number of animals, both discovered and undiscovered. And interesting— because I enjoyed the history aspect of the article. In his article, King mentions that during the real life incident of the Essex being attacked, the first mate spotted a 85 feet whale. This is absolutely horrifying and not something I would like to imagine. The captain of the ship, Captain George Pollard and his men were attacked by a sperm whale and had spent 92 days without food or water, and these men eventually resulted to cannibalism. During the Captain’s journey though, they had come across an island but decided to keep moving because they said it was filled with cannibals. I found this to be pretty ironic and slightly amusing because they became exactly what they didn’t want to encounter.

Emerson’s “The American Scholar”

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I’m extremely familiar with Emerson’s work due to his proximity to Louisa May Alcott in her childhood. I did my honors thesis on Alcott’s Transcendentalist background and upbringing, so a majority of Emerson’s either subtle or sometimes direct references to nature and Transcendentalism took me back to the labor of love that was my 25-page paper. It was interesting to read this specific essay and reflect on how his perspective is almost openly mirrored in Alcott’s Little Women, Flower Fables, and her personal letters as both an American author and American scholar.

Emerson points to nature as the first teacher of the American scholar, urging the audience, which extends beyond just Martin Van Buren, to return to the land to be re-inspired and literally touch grass. One of my favorite things about Emerson, and thus Alcott, is how reminiscent the writing is—I can see Emerson looking out his window at Bostonian elms or bluestem grass, recognizing the individuality of nature, and discovering that a return to these central elements is the key to correcting “the degenerate state” (Emerson). I know we discussed the historical context during one of our other sessions, but Emerson’s letter is such a time capsule to the fears that the Industrial Revolution brought. There are so many instances where Emerson warns against a copy-and-paste American scholar, who thinks what others think as if on a mass-produced conveyor belt of national intellect.

Emerson and King

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I initially skimmed through Emerson’s text, then had about three headaches and took a couple Tylenol just to understand at least two points: American scholars should be thirsty for knowledge and form their own identity instead of copying others. I am probably on my 4th read before passing out again, and that’s still all I can figure out.

About the two points I did find, I… agree? I don’t really know what else to say because they seem straightforward enough. You’re not a scholar when you don’t want to learn, and America is known for using other cultures and blending them, which I guess is a tradition of its own. I don’t know, I came here because I was gaslit into thinking I’d meet Spider-Man when I was about to turn 8.

At the very least I can comprehend King’s article and, I’m probably messed up for this, but I find it amusing that they became cannibals after trying to avoid islands of them. I guess it made sense when King included “Cannibalism in the most dire of circumstances, it was reasoned, was a custom of the sea,” but it’s still a terrifying thought. There goes any hope of ridding my thalassophobia.

The Horror of the Essex

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Of the two readings that we were set to read this week, The True-Life Horror That Inspired ‘Moby Dick’ was significantly more enthralling to me. In particular, due to the nature of the tragedy and the timing of the event. As mentioned in the article by Gilbert King, the trouble began for the Essex in 1819 – 65 years before the first account of the criminalization of nautical cannibalism for survival in the court case R v Dudley and Stephens in 1884. Arguably, the Essex tragedy was significantly worse – with only 8 of the 20 man crew surviving vs. the 3 of the 4 man crew surviving, with the person who died having already been gravely ill due to drinking sea water. The crew of the Essex was also at sea significantly longer – 3 months as opposed to the 3 weeks of the Mignonette.

I had actually learned about the tragedy of the Mignonette through a podcast that I listen to from time to time – Lore by Aaron Mahnke – so I was not surprised with the cannibalism in the tale of the Essex, but the degree of the tragedy was not lost on me; the cruel irony of being forced to abandon their whaling ship due to a whale attack, the avoidance of the closer islands due to rumors of cannibalism only to succumb to it themselves, as well as Pollard having to eat his first cousin that he had promised to look out for, all of it was a horrible series of tragic errors. The fact that 8 people managed to survive at all was truly miraculous.

Reading about the truth behind the story has made me significantly more interested in reading Moby-Dick than I had already been. There are so many layers within the history of the narrative, alongside the narrative itself, that I’m really excited at the prospect of coming to class discussions looking like Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia when he had his Pepe Silvia conspiracy board.

[Edit: Fixed formatting, removed the HTML]

My thoughts on “The American Scholar”

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Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The American Scholar” is easily established as an inspiring piece. One that incites progress concerning American education and societal advancement during a tumultuous time in American history, the 1830’s. Considering turbulence, many are quick to cite the struggle over slavery and the oncoming civil war. But something else was happening in the United States at the time. In 1830 The Indian Removal act was signed into law by Congress under President Andrew Jackson. Thousands of Native Americans were forcibly removed from their southeastern homelands and made to march the fatal “Trail of Tears” to Oklahoma. Because of this, I find a tremendous amount of irony in “The American Scholar” regarding Emerson’s beckoning for man to connect with nature. “Ever the wind blows; ever the grass grows… the scholar is he of all men whom this spectacle most engages” (paragraph 10). Emerson poetically asserts that the scholar who recognizes the unimaginable amount of learning to be had in nature is on the path to possess intellect. To engage with the awes of nature is to engage with one’s place in the world and therefore one’s understanding of it. Is not the principle belief held by Native American culture based on recognizing the importance of the intricacies of nature? This cultural significance, the reverence of nature, is what led our WASP settlers to judge these people as barbaric. Native Americans possess this engagement with the spectacle of nature. To make these claims while they are deemed savages and marched to the brink of death is harrowing. Now, I am not here to punish Emerson for the crimes of the United States government, nor place blame on him for this irony. It is most likely that he hardly, if at all, knew what was happening on the Trail of Tears, or any extent of Native American culture. I only aim to uncover a tragic irony. And a paradoxical instance that is assumed by our government. Beholding a white man for arousing intellectual connection with the natural world, while nature revering “savages” are being advanced to their impending doom.

Week 2: Emerson and King

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The marvel of human transcendentalism in Emerson’s work, “The American Scholar”, is challenged by the real catastrophe of the Essex, as themes of contention and circumstances that are out of man’s control is tested by nature. Melville’s accounts of Pallard’s biography and general real life occurrences are what he argues to be the major instigator for what and who has the reigns of freewill and power in society. It is not as easy as it seems to be in align with one’s morals when tribulations such as starvation and isolation mode enter the human survival phase. An article by Smithsonian gives light to the causes of the Essex event, indicating that the madness ensued made men lose their morals: “Humanity must shudder at the dreadful recital” of what came next, … They then roasted the man’s organs on a flat stone and ate them.”(King) This sorrowful account experienced by the vulnerable men on the ship alludes to how men cannot fully triumph over nature or predict the future in an immediate notice. The sad reality is that we as humans are inevitably subject to this defeat of vulnerability that has plagued many minority group’s conditional state in light of general corrupt leadership. As Emerson believes us to be able to rise above the past, we are still fated to the past; in a larger sense, we are still fated to become mere machines to capitalism that tears down our sense of individuality.

In addition, I find it fascinating that the connection of a hunger for knowledge outside being a machine in capitalism can overlap with the physical, literal senses of hunger as accounted during the Essex event. Emerson states that, “…when the intervals of darkness come, as come they must,–when the sun is hid, and the stars withdraw their shining, –we repair to the lamps which were kindled by their ray, to guide our steps to the East again, where the dawn is…. The Arabian proverb says, “A fig tree, looking on a fig tree, becometh fruitful.”(Emerson) Here, Emerson explains that, because we should become advocates for our individuality in light of capitalism and collective thinking, we can learn from our close relational peers towards a utopian society. However, Melville’s novel alludes to how this educational feat can become a danger when outside circumstances and factors arise. While Emerson strives lifting each other up in, there is a grotesque underlying of “feeding” that literally eats one’s individuality away into the subjectivity of human pleasure. It might be a reach, but I feel that this imagery of eating has some great part(and potential) in the discussion regarding human transcendentalism in concern with dealing with our fleshly desires.

I got hooked while reading this article.

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After reading The True-Life Horror That Inspired ‘Moby Dick’, written by Gilbert King, the one question I would pose for this blog is: Is the book Moby Dick as disturbed as the true-life stories that this article claims to be? And my answer for this is: probably yes. The reason why I think the book is going to be disturbing is that it was inspired by stories that actually happened in the past. The events of cannibalism are what disturbed me the most, not because of how disgusting it is, but because of the thought of what a human being could do when they have reached the lowest point in their life. In this case, it is starvation, which led to cannibalism. Coming back to the question, some might ask what disturbed elements would be in Moby Dick? I would theorize ‘hallucination’ and ‘mythical creatures of the sea’. I have never seen Moby Dick before, but I would say that the reason why these two elements exist in the book is that once the men reach the point of starvation, they will start to hallucinate to the point where they do not know if what they are seeing is real or not. They will hear voices speaking to them out in the sea, and they will probably encounter the sperm whale for quite some time. Perhaps they will meet mythical creatures that humans do not believe are real. Perhaps they will hear voices echoing out into the sea, and it will sort of lure them to join with the water. Coming back to the article, I like how King included a short paragraph of Melville’s life with his published novel, Moby Dick. It saddened me knowing that he suffered a lot while thinking his book is not worth the goal that he was aiming for. I believe nobody deserves to feel this way, and all of his effort in creating the book should be praised and remembered for generations to come. This article is actually a stepping stone for the book because it feels like I am getting a little bit familiar with the materials, and I really do hope I find a lot of hidden meanings while reading Moby Dick. And at the same time, I do hope the book contains dark elements that I mentioned above.