In Emersonโ€™s House - NYTimes.com:

โ€œI feel like he was the first person, or one of the first people, to start thinking outside the box with his whole Transcendentalism and, like, God and nature and all that,โ€ Ms. Lieberg [one of the new caretakers of the RWE house] said. โ€œSo we were like, O.K., heโ€™s cool, nonconformist. And we like that.โ€


Ms. Lieberg obviously needs to [re?]read Wealth and Power. And then she should check out the parts of Emerson's journal where he opens the graves of his son and first wife to see how they're doing, just to understand the man a little better. And I'm pretty sure RWE's not being metaphorical.

Grave viewing aside, Emerson's theories are nonconformist largely in the way America is nonconformist. Which is to say, if you live in the US today, Ralph's often more party line than not. It's no mistake that he pops up on 11th grade reading lists, the last gasp of propaganda from the high school before the citizens-to-be catch senioritis. Lieberg seems to have picked up on that message almost perfectly.

Labels: