Harold Bloom on Ralph Waldo Emerson

00:43:23
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-56OAIyCm8

概要

TLDRLa diskuto enfokusigas la daŭran gravecon de Ralph Waldo Emerson en la moderna mondo, esplorante liajn ideojn pri memfidado, individuismo, kaj la eterneca spirito en naturo. Harold Bloom emfazas kiel Emerson influis diversajn flankojn de usona kulturo kaj literaturo, inkluzive de figuroj kiel Walt Whitman kaj Emily Dickinson. Dum la konversacio, Bloom kontrastas Emerson kun aliaj historiaj kaj modernaj figuroj, analizante la suprenajn tendencojn en amerika intelekta vivo. Emerson, kvankam respektata pro lia literatura kaj filozofia heredaĵo, estas ankaŭ kritikita pro siaj malmolaj opinioj pri politiko kaj potenco. Bloom festas Emerson kiel antaŭulo de usona literaturo kaj klarigas kiel lia laboro ankoraŭ resonas, formante modernajn konceptojn de individua potenco kaj kultura identeco.

収穫

  • 📚 Emerson influis multajn usonajn verkistojn kiel Walt Whitman kaj Emily Dickinson.
  • 🤔 Emerson estas admiritaj pro liaj ideoj pri individuismo kaj spirita naturo.
  • 💡 Harold Bloom konsideras Emerson kiel fundamentan figuron en usona kulturo kaj literaturo.
  • ⚡️ Emerson havis fortajn opiniojn pri potenco, ofte ignorante moralajn juĝojn.
  • 🚶 Emerson havis unikan kapablon rilati la intelekton de Ameriko al siaj verko.
  • 🗣️ Emerson estas vidata kiel saĝulo kaj antaŭulo de multaj modernaj intelektaj movadoj.
  • 🌟 Lia pensmaniero instigas personecon kaj individuan esprimon.
  • 🌍 Emerson havas heredaĵon en diversaj kampoj inkluzive de filozofio, politiko kaj kulturo.
  • 📝 Liaj eseoj kaj ĵurnaloj restas valoregaj por kompreni lian pensadon kaj mondon vidon.
  • ✨ Emerson ankoraŭ influas modernan pensadon per liaj universalaĵoj pri fido kaj memfido.

タイムライン

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    Harold Bloom priparolas sian admiron por Ralph Waldo Emerson kaj la gravecon de Emerson hodiaŭ. Li komentas pri la diverseco de interpretadoj de Emerson en la moderna socio, notante la ekziston de "emersonianoj" de la maldekstro kaj la dekstro. Krome, Bloom diskutas la komplikan rilaton inter Emerson kaj aliaj intelektuloj kiel John Dewey kaj Henry Ford, kaj li spekulas pri modernaj figuroj kiel Richard Rorty kaj Dick Cheney, kiuj enkarnigas emersonajn principojn.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Bloom plonĝas en la personan kaj intelektan influon de Emerson sur Sheldon Sacks kaj aliaj sudaj amerikanoj, kiuj ofte montras profundan malamikecon kontraŭ Emerson. Li diskutas la rolon de Emerson en la formado de usona literaturo, menciante figurojn kiel Poe kaj Warren. Intertempe, Bloom esploras la longdaŭran efikon de Emerson sur sia propra laboro kaj la pli vastan amerikan kulturon. Bloom atestas la malkomfortan sed signifoplenan rilaton inter Emerson kaj siaj kritikistoj.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Emerson estas priskribita kiel la origina usona menso, kiu esence formis la intelektan pejzaĝon de la nacio. Bloom klarigas, ke la influo de Emerson estas simile videbla en la verkoj de Dickinson kaj Whitman, kaj en la romano de Melville "The Confidence Man." Emersonaj temoj de individua konekto al dia estaĵo kaj gnostikismo estas centraj por lia ideo de la "usona religio," kio estas la bazo de la esploro de Bloom en tiu temo.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Bloom diskutas la pozicion de Emerson en la morala kaj literatura pejzaĝo de sia epoko, precipe kontraŭ homa sklaveco kaj la politike malkompetentaj sudaj influoj en Usono. Li notas la koleron de Emerson kontraŭ politikaj figuroj kiel Webster kaj sian firman kredon en personaj kaj socialaj reformoj. Plue, Emerson estis tre influa en sia morala sinteno kontraŭ sklaveco, kio estis reflekto de sia netolerebleco por korupto kaj sociaj maljustaĵoj.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    Bloom parolas pri sia persona rilato kun Emerson, sian profundan legadon de Emerson dum kriza periodo en sia vivo, kaj kiel Emerson parolis rekte al li tra siaj skribaĵoj. Emerson estas priskribita kiel centra figuro en formado de la usona intelekta tradicio, kaj Bloom emfazas la daŭran gravecon kaj ĉarmon de Emerson en la hodiaŭa mondo, ekzemple en la apliko de Emersonaj ideoj al diversaj formoj de arto kaj literaturo.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    Bloom emfazas la permanentan karismon kaj influon de Emerson kiel preleganto, esprimante ke Emerson, eĉ se ne ŝatanto de romanoj, estis komprenema al kreivaj kontemplado kaj originalaj ideoj. Bloom mencias la influon de Emerson sur aliaj grandaj figuroj kiel Whitman kaj la graveco de Emersonaj paroladoj kaj leteroj kiuj formis literaturan historion. Li substreki kiel Emerson ankoraŭ ŝanĝas la percepton pri literaturo kaj kreemo en Usono.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    Ĝenerala diskuto pri la ideoj de Emerson pri la potenco de individuoj kaj socio, precipe en lumo de politika kaj socia korupteco. Bloom reliefigas kiom Emerson kredas je la nocio de individuo kiel potenca agentejo en socia ŝanĝo kaj plibonigo. Li analizas la aktualecon de Emersonaj ideoj en la moderna tempo, specife en la maniero kiel Emerson vidis transiron kaj potencon kiel centralon al kresko kaj progreso.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:43:23

    Bloom diskutas kiel Emerson antaŭvidis multajn modernajn konceptojn kiel la interreta kaj tutmonda konscio. Li kontemplas pri la kapablo de Emerson riskiĝi trans limoj kaj kunfandi diversajn kulturojn en tutmondan dialogon. Bloom pridiskutas kiom Emerson konservas altajn normojn de intelekta strebado kaj kreema esprimo, kontraŭ la foje misgvida informfluo de nuntempaj platformoj kiel la interreto.

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ビデオQ&A

  • Kial Ralph Waldo Emerson estas grava en la moderna mondo?

    Emerson restas grava pro siaj ideoj pri memfido, la spirita naturo kaj individua potenco, kiuj daŭre inspiras kaj influis multajn pensulojn kaj movadojn.

  • Kio faras Emerson tiel influan en usona kulturo?

    Emerson priskribis la unikan amerikan spiriton kaj pensmanieron, kreante intelektan fundamenton por multaj postaj usonaj verkistoj kaj pensuloj.

  • Kiel Emerson influis aliajn verkistojn kiel Walt Whitman kaj Emily Dickinson?

    Emerson inspiis Whitman kaj Dickinson per sia emfazo sur individua esprimo kaj spirita libereco, kio estis centra en ilia laboro.

  • Kion Harold Bloom pensas pri Emerson?

    Harold Bloom admiras Emerson kiel fundamenton de amerika kulturo kaj kiel antaŭulo de multaj literaturaj kaj filozofiaj ideoj.

  • Kion Emerson opiniis pri potenco kaj moraleco?

    Emerson malkvalifikis moralajn juĝojn en sia eseo 'Potenco' kaj esploris la naturon de potenco sen morala taksado.

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  • 00:00:00
    Harold Bloom I'd love to take a kind of
  • 00:00:02
    modern walk with Ralph Waldo Emerson of
  • 00:00:06
    course I've read you and I know your
  • 00:00:08
    devotion as you know the sacred
  • 00:00:10
    Emerson's usual walking companions were
  • 00:00:13
    either Nathaniel
  • 00:00:14
    hathorne of whom Emerson gently
  • 00:00:17
    complained they never said a word to one
  • 00:00:19
    another as they walked there in
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    conquered or Henry David thoro who in
  • 00:00:23
    one of his letters know actually it's in
  • 00:00:25
    his journal says my relationship with
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    Waldo is one long
  • 00:00:31
    tragedy and in his journals Emerson
  • 00:00:33
    remarked when I'm out walking with Henry
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    tho I would as soon think of taking his
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    arm as I would in reaching up and
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    grasping a branch of a tree my closest
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    friend in this life for 30 years from
  • 00:00:50
    the day he was first my student to the
  • 00:00:53
    time when As baseball commissioner he
  • 00:00:55
    suddenly died was Angelo bartett giomari
  • 00:01:00
    um we quarrel perpetually about Emerson
  • 00:01:03
    and so many people and I have quarrel
  • 00:01:05
    perpetually and B one
  • 00:01:08
    day when I was complaining that people
  • 00:01:11
    had this absurd notion that Emerson was
  • 00:01:13
    sweet said sweet Harold he was as sweet
  • 00:01:16
    as barbed wire which is I think quite
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    true he was not particularly sweet but
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    let's begin at the beginning what
  • 00:01:23
    fascinates me
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    is why we care about Emerson
  • 00:01:28
    today what what is the modern meaning of
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    trust thyself the infinitude of the
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    private man
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    Emerson's Devotion to the idea of spirit
  • 00:01:42
    in nature all that self-reliance what's
  • 00:01:46
    the modern meaning of all that and who
  • 00:01:49
    are the modern emersonians well it has
  • 00:01:52
    split in half as you know Chris uh there
  • 00:01:55
    are amazonians of the left and
  • 00:01:57
    amazonians of the right direct directly
  • 00:02:00
    contemporary with one another were John
  • 00:02:02
    dwey and am masonian of the left and the
  • 00:02:04
    first Henry Ford publisher in the United
  • 00:02:07
    States of the protocols of the Learned
  • 00:02:09
    Elders of Zion who was the Amazonian
  • 00:02:12
    rights and who had signs from
  • 00:02:14
    self-reliance plasted all over the Ford
  • 00:02:17
    uh Motor plant uh and this is something
  • 00:02:21
    uh which goes on until this day uh you
  • 00:02:24
    could at the moment argue that on the
  • 00:02:26
    one hand my very dear old friend Richard
  • 00:02:29
    Ry the post pragmatic philosopher is our
  • 00:02:33
    leading living
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    Amazonian and yet you could argue in
  • 00:02:37
    another sense that the horrible Cheney
  • 00:02:41
    or the horrible rummy though they
  • 00:02:43
    wouldn't know it of course are our
  • 00:02:45
    leading amazonians because they seem to
  • 00:02:47
    be acting exactly on the principles of
  • 00:02:50
    the conduct of life where where does
  • 00:02:52
    rumel or chinii uh connect with Emerson
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    or anything he spoke about if you look
  • 00:02:58
    at what he has to say about power in the
  • 00:03:02
    essay called
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    Power he absolutely refuses to make even
  • 00:03:08
    the slightest moral judgment or
  • 00:03:10
    evaluation of the whole question of
  • 00:03:13
    power that's true in that essay on power
  • 00:03:16
    there's a celebration of hardheads of
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    something like thuggery of the dominant
  • 00:03:23
    of what he calls the bruisers and that
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    piece I wrote for the guardian in London
  • 00:03:28
    I said he could be talking about
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    the oligarchic and plutocratic gang who
  • 00:03:35
    are currently running the United States
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    you know the bruises dya Cheney Ry and
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    the whole horrible gang Ashcroft and so
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    on and though himself a permanent man of
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    the left Emerson nevertheless says that
  • 00:03:51
    of the those who are trying to oppose
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    them he says he shakes his head and says
  • 00:03:56
    they're just sniveling and that I'm
  • 00:03:59
    afraid is very much where we are now in
  • 00:04:01
    this country he also says I pray that
  • 00:04:03
    General Clark is going to save us from
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    all
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    this he says in that essay that those
  • 00:04:09
    people know the crimes that they know
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    exactly how much crime the people will
  • 00:04:15
    bear yes and and it remains absolutely
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    true we have the most blatantly corrupt
  • 00:04:22
    and crooked Administration in our entire
  • 00:04:24
    history look let us not forget I was up
  • 00:04:26
    on the stage of the 92nd Street w in New
  • 00:04:30
    York back in
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    April and somebody in the audience asked
  • 00:04:34
    a question about Emison and I laughed
  • 00:04:36
    cheerfully and said Not only did he hate
  • 00:04:38
    the South and there's a great deal more
  • 00:04:40
    to be said about that I he had been very
  • 00:04:42
    unhappy indeed about what currently has
  • 00:04:44
    happened in the United States where the
  • 00:04:46
    southern Republican party has taken over
  • 00:04:48
    the entire country but he ferociously
  • 00:04:52
    opposed the admission of Texas into the
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    Union prophesying accurately that it
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    would destroy the United
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    States He also called his house in
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    conquered Bush that was the name of the
  • 00:05:05
    family house whatever that Prov I know I
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    I I think though it has nothing to do
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    with our current rather degenerate
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    bushes his relationship to everything
  • 00:05:14
    that comes after him in this country is
  • 00:05:16
    so multiform so various uh so much
  • 00:05:20
    across the
  • 00:05:22
    board that it is almost impossible to
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    summarize the one thing about it which I
  • 00:05:27
    can say which is absolutely clear and
  • 00:05:29
    based this on my own personal experience
  • 00:05:33
    every Southern American I have ever
  • 00:05:36
    known including Southern literary men
  • 00:05:39
    poets and novelists and critics who were
  • 00:05:41
    close personal
  • 00:05:43
    friends have hated Emison with a
  • 00:05:47
    ferocity which is almost unbelievable
  • 00:05:50
    and of course he would have more than
  • 00:05:51
    returned the ACC compliment it actually
  • 00:05:53
    started back in the days when uh he and
  • 00:05:57
    po were having at one another and he
  • 00:06:00
    permanently and wonderfully dismissed po
  • 00:06:02
    as the jingle
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    man uh but the late Robert pen waren who
  • 00:06:08
    was a very dear personal friend for
  • 00:06:11
    perhaps seven years in a row once a week
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    before I went off to give my graduate
  • 00:06:17
    seminar and red went to across the way
  • 00:06:20
    to the library to do research red and I
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    would have lunch in moris and for seven
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    years we fought like cats and dogs
  • 00:06:27
    drinking a great deal in the process of
  • 00:06:29
    course about Emison he assured me on
  • 00:06:33
    more than one occasion that Emison was
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    the devil and I finally said R what do
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    you mean you don't literally think that
  • 00:06:40
    he was Satan you have no theological
  • 00:06:42
    beliefs whatsoever he said I'm almost
  • 00:06:44
    persuaded to have some he was so
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    diabolic he then wrote a poem which he
  • 00:06:49
    specifically said he had directed
  • 00:06:51
    against me called reading Emison on a
  • 00:06:53
    night flight to New York in which one
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    line rather bitterly snaps at 50,000 ft
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    Emerson is dead right uh red Warren's
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    first book was called John Brown the
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    making of a Mara she once gave me a copy
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    of and I read it it blames John Brown on
  • 00:07:11
    Emerson and indeed John Brown and
  • 00:07:14
    Emerson and thoro were all very close
  • 00:07:16
    they had raised money for brown to go
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    off to his bloody work in uh Lawrence
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    canas and indeed in an oration
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    practically a sermon preached after the
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    hanging of John Brown Emerson actually
  • 00:07:32
    cried out in a great Passion John Brown
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    has made The Gallows as glorious as the
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    cross so let let us set the South and
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    the Southwest aside to this day the
  • 00:07:45
    Texans hate Emison he would have been
  • 00:07:47
    delighted the southerners hate Emison he
  • 00:07:49
    would have been delighted but otherwise
  • 00:07:52
    the whole phenomenon of American culture
  • 00:07:54
    on every level down to popular culture
  • 00:07:58
    even with tens of millions of people
  • 00:07:59
    who've never heard of Emon let alone
  • 00:08:01
    read him is a profoundly Amazonian
  • 00:08:04
    Affair he has prophesied everything
  • 00:08:07
    explain that he is the mind of America
  • 00:08:10
    he is not only the first absolutely
  • 00:08:13
    original mind to appear in the United
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    States but he usurped I think everything
  • 00:08:19
    that could be peculiarly American about
  • 00:08:22
    thought as such by which I do not mean
  • 00:08:25
    philosophy because he was not interested
  • 00:08:27
    in being a philosopher I mean in terms
  • 00:08:30
    of the total process of what you might
  • 00:08:32
    want to call
  • 00:08:34
    imaginative cognition Emison moved in
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    and took over all the space that is why
  • 00:08:40
    for instance in the generation just
  • 00:08:42
    after him you had only two choices you
  • 00:08:44
    could either be ammonian even if for
  • 00:08:47
    some descent like Emily Dickinson or
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    directly ammonian like Whitman and thoro
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    or ostensibly anti- masonian like
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    hathorne and melv
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    and yet look at that uh Hawthorn's hrin
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    is a pure Amazonian otherwise the novel
  • 00:09:06
    would make no sense Melville twice
  • 00:09:14
    sazesh in Pierre and then as the
  • 00:09:18
    confidence man himself and yet not only
  • 00:09:22
    did Melville cover his pages of his
  • 00:09:26
    personal additions of everything Emerson
  • 00:09:28
    had written up to the time that Melville
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    died uh with endless annotations every
  • 00:09:34
    time Emerson gave a lecture Series in
  • 00:09:37
    New York City there was in fact Melville
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    in the audience eagerly taking notes
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    Ahab is a pure Amazonian in mid dick
  • 00:09:48
    both Ishmael and Ahab are the purest of
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    amazonians meaning meaning what though
  • 00:09:55
    the idea that the best and oldest parts
  • 00:09:58
    of ourselves and this is St Emerson that
  • 00:10:02
    the best and oldest parts of ourselves
  • 00:10:05
    are the God
  • 00:10:06
    within is pure
  • 00:10:09
    Emison and is pure gnosticism I wrote a
  • 00:10:12
    book called The American religion uh
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    Emison indeed might well be called the
  • 00:10:17
    Theologian of what we should call the
  • 00:10:20
    American religion which was my starting
  • 00:10:21
    point in that book and in that sense and
  • 00:10:26
    he's not actually a theologian anymore
  • 00:10:28
    than he is a philosoph opher he's a sage
  • 00:10:31
    he's a sear he's a he's an essayist in
  • 00:10:34
    Monte he's a wisdom writer might perhaps
  • 00:10:37
    be the best thing to say we should never
  • 00:10:39
    forget that his great work is not even
  • 00:10:42
    the conduct of life it's not even the
  • 00:10:44
    two serious vesses it's not the handful
  • 00:10:46
    of great poems it's not the occasional
  • 00:10:49
    great lecture or sermon his great work
  • 00:10:51
    are those endless and magnificent
  • 00:10:54
    notebooks which really have to be read
  • 00:10:56
    from the beginning to the end and then
  • 00:10:58
    back again I think I've spent a good
  • 00:11:00
    part of my life since I was in the
  • 00:11:02
    middle of the life crisis when I was 35
  • 00:11:06
    and partly got myself out of it by
  • 00:11:07
    literally all day long ultimately
  • 00:11:10
    reading Freud and emis in a very strange
  • 00:11:12
    combination uh but on the whole uh
  • 00:11:15
    Emerson has stayed with me better than
  • 00:11:16
    Freud has um there a curious difference
  • 00:11:20
    I must say the only time in my life that
  • 00:11:22
    I contracted myself to write a book and
  • 00:11:25
    just could not write it or ever finish
  • 00:11:27
    it it's a yellowing manuscript up in the
  • 00:11:29
    Attic somewhere was when I was supposed
  • 00:11:30
    to write a book and it accept in advance
  • 00:11:32
    for writing a book called Freud with the
  • 00:11:34
    subtitle transference and Authority but
  • 00:11:36
    I found myself getting so ambivalent
  • 00:11:38
    about Freud the more deeply I went that
  • 00:11:40
    I couldn't write on the other hand I've
  • 00:11:42
    been asked again and again to write a
  • 00:11:43
    book on himem and said there must be
  • 00:11:47
    something about Emison in every book
  • 00:11:50
    I've written in my entire life but I
  • 00:11:52
    don't think I I feel Emerson would not
  • 00:11:54
    have wanted people to write books about
  • 00:11:56
    Emerson in fact he says so he says in
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    fact do your work and I shall know you
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    do your own thing is in fact an
  • 00:12:05
    Amazonian motto before it becomes a
  • 00:12:07
    model and of course there is the heart
  • 00:12:09
    of it again our high culture and our
  • 00:12:12
    Counter Culture equally can legitimately
  • 00:12:16
    claim Emison as ancestor even though I
  • 00:12:19
    have now spent the last 33 years of my
  • 00:12:21
    life ranting against the C of the way in
  • 00:12:25
    which
  • 00:12:26
    the counterculture has taken over and
  • 00:12:29
    destroyed intellectual study of
  • 00:12:32
    literature in our universities
  • 00:12:34
    nevertheless I would have to admit that
  • 00:12:36
    in his
  • 00:12:37
    extraordinarily uh complex and diverse
  • 00:12:40
    way Emison is equally the ancestor of if
  • 00:12:44
    on the one hand Wallace Stevens and Hart
  • 00:12:48
    Crane as he had been of Walt Whitman on
  • 00:12:51
    the other alas alas alas of people who I
  • 00:12:55
    firmly believe though I was personally
  • 00:12:56
    fond of them like Alan Ginsburg also
  • 00:13:00
    could not write their way out of a paper
  • 00:13:01
    bag Charming Man Alan but not not a poet
  • 00:13:06
    but he would come around and we would
  • 00:13:08
    discuss Emerson by the hour and he loved
  • 00:13:10
    Emerson I don't think he ever understood
  • 00:13:12
    what Emerson was talking about but he
  • 00:13:13
    had a great love of Emerson he had
  • 00:13:15
    Emerson all mixed up with Buddhism in
  • 00:13:17
    some mad way but then I can't understand
  • 00:13:20
    Buddhism and I've stopped trying I'd
  • 00:13:22
    love you to talk some more about the
  • 00:13:23
    people who hate Emerson like Robert
  • 00:13:25
    penir and I'd love you to sort of let us
  • 00:13:27
    in on those conversations and then also
  • 00:13:29
    want to talk about people like you like
  • 00:13:31
    me like Stanley Cavell Richard Ry dubo
  • 00:13:37
    John Dewey William James Oliver wend
  • 00:13:39
    Holmes the judge who adored that man du
  • 00:13:42
    boy web what if if it were not for that
  • 00:13:46
    great passage in
  • 00:13:48
    Emison about the double Consciousness we
  • 00:13:53
    would not have gotten the boys his
  • 00:13:55
    entire theory of what he calls The Souls
  • 00:13:57
    of Black Folk is the purest
  • 00:14:00
    Emerson and to that extent indeed
  • 00:14:02
    Emerson is the direct ancestor of what
  • 00:14:05
    we now call African-American
  • 00:14:07
    studies
  • 00:14:09
    Emerson and you can see it happening in
  • 00:14:12
    his Pros I I'm convinced that
  • 00:14:14
    Emerson that his mind finally started to
  • 00:14:16
    go during the Civil War years and
  • 00:14:19
    afterwards simply because he hated the
  • 00:14:21
    South and Southerners as much as he did
  • 00:14:24
    um Emerson had been a close friend and a
  • 00:14:27
    fierce supporter of Senator Daniel
  • 00:14:30
    Webster uh he
  • 00:14:33
    had supported Webster again and again
  • 00:14:36
    they were personal
  • 00:14:37
    friends when
  • 00:14:39
    Webster as part of the Missouri
  • 00:14:42
    Compromise voted for the fugure the
  • 00:14:45
    Slave
  • 00:14:46
    Act all hell broke Lo uh you wouldn't
  • 00:14:50
    have thought that Emerson was capable of
  • 00:14:52
    such hatred but he allowed Webster to
  • 00:14:56
    know through third parties that this
  • 00:14:58
    lovesome creature was not to come into
  • 00:15:00
    His presence again and then he gave a
  • 00:15:03
    magnificent public speech in front of
  • 00:15:05
    the Massachusetts state house after
  • 00:15:09
    under web's influence momentarily though
  • 00:15:11
    eventually they repealed it the state of
  • 00:15:14
    Massachusetts actually voted that the
  • 00:15:16
    Fugitive Slave Act was to be enforced in
  • 00:15:19
    Massachusetts Emerson stood up and he
  • 00:15:21
    didn't like in public and UT sentence he
  • 00:15:24
    said this filthy law has been enacted in
  • 00:15:27
    the 19th century by human beings who
  • 00:15:30
    could read and write I will not obey it
  • 00:15:33
    by God and of course none of the people
  • 00:15:37
    in concrete or none of the people in
  • 00:15:38
    Boston were willing to obey it and
  • 00:15:40
    eventually they swept that government
  • 00:15:41
    out and eventually they got rid of
  • 00:15:43
    Webster but I think it was the hatred of
  • 00:15:46
    the slave driver it was the hatred of
  • 00:15:49
    human slavery which made Emison an
  • 00:15:54
    implacable enemy of the South and the
  • 00:15:57
    southern is reciproc replicated the
  • 00:15:59
    Webster business had to be the
  • 00:16:00
    Touchstone of his contempt for politics
  • 00:16:02
    the notion that they could all be bought
  • 00:16:04
    that that it was just a a cheap
  • 00:16:07
    Marketplace well Webster here thought
  • 00:16:09
    had integrity and Webster turned out to
  • 00:16:11
    be a crook and indeed had been bought
  • 00:16:14
    and they all get bought and we know that
  • 00:16:15
    they all get bought uh uh Emerson knew
  • 00:16:18
    it very well and we know it very well
  • 00:16:20
    also and it is never going to stop I'm
  • 00:16:22
    afraid look I one reason why I'm
  • 00:16:26
    passionately I have broken from all my
  • 00:16:28
    friends on this I I pray that indeed on
  • 00:16:30
    September 15th General Wesley Clark will
  • 00:16:33
    announce for the presidency that he will
  • 00:16:35
    get the Democratic nomination as he
  • 00:16:37
    deserves to that he beats the hell off
  • 00:16:39
    the the subhuman creature we now have as
  • 00:16:42
    president of the United States but look
  • 00:16:45
    at politicians we have all been thinking
  • 00:16:47
    that there was something to Howard this
  • 00:16:49
    current strike at Yale which keeps going
  • 00:16:52
    on forever is being run by a crooked
  • 00:16:54
    Union the hotel and restaurant employe
  • 00:16:58
    employees of America who are part of the
  • 00:17:01
    teamsters who are totally dominated by
  • 00:17:03
    the mafia and I'm not a supporter of the
  • 00:17:07
    University I assure you I have been in
  • 00:17:09
    descent from y for my whole half century
  • 00:17:11
    here but it is disgusting that in
  • 00:17:15
    successive days Jesse Jackson the one
  • 00:17:17
    would expect nothing else from him that
  • 00:17:19
    Joseph Lieberman a crook from the word
  • 00:17:22
    go who used to be in bed when he was
  • 00:17:25
    Attorney General of Connecticut with the
  • 00:17:26
    big Harford Life Insurance Company
  • 00:17:29
    but the final straw is that at this
  • 00:17:31
    moment as we are sitting here
  • 00:17:32
    Christopher Howard is down here
  • 00:17:35
    supporting the strike and the strikers
  • 00:17:38
    yeah that's a sorry business but it's
  • 00:17:40
    it's time that Yale figured out how to
  • 00:17:42
    get along with its working class I mean
  • 00:17:45
    it's been going on for as long as I can
  • 00:17:47
    remember and excuse me and not every
  • 00:17:49
    university has this chronic problem
  • 00:17:51
    allow me Chris to descent from you on
  • 00:17:54
    this okay well I I I wouldn't what would
  • 00:17:56
    Emerson say here's what Emerson would
  • 00:17:58
    say about politics at the end of the
  • 00:18:00
    essay on Montaine he says although naves
  • 00:18:04
    win in every political struggle although
  • 00:18:06
    Society seems to be delivered over from
  • 00:18:08
    the hands of one set of criminals into
  • 00:18:10
    the hands of another set of criminals as
  • 00:18:12
    fast as the government has changed and
  • 00:18:14
    the march of civilization is a train of
  • 00:18:17
    felonies yet General ends are somehow
  • 00:18:21
    answered we see now events forced on
  • 00:18:23
    which seem to or retrograde the
  • 00:18:26
    civility of Ages but the World spirit is
  • 00:18:29
    a good swimmer and storms and waves
  • 00:18:32
    cannot drown him he snaps his fingers at
  • 00:18:34
    laws and so throughout history Heaven
  • 00:18:37
    seems to affect low and poor means
  • 00:18:40
    through the years and the centuries
  • 00:18:42
    through evil agents through toys and
  • 00:18:45
    atoms a great and beneficent tendency
  • 00:18:48
    irresistibly streams very powerful and
  • 00:18:52
    is right that it should appear in the
  • 00:18:53
    essay on montain who together with
  • 00:18:55
    Shakespeare were the two authors who
  • 00:18:57
    must de deeply affected
  • 00:18:59
    Emerson let's talk about the people who
  • 00:19:01
    love Emerson and why starting with you
  • 00:19:04
    and I'll even give you my own two bits I
  • 00:19:06
    love Emerson because he taught me first
  • 00:19:10
    of all since I care passionately about
  • 00:19:13
    American literature of the highest
  • 00:19:14
    imaginative quality and in particular
  • 00:19:17
    about uh its poetry without Emerson
  • 00:19:19
    there would have been no Walt Whitman it
  • 00:19:21
    would even have been know Emily
  • 00:19:23
    Dickinson even though she's a sort of
  • 00:19:25
    heretic from Emerson but nevertheless
  • 00:19:28
    deeply affected by him as she says but
  • 00:19:31
    Walt Whitman Remains the new world's
  • 00:19:33
    answer to the old world in the entire
  • 00:19:36
    centuries now no one writing in the
  • 00:19:39
    Western Hemisphere whether in Spanish
  • 00:19:42
    Portuguese in French up there in
  • 00:19:45
    Montreal or anywhere in American English
  • 00:19:48
    or any kind of English no one is not in
  • 00:19:53
    some sense the child of Emison whether
  • 00:19:55
    they know it or not and of all of those
  • 00:19:58
    writers is the most powerful in all of
  • 00:20:00
    those languages remains Whitman and
  • 00:20:02
    Whitman though he later tried to deny
  • 00:20:04
    Emerson's influence and said actually
  • 00:20:07
    said and it was a lie he said I hadn't
  • 00:20:09
    read a single essay of Emison before I
  • 00:20:12
    started to write Leaves of Grass he
  • 00:20:14
    tells the truth in his journals in
  • 00:20:16
    1854-55 where he says magnificently I
  • 00:20:19
    was simmering simmering simmering
  • 00:20:23
    Emerson brought me to a boil and you can
  • 00:20:25
    see if you look at those fragments which
  • 00:20:27
    I've studied very very closely in the
  • 00:20:29
    1854 55 notebooks out of which song of
  • 00:20:33
    myself as it came to be called
  • 00:20:34
    eventually directly ues and the whole of
  • 00:20:37
    the first Leaves of Grass comes you can
  • 00:20:39
    see that without the essays the overa
  • 00:20:43
    spiritual laws the poet and
  • 00:20:45
    self-reliance in particular there would
  • 00:20:48
    have been no Walt
  • 00:20:49
    Whitman and you know I I regard myself
  • 00:20:53
    as a very American literary
  • 00:20:55
    critic uh my mentor in this was my late
  • 00:20:59
    friend whom I still miss the Magnificent
  • 00:21:01
    Kenneth Burke Kenneth and I on many
  • 00:21:04
    occasions when we were drinking together
  • 00:21:06
    would say to one another we are both the
  • 00:21:09
    children of Emerson and that is
  • 00:21:10
    absolutely
  • 00:21:11
    true um if you are an American critic
  • 00:21:15
    provided you are not a souer if you are
  • 00:21:18
    an American poet if you're an American
  • 00:21:20
    novelist there somebody like my friend
  • 00:21:22
    Don Dilo knows perfectly well every
  • 00:21:25
    moment of transcendence that breaks into
  • 00:21:27
    white noise
  • 00:21:29
    that breaks
  • 00:21:30
    into
  • 00:21:32
    underworld is quite frequently directly
  • 00:21:34
    paraphrased by Dawn from the pages of
  • 00:21:37
    Emerson the the question about Emerson
  • 00:21:39
    is I mean there's this rumor about that
  • 00:21:41
    Emerson never read M do you remember do
  • 00:21:42
    you remember let me break in a moment I
  • 00:21:45
    I doubt that very much by the way though
  • 00:21:47
    on the whole Emerson did not like novels
  • 00:21:49
    that's the question Emerson loved poems
  • 00:21:52
    he loved essays he loved wisdom writing
  • 00:21:55
    he did not like novels and he was not
  • 00:21:57
    really with either Melville or Hawthorne
  • 00:22:00
    I mean at the end I mean in the net
  • 00:22:03
    after he went to Hawthorne's funeral he
  • 00:22:05
    personally mourned for his own walking
  • 00:22:08
    companion but he said as for his books
  • 00:22:11
    they are good for
  • 00:22:12
    nothing what he made out of Mobi dick we
  • 00:22:15
    will never know but I think he did read
  • 00:22:17
    it on the other hand first of all I
  • 00:22:20
    would insist he get the permanent High
  • 00:22:22
    marks as a literary critic in the entire
  • 00:22:25
    history of American literature one of
  • 00:22:27
    the things which made makes my life
  • 00:22:28
    impossible is that every single day they
  • 00:22:31
    flow in upon me at three different
  • 00:22:33
    addresses and yeah I'd hear unsolicited
  • 00:22:36
    manuscripts proof copies so on and so
  • 00:22:39
    forth you know you know asking for
  • 00:22:41
    endorsement so on and so forth I mean I
  • 00:22:44
    am baguer and to try to read through
  • 00:22:46
    this stuff and i' I've largely had to
  • 00:22:48
    give up because I wouldn't be able to do
  • 00:22:49
    any of my own work or lead my own life
  • 00:22:52
    at all think of what Emerson did what
  • 00:22:54
    would I make of I have to ask myself
  • 00:22:57
    sometimes if they suddenly arrived in
  • 00:22:59
    the mail without Preamble something from
  • 00:23:02
    a personage Walter Whitman Jr of whom
  • 00:23:04
    I'd never heard in this weirdly hand
  • 00:23:08
    printed handd designed volume in these
  • 00:23:13
    extraordinary kind of Alliance Emerson
  • 00:23:15
    sat down read it read it again and wrote
  • 00:23:20
    I think the greatest critical document
  • 00:23:21
    in American history a letter to Walt
  • 00:23:24
    Whitman beginning I greet you at the
  • 00:23:26
    beginning of a great
  • 00:23:28
    career and going on talking about the
  • 00:23:31
    fact that this is the finest piece of
  • 00:23:32
    WID and wisdom yet written in the United
  • 00:23:34
    States which I believe is true right
  • 00:23:36
    down to the present day Emerson included
  • 00:23:39
    Emerson was a charismatic I I have read
  • 00:23:41
    description after description Emerson
  • 00:23:43
    you know supported himself as a lecturer
  • 00:23:46
    a performance artist really a
  • 00:23:47
    performance artist he he had immense
  • 00:23:50
    stamina at it I think in one year in
  • 00:23:53
    particular he went all over the United
  • 00:23:55
    States and Canada and it wasn't easy to
  • 00:23:57
    to travel in those days and gave 88
  • 00:24:00
    separate lectures for money usually in
  • 00:24:02
    series on every subject onto the sun we
  • 00:24:05
    have many accounts of people who went to
  • 00:24:09
    hear
  • 00:24:10
    him he evidently was a total charismatic
  • 00:24:13
    he he could so speak in a kind of High
  • 00:24:18
    Sweet beautifully modulated piercing
  • 00:24:20
    voice that the audiences were invariably
  • 00:24:24
    sold out I mean he was in fact an
  • 00:24:26
    amazing kind of f
  • 00:24:28
    William James wrote two essays on
  • 00:24:30
    Emerson which are full of great love for
  • 00:24:32
    him Henry James wrote several different
  • 00:24:35
    things about emson including you in a
  • 00:24:37
    book about his childhood he's really
  • 00:24:39
    quite snobbish about Emison he's saying
  • 00:24:41
    you know really it it it's it's very
  • 00:24:44
    sweet New England likee but it's very
  • 00:24:46
    provincial stuff and so on but the
  • 00:24:48
    answer to that is Isabelle
  • 00:24:51
    Archer Isabel Archer who is surely the
  • 00:24:54
    most delightful personage in all of
  • 00:24:57
    American fiction and certainly in James
  • 00:24:59
    is the purest Amazonian imaginable quite
  • 00:25:02
    overtly and if you contrast the way he
  • 00:25:05
    presents her in the original Edition and
  • 00:25:08
    then his immense rewriting of it for the
  • 00:25:10
    New York Edition she becomes only more
  • 00:25:12
    Amazonian the language of self-reliance
  • 00:25:15
    is absolutely her language take that
  • 00:25:17
    apart a little bit because Isabel Archer
  • 00:25:20
    I I I love her too the movie seems to me
  • 00:25:23
    completely miscast exactly that
  • 00:25:24
    emersonian point about her I I think had
  • 00:25:27
    the gorgeous Nicole Kidman but I I I
  • 00:25:29
    wouldn't go see it because I just could
  • 00:25:31
    not think of Nicole Kidman as Isabelle
  • 00:25:33
    Archer well not only that but this
  • 00:25:36
    victim and this Freudian IED female to
  • 00:25:39
    me Isabelle Archer defines herself is
  • 00:25:41
    this Amazonian when she tells Mrs tett
  • 00:25:44
    she wants to know the rules and Mrs tett
  • 00:25:47
    says Ah so you can break them she says
  • 00:25:49
    no so as to choose yes but the idea of a
  • 00:25:52
    self-made person choosing living with
  • 00:25:55
    her mistake as she does um that's my
  • 00:25:58
    emersonian notion of Isabel what's yours
  • 00:26:00
    what makes Isabelle Archer emersonian
  • 00:26:03
    for you exactly what you've just said
  • 00:26:05
    that she is the ays of all the ages as
  • 00:26:08
    James says that she is the American Eve
  • 00:26:11
    except that Hester PR had been that
  • 00:26:13
    before her just as Emerson always spoke
  • 00:26:16
    of the American
  • 00:26:17
    adom and Whitman incarnated that
  • 00:26:20
    American adom uh for him um we were all
  • 00:26:24
    invented by Emerson you cannot be it
  • 00:26:27
    seems to me
  • 00:26:28
    a person of literary or speculative
  • 00:26:32
    imagination in the United States of
  • 00:26:34
    America unless indeed you are a souer
  • 00:26:37
    and hate him as the devil but you cannot
  • 00:26:41
    uh exist without being Amazonian whether
  • 00:26:44
    you know it or not he in the Deep sense
  • 00:26:47
    he has invented Us in fact Whitman as
  • 00:26:51
    usual put it better than anyone else in
  • 00:26:54
    a long letter to Emerson which he
  • 00:26:56
    prefaces is it to the second Leaves of
  • 00:26:59
    Grass I'm not quite sure about that he
  • 00:27:01
    says of Emerson you are the explorer who
  • 00:27:04
    went before us and discovered the shores
  • 00:27:08
    of America which is a marvelous pH there
  • 00:27:11
    cannot be a thoro without Emerson there
  • 00:27:14
    could not be Miss Dickinson uh without
  • 00:27:16
    Emerson indeed it was she was rather
  • 00:27:19
    shagrin in the course of her life in
  • 00:27:21
    various magazines and newspapers six or
  • 00:27:23
    seven of her poems were published
  • 00:27:25
    anonymously every single time
  • 00:27:28
    everyone thought they were by Ralph
  • 00:27:29
    Waldo Emerson the Affinity between the
  • 00:27:32
    two is that great um and I've always
  • 00:27:36
    found it fascinating that Whitman had
  • 00:27:38
    the courage to go directly to the
  • 00:27:40
    Fountain Head and send the book to
  • 00:27:43
    Emerson and a long complex and at times
  • 00:27:47
    admittedly rather difficult relationship
  • 00:27:49
    started between them though it
  • 00:27:50
    culminates beautifully uh Whitman
  • 00:27:53
    describes his last visit to Emerson
  • 00:27:55
    Emerson had already been seen had
  • 00:27:58
    Alzheimer's for years and Whitman
  • 00:28:00
    visited the household and he says that
  • 00:28:03
    he had stationed his chair so that he
  • 00:28:06
    could have the best look of that beloved
  • 00:28:08
    face and just stare at Emerson's face
  • 00:28:12
    and then later when Horus tro said to
  • 00:28:15
    him what finally is your attitude
  • 00:28:17
    towards Emison Whitman replied
  • 00:28:19
    magnificently and Whitman himself was
  • 00:28:21
    crippled by a stroke he said loyal at
  • 00:28:26
    last and that that that is beautifully
  • 00:28:28
    said I
  • 00:28:30
    mean Henry James he condescended to
  • 00:28:33
    Emerson but never sto learning from him
  • 00:28:37
    James is an Amazonian novelist Millie fi
  • 00:28:41
    is as Amazonian as Isabel Archer is she
  • 00:28:46
    is
  • 00:28:47
    perhaps a more refined version a more
  • 00:28:51
    elaborate version though not perhaps as
  • 00:28:53
    vital a version as uh Isabel is the
  • 00:28:56
    Bostonian is a profoundly
  • 00:28:59
    Amazonian novel even the parts of it
  • 00:29:01
    that saiz are basically sterzing
  • 00:29:04
    amazonians I mean I hardly know in a
  • 00:29:06
    sense where it ends Wallace Stevens if I
  • 00:29:09
    can think of one phrase which utterly
  • 00:29:12
    typifies Wallace Stevens it is that
  • 00:29:15
    again and again he calls the poet or the
  • 00:29:18
    man of imagination The Scholar of one
  • 00:29:21
    candle or the scholar of a single candle
  • 00:29:24
    that is the great sentence in the essay
  • 00:29:26
    society and Solitude by Emison which I
  • 00:29:29
    now quote forba him a Scala is that
  • 00:29:33
    single candle which the love and
  • 00:29:37
    admiration of all men will eventually
  • 00:29:41
    enkindle uh Emison is everywhere in
  • 00:29:45
    Wallace Stevens Emerson is everywhere of
  • 00:29:48
    course in hard crane we we we can't get
  • 00:29:52
    away from Amazon and we shouldn't try to
  • 00:29:54
    I don't know that I would go as far as
  • 00:29:56
    Richard porier who think thinks that the
  • 00:29:58
    greatest WR of the United States has
  • 00:30:00
    ever had is Ralph Waldo
  • 00:30:02
    Emerson I would say that it is certainly
  • 00:30:05
    Witman one would have to talk about
  • 00:30:07
    Henry James one would have to talk about
  • 00:30:08
    Emily Dickinson one would have to talk
  • 00:30:10
    about haon and Melville one would
  • 00:30:12
    certainly have to talk about William
  • 00:30:13
    fauler the greatest of course of the
  • 00:30:15
    Southern writers one would have to talk
  • 00:30:17
    about uh Wallace Stevens and Hart Crane
  • 00:30:21
    Robert Frost of course is hardly even
  • 00:30:23
    worth talking about magnificent poet but
  • 00:30:25
    the most overtly em sonian writer in our
  • 00:30:28
    history at times as he happily says he
  • 00:30:31
    just verifies Emison and he called
  • 00:30:33
    yuriel the greatest Western poem ever
  • 00:30:36
    and like his friend Edwin Arlington
  • 00:30:38
    Robinson uh their Mutual favorite book
  • 00:30:41
    which they used to meet and discuss
  • 00:30:43
    together was the conduct of life which
  • 00:30:45
    is a hard driving tough very tough
  • 00:30:50
    book I'm not a Critic I'm not a scholar
  • 00:30:53
    I'm not even an neonian scholar I just
  • 00:30:55
    want to say though that I total
  • 00:30:57
    nonprofessional I love the man because
  • 00:31:00
    he speaks to me exactly so I mean when
  • 00:31:03
    he that puts it far better than I've
  • 00:31:05
    been able to put it because you've said
  • 00:31:06
    something that's crucial for me you were
  • 00:31:08
    asking me before why Emon for me because
  • 00:31:12
    when I was helping to spark that Revival
  • 00:31:14
    in
  • 00:31:15
    64 and when a year later in the middle
  • 00:31:18
    of the journey at 35 I fell into the
  • 00:31:20
    deepest depression of my life I read and
  • 00:31:24
    read and read Emerson morning noon and
  • 00:31:26
    night and all night
  • 00:31:28
    and I read all through the journals and
  • 00:31:30
    I felt that every phrase he had ever
  • 00:31:32
    written he was speaking directly to me
  • 00:31:35
    and he'd written it for me and I still
  • 00:31:37
    feel that way and of course this is pure
  • 00:31:39
    emersonian Doctrine because think of
  • 00:31:41
    that magnificent sentence early on and
  • 00:31:43
    that extraordinary rapid self-reliance
  • 00:31:46
    in every work of Genius we recognize our
  • 00:31:50
    own rejected thoughts they come back to
  • 00:31:52
    us shining with a certain alienated
  • 00:31:56
    Majesty
  • 00:31:57
    isn't that wonderful fantastic and my
  • 00:31:59
    own Definition of reading which I take
  • 00:32:01
    straight out of him even though this is
  • 00:32:03
    not his wording is to say so far as I I
  • 00:32:05
    said this in a book called how to read
  • 00:32:06
    and why I think I said what reading
  • 00:32:09
    really
  • 00:32:10
    is is coming upon it recognizing it and
  • 00:32:14
    taking back what is already your
  • 00:32:16
    own and that is pure ammonian ISM I
  • 00:32:20
    think now now we're getting there I mean
  • 00:32:22
    this and he talks about the the book
  • 00:32:25
    reading the person or or or it all being
  • 00:32:28
    one book one I just want to come back to
  • 00:32:30
    my own apprehension of the he said that
  • 00:32:32
    is very strange he say bores aonian
  • 00:32:35
    takes this directly from him that all
  • 00:32:38
    the books seem to have been written by
  • 00:32:39
    one person amen but when he says you
  • 00:32:42
    know only in so far as we are unsettled
  • 00:32:45
    is there any hope for us at all he's
  • 00:32:47
    speaking to me when he says trust
  • 00:32:49
    thyself he's speaking to me when he says
  • 00:32:52
    uh claim your idea before you read it in
  • 00:32:55
    somebody else's name is a sentence many
  • 00:32:59
    many sentences in which I feel that
  • 00:33:01
    Emerson is more than speaking to me I
  • 00:33:04
    mean he is he's gotten inside my inner
  • 00:33:06
    ear and has become indeed the best and
  • 00:33:08
    oldest part of myself indeed the God
  • 00:33:12
    within as it where that speaks ah but
  • 00:33:15
    two sentences in particular one of them
  • 00:33:17
    is in self-reliance where he says and
  • 00:33:20
    what a shattering sentence as men's
  • 00:33:23
    prayers are a disease of the will
  • 00:33:28
    so are their Creeds a disease of the
  • 00:33:31
    intellect that is a magnificent sentence
  • 00:33:35
    and the other one is that great sentence
  • 00:33:38
    it's not in the essay power
  • 00:33:40
    interestingly enough it's in the essay
  • 00:33:42
    experience but it is the best thing he
  • 00:33:44
    ever said about power power he says does
  • 00:33:47
    not reside in any instant of repose it
  • 00:33:51
    takes place always in the shooting of
  • 00:33:53
    the gulf and the darting to an aim that
  • 00:33:57
    is to say pure transition as such that
  • 00:34:00
    and that surely again is the most
  • 00:34:02
    American of sentences because this
  • 00:34:04
    country which is why I think it will yet
  • 00:34:06
    shed the horrible Bush
  • 00:34:09
    uh this is a country which is an
  • 00:34:11
    Amazonian
  • 00:34:13
    country absolutely stick with Emerson
  • 00:34:15
    the modern he speaks to you he speaks to
  • 00:34:18
    me I love him because he keeps alive a
  • 00:34:20
    language of spirit I'm also fascinated
  • 00:34:22
    that he anticipates a kind of global
  • 00:34:25
    technology he anticipates the internet
  • 00:34:27
    in many ways I mean as a sort of
  • 00:34:29
    metaphor for a global Consciousness for
  • 00:34:33
    the interactivity of cultures for a
  • 00:34:36
    democratic World in which every person
  • 00:34:38
    every blogger can speak for him and
  • 00:34:40
    herself it is true I'm myself not a
  • 00:34:45
    great appreciator of that great gray
  • 00:34:47
    ocean of the internet in which I think
  • 00:34:50
    too many young people with inadequate
  • 00:34:52
    educations drown because how out of that
  • 00:34:55
    massive information
  • 00:34:57
    are they to know the difference between
  • 00:34:59
    information and knowledge let alone
  • 00:35:01
    knowledge and wisdom he understands
  • 00:35:03
    about Shakespeare what I've been saying
  • 00:35:05
    for a long time and I think I take this
  • 00:35:08
    from Emison though he doesn't put it in
  • 00:35:09
    so many words that Shakespeare is the
  • 00:35:12
    first and truest Multicultural author he
  • 00:35:15
    had this curiosity that the internet
  • 00:35:17
    somehow connects with about distributed
  • 00:35:20
    knowledge in in circles or some place he
  • 00:35:23
    he also he he speaks of our capacity for
  • 00:35:27
    infinite
  • 00:35:28
    expansions in that
  • 00:35:30
    ways he seems to be sometimes a prophet
  • 00:35:33
    of this new Global community of
  • 00:35:39
    universal information but do not forget
  • 00:35:43
    that he insists that at all times let's
  • 00:35:45
    set him aside on the novel but let's
  • 00:35:48
    think of him in the realm of ideas let's
  • 00:35:50
    think of him in the realm of speculation
  • 00:35:52
    let's think of him in the realm of
  • 00:35:54
    wisdom literature and of poetry he
  • 00:35:57
    insisted upon the highest cognitive and
  • 00:35:59
    aesthetic standards yes and I do not
  • 00:36:02
    find them manifested in what you are now
  • 00:36:05
    discussing well it does take a critical
  • 00:36:07
    mind to use the internet right it takes
  • 00:36:10
    an educated mind and as you know our
  • 00:36:14
    universities do not educate anymore in
  • 00:36:16
    the English speaking world oh well
  • 00:36:19
    that's an
  • 00:36:20
    overstatement I wish it were let me let
  • 00:36:23
    me ask you the the sort of qu show um
  • 00:36:26
    question who was the 20th century
  • 00:36:28
    Emerson who has these qualities of
  • 00:36:31
    spirit of community of learning of
  • 00:36:34
    originality um we haven't got one we
  • 00:36:37
    haven't got one well I mean I I have a
  • 00:36:39
    couple of candidates but I wonder who
  • 00:36:41
    you would think of that has that kind of
  • 00:36:43
    deeply American my friend Richard Ry
  • 00:36:46
    would be my best candidate for it but
  • 00:36:48
    Richard would be the first to say that
  • 00:36:50
    uh that's ridiculous over praise and he
  • 00:36:52
    would be embarrassed by it his lips have
  • 00:36:54
    not been touched by that burning call of
  • 00:36:57
    fire that ignited the lips of the
  • 00:36:59
    prophet Isaiah and of the Prophet Emison
  • 00:37:02
    I cannot think of a figure alive there
  • 00:37:04
    was Freud but that's a different sort of
  • 00:37:07
    a matter and he died in 1939 was it or
  • 00:37:10
    whenever can I try an odd one on you yes
  • 00:37:13
    well Stanley Cavell said Frank Capra
  • 00:37:15
    that's in your
  • 00:37:16
    MB Stanley and I don't always see eye to
  • 00:37:19
    eye I'm sorry okay my candidate would be
  • 00:37:21
    Duke Ellington for range for both
  • 00:37:25
    Darkness and Light if we are going to go
  • 00:37:28
    into the realm of jazz where I'm very
  • 00:37:30
    happy to go my candidate would be
  • 00:37:32
    Charlie Parker that's interesting or
  • 00:37:34
    maybe a combination of Charlie and his
  • 00:37:36
    disciple the Magnificent Bud Paul now
  • 00:37:38
    that's interesting too I would say more
  • 00:37:40
    DIY Gillespie for his universality for
  • 00:37:43
    his International Big B this is very
  • 00:37:45
    shallow compared to bird and Bud who are
  • 00:37:49
    both of them very great musical figures
  • 00:37:52
    I mean Jazz the great figure in jazz
  • 00:37:54
    remains Armstrong after that you would
  • 00:37:56
    have to say include Ellington Mingus
  • 00:37:59
    Thelonius Charlie Parker Bud Co train a
  • 00:38:02
    few others Le young MH okay this is a
  • 00:38:06
    good list but I would say but but
  • 00:38:08
    nevertheless it's very difficult to
  • 00:38:09
    transpose you know to music Kenneth
  • 00:38:12
    Burke would be my own nomination for the
  • 00:38:15
    best American literary critic of the
  • 00:38:16
    20th century and he was a very dear
  • 00:38:19
    friend and I revered him and learned a
  • 00:38:21
    great deal from him and we meant a lot
  • 00:38:24
    to one another
  • 00:38:25
    but it's a long road uh down from Ralph
  • 00:38:30
    Waldo Emerson to Kenneth BG I I don't
  • 00:38:33
    think we have such a fig I I I wish we
  • 00:38:35
    did stick stick with the music and I Do
  • 00:38:38
    Not For a Moment entertain the absurdity
  • 00:38:40
    of believing that I am such a personage
  • 00:38:42
    I I am a rather different phenomenon but
  • 00:38:44
    go on Duke for one thing he has the
  • 00:38:46
    circle as Emerson had a conquered Circle
  • 00:38:48
    he had the band he had these other
  • 00:38:50
    voices that he enabled he had a long
  • 00:38:52
    life he had long forms short forms dance
  • 00:38:55
    forms sacred forms
  • 00:38:57
    he had that acquaintance with the dark
  • 00:38:59
    side and yet an exuberant triumphant
  • 00:39:02
    continuing sort of persevering Spirit
  • 00:39:04
    know it's missing from Ellington you
  • 00:39:07
    know an
  • 00:39:09
    amazing piece of Bud Pals called unco
  • 00:39:12
    Loco oh
  • 00:39:13
    amen you listen to those three versions
  • 00:39:16
    in a row of when Poco Loco and you hear
  • 00:39:18
    what does not get into Ellington there's
  • 00:39:21
    a marvelous recording that I have over
  • 00:39:24
    there the one thing that
  • 00:39:27
    no no no no no I'm talking about
  • 00:39:28
    something about Ellington uh Ellington
  • 00:39:31
    and Charlie Mingus and one of our
  • 00:39:32
    closest friends is Su Mingus the Widow
  • 00:39:35
    of Charlie
  • 00:39:37
    uh Allington and mingas did a marvelous
  • 00:39:40
    record together called money jungle with
  • 00:39:43
    Ellington on piano and with Max on the
  • 00:39:46
    drums and with um Mingus had his most
  • 00:39:49
    magnificent on the base mind you we are
  • 00:39:52
    talking about the Great American art
  • 00:39:54
    form of the 20th century I mean we have
  • 00:39:57
    had great poets we have had Wallace
  • 00:39:58
    Stevens and Har crane we have had
  • 00:40:01
    Faulkner uh there are alive four
  • 00:40:05
    American novelists I think or quazi
  • 00:40:08
    novelists of Genius Mr
  • 00:40:11
    Pinchin U corm mcarthy if only for Blood
  • 00:40:14
    Meridian which
  • 00:40:15
    is a book worthy of Melville worthy of M
  • 00:40:19
    dick um Philip Roth especially for
  • 00:40:22
    sabah's theater and American Pastor D
  • 00:40:24
    delilo for underworld
  • 00:40:26
    not sure that we well we have ashbery
  • 00:40:28
    among living poets Archie Ammons is dead
  • 00:40:31
    and Jimmy merrow is gone and Miss Bishop
  • 00:40:33
    is long gone and Miss swon is long gone
  • 00:40:36
    um I would suppose that if if you take
  • 00:40:39
    the whole history of 20th century
  • 00:40:41
    American Jaz then it would be the great
  • 00:40:44
    contribution of American aesthetic
  • 00:40:46
    culture in the 20th century but look of
  • 00:40:49
    course what's happened to
  • 00:40:51
    it it's lost its audience the young men
  • 00:40:54
    and young women of Y were very very rare
  • 00:40:56
    exceptions do not listen to Charlie
  • 00:40:59
    Parker and Duke Ellington and Bud pow as
  • 00:41:01
    for the African-Americans they have lost
  • 00:41:03
    this Heritage completely it has been
  • 00:41:05
    replaced by the sloppy glop of Hip Hop
  • 00:41:08
    no I was just going to say but thinking
  • 00:41:09
    of the 20th century um was there an
  • 00:41:12
    emersonian figure among them I'm a
  • 00:41:14
    jasine I think of range affirmation it
  • 00:41:16
    is deep sorrow after all in Emerson I
  • 00:41:19
    mean we we forget it but he had lost
  • 00:41:20
    everyone he loved the best his brother
  • 00:41:22
    Charles his first wife Ellen his little
  • 00:41:25
    son Waldo say he refuses to let himself
  • 00:41:28
    be dominated by mourning and grief he's
  • 00:41:31
    too strong for that too much a Survivor
  • 00:41:35
    and also you know the family malady was
  • 00:41:39
    tuberculosis somehow by a toughness of
  • 00:41:41
    will he outlasted that and lived a long
  • 00:41:44
    life Ellington has a lot of wisdom
  • 00:41:46
    Ellington is magnificent but there's
  • 00:41:48
    nothing in him like Parker's mood or
  • 00:41:51
    unoco my late friend Ralph Ellison who
  • 00:41:54
    wrote that one great book was really
  • 00:41:56
    quite right in the end despite fol and
  • 00:41:59
    despite har crane whom I love Beyond
  • 00:42:01
    love the Great American Art of this
  • 00:42:03
    century is jazz from Armstrong's
  • 00:42:06
    breakthrough right down to almost its
  • 00:42:09
    last stand in the great still living
  • 00:42:12
    figure like Sunny Rollins who is so
  • 00:42:14
    isolated you're right that Ellington is
  • 00:42:16
    the most comprehensive figure for one
  • 00:42:19
    thing in terms of aesthetic achievement
  • 00:42:21
    I suppose I would have to put Louie
  • 00:42:23
    first and uh Parker second and in the
  • 00:42:27
    end if it's a choice of course bud fa
  • 00:42:30
    for me is like hard crane you know I
  • 00:42:31
    used to go here bud all the time in New
  • 00:42:34
    York at minons at
  • 00:42:36
    Birdland when I was both a coral
  • 00:42:38
    undergraduate and then when I was a
  • 00:42:39
    graduate student and a young teacher
  • 00:42:41
    here I got to know him he was an
  • 00:42:42
    immensely literate man and I gave him
  • 00:42:45
    the collected poems of heart crane to
  • 00:42:47
    read and we discussed them I told him I
  • 00:42:50
    deeply Associated him with
  • 00:42:52
    crane the the Doom eess of both the
  • 00:42:56
    and Poco Loco is sort of like the broken
  • 00:42:58
    Tower is really there at the outer
  • 00:43:00
    limits
  • 00:43:02
    of I I don't think we've had that single
  • 00:43:05
    figure in jazz I know Emerson is a man
  • 00:43:09
    who keeps notebooks and journals and out
  • 00:43:11
    of it he engenders the essays the
  • 00:43:13
    lectures the sermons the whole stce we
  • 00:43:17
    haven't got anyone like that we're not
  • 00:43:18
    going to have anybody like
  • 00:43:21
    that
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  • Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Harold Bloom
  • amerikaj verkistoj
  • kulturo
  • literaturo
  • influo
  • filozofio
  • individuismo
  • spiritualeco
  • politikaj opinioj