Read “Self-Reliance” and “The Divinity School Address,” that’s about it. Not knocked out but I have a hard time grasping older writing so I assume the shortcoming is mine and not the text. Also things like this I’ve probably absorbed so much of it secondhand in my life that the stuff seems obvious or banal or whatever - I’m sure it wasn’t in his day, and he must have seemed original and shocking , but it just doesn’t set me on fire.

Life-changing. Wish I had read it 20 years ago. ( )

Have to assimilate, then read it again (and again). ( )

Emerson's Self-Reliance is considered by many to be integral to the beginning of the transcendentalist movement, and while I am not especially a fan of transcendentalism as a whole, I do believe that this work is one of the more coherent proponents of the individual over society. Some of Emerson's arguments against the individual obtaining anything useful from societal, familial, religious, or governmental organizations may lend themselves towards an increasing slide towards solipsism - nothing exists in a vacuum - and his apparent distaste for travel seems xenophobic in nature (if not intention), his overall treatise that exceptional individuals (he tends to focus on 'artistic geniuses' more often than not) become so by rejecting cultural norms and accepted knowledge and distancing themselves from the common man and his organizational trappings. There are definitely holes in some of his arguments that could be exploited in an open debate, but the bulk of this essay speaks honestly of the need for the individual to seek its own path. ( )

This classic is a tough read because it's written in the English of more than a hundred and fifty years ago. Yet, some of the passages seem very fresh. It's worth the time.