OlenaWed, Dec 2, 2009 @ oyahuasca:
Glad you liked the excerpt!
I read Walden a few years ago, so I'm a bit rusty, but as you say - he was actually able to find real freedom; to go to Walden and still enjoy his "work", his play.
My personal response to Prieur's passage was actually kind of the opposite of that — I "went to the woods" to find a similar freedom, the freedom to be able to do what I love, and I attained it partially but only to find myself in a depression like the excerpt mentions:
"nothing is all you want to do. You might start projects that seem like the kind of thing you're supposed to love doing, music or writing or art, and not finish because nobody is forcing you to finish and it's not really what you want to do."
Although, I actually am forced to finish, forced to play, and thus the quality of the work declines, which is a problem when your very freedom depends on this quality, on this work, on this play... and there is no way to effectively "drop out" because of the people and promises involved; the debts.
So, the only way to proceed is forward, still in search of freedom, while hopefully not digging oneself deeper into a hole. That's why I relate it to the American Dream, to everyone's search for Walden. And that's the system, isn't it? We try so hard to escape only to go from one prison to another. It's really sick.
@ oyahuasca:
Glad you liked the excerpt!
I read Walden a few years ago, so I'm a bit rusty, but as you say - he was actually able to find real freedom; to go to Walden and still enjoy his "work", his play.
My personal response to Prieur's passage was actually kind of the opposite of that — I "went to the woods" to find a similar freedom, the freedom to be able to do what I love, and I attained it partially but only to find myself in a depression like the excerpt mentions:
Although, I actually am forced to finish, forced to play, and thus the quality of the work declines, which is a problem when your very freedom depends on this quality, on this work, on this play... and there is no way to effectively "drop out" because of the people and promises involved; the debts.
So, the only way to proceed is forward, still in search of freedom, while hopefully not digging oneself deeper into a hole. That's why I relate it to the American Dream, to everyone's search for Walden. And that's the system, isn't it? We try so hard to escape only to go from one prison to another. It's really sick.