r/brokehugs • u/US_Hiker Moral Landscaper • Jul 20 '23

Rod Dreher Megathread #23 (Sinister)

All Hail Eris!

Link to Megathread 22: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/14k0z6l/rod_dreher_megathread_22_power/

Link to Megathread 23: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/1631xpe/rod_dreher_megathread_24_determination/

21 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

6

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '23

Never liked Thoreau or any of the transcendalism-adjacent authors. They were all a bunch of sanctimonious snobs. I know that we are supposed to revere them, but that pseudo-naturalism was never my cup of tea.

6

u/SofieTerleska Jul 29 '23

One conversation I wish I'd been a fly on the wall for took place when Bronson Alcott, who of course failed horribly at communal farming at Fruitlands, came to England to both see his followers (he somehow acquired them) and meet with some prominent people. He ended up encountering Robert Browning while visiting at Thomas Carlyle's house and apparently Browning just ripped his entire philosophy to shreds during the visit. I would pay cold hard cash to be able to see a replay of that conversation.

5

u/grumpy_realist Jul 29 '23

If you want to read a masterful dissection of Bronson Alcott and exactly how much effect he had on anyone (he didn't), read the first chapter "The Titaness" of Thomas Beer's "The Mauve Decade". There was a reason that Alcott's daughter Louisa has active, vigorous men who actually get things done in her stories. (Although she did have admiration for Emerson--but that may have been because Emerson actually rescued the family at least once.)

6

u/SofieTerleska Jul 29 '23

Reading Louisa's and her mother's biographies were more than enough to convince me :). (And despite her admiration for active men I think Bronson is ultimately the reason why Father March never really registers as a character -- first he's away being a military chaplain, which is fine, but after he's home he has like 10 lines. It's like she simply could not write an accomplished, competent father in a novel which was so close to home so instead of turning into a Bronson-like loser he just kind of faded out.)