2/18/97

Creative Tension as a Device in Walden

In "The Iconography of Wrecked and Stranded Boats in Mid to Late Nineteenth Century American Culture," David Miller argues that the motif of the wrecked boat is indicative of a movement in American culture away from traditional norms in artistic expression toward more uncertain, though creative mode. This movement is accomplished by a set of tensions expressed in art and literature as responses to the political and social uncertainties of the day. In this essay, I will use Miller's approach to identify a dynamic of challenge, tension, and synthesis by which Thoreau responds to this climate of uncertainty in locating a new truth which exists above the dialectic tension of tradition and challenge of his day.

Miller demonstrates that the iconography of shipwreck in the late nineteenth century depicted its subjects in a way that challenged traditional forms of expression. This challenge existed as a conscious response to the motifs of the earlier genre by presenting polar opposites to those forms. As in the distinction he draws between Vernet's Storm on the Coast and Silva's Seascape at Sunset. While the former was anthropocentric, focusing on a moment in the drama of the lives of the subjects as expressive of a cosmic theme, Silvan's painting focused on a broader, continuous movement of time, a wider natural order, without humans as a central focus. This challenge is elsewhere exemplified by the tension between linear versus cyclical time, progress versus uncertainty, traditional authority versus subjective vision, and human focus versus natural order. In all of these the former is supplanted by the latter in effort to become free of the constraints of these traditional norms.

This attempt applies to what we have seen in other places in the readings for this course, namely, the attempt to assert a national identity in response to traditional authority of Europe, religion, and rationalism. Clearly then this effort at emancipation involves critique as one of its central tools. However, I would argue that even in light of the uncertainty which the art and literature of this time expresses and evokes, particularly in response to the pessimism surrounding the Civil War and the crisis of American identity (Miller p.198) this effort was nevertheless a creative one. Particularly in Thoreau we can see the effort to use this tension not to destroy, but to make room for a new truth which stood above this tension, the truth to which this tension led us.

As Andrew pointed out in his essay, the first words of Walden illuminate Thoreau's effort for the text, not to "write an ode to dejection", but to use his experiment at Walden "to wake my neighbor up." Clearly his text, in so far as it is an extensive commentary on the society which he left behind, is still very much still bound up with that society. In his frequent reference to literature, his attempts to rectify some standard of morality (p.110), and his relation with both his immediate community and the wider human community (p. 81), he shows that he has not crossed the line to complete and total rejection of the world. Simply by his very act of writing down his experience for a public, Thoreau's effort must be seen as one which existed in relation to his life prior to, and the world outside of, Walden. In this way, the effort of the text can be addressed in terms of a sermon, but one which does not only lead us away from some negative force, but into a greater truth.

The rhetoric of this sermon uses a dialectical construction similar to what Miller identifies in the iconography of shipwreck. In Monday's class the discussion between Ivy and Katlyn brought out a tension in Thoreau, between the literature and Nature as two locations of truth. While Thoreau uses the classics as a very definite part of his program (p. 69), Nature also stands out as a text, with a mosquito's journey equal to the Iliad. I would argue that this tension does not present a contradiction, but is constructive in Thoreau's effort. Though it, he attempts to liberate humans from their current state in which they are illiterate in reading both Nature and literature. "To read well," he offers, "is to read in a true spirit" His project would lead us in this direction.

With this much said in keeping with Miller's basic argument, I would argue that the structure of Walden in Thoreau's placement of his chapters gives further support to this dynamic. Thoreau uses a parallel structure to affect a kind of dialogue, to use Katlyn's term, between them. While "Economy" focuses more on a criticism of the world left behind, "Where I lived" addresses Thoreau's own station. As explained above, "Reading" and "Sounds" exhibit a similar tension, as do "Visitors" and "Solitude." Later, Thoreau's private enterprise, the bean field is brought into conversation with the village. Through this dynamic, this dialogue, we are led through a sermon that brings us to a destination. I would further argue that these chapters often identify an interior movement, as in the case of "Higher Laws," which moves from devouring woodchucks to the harmony of a flute and the twinkling stars. As Miller points out (p. 203) this movement in the text gives a "gradual process of revelation: we fully understand the passage on the decaying boat only in relation to the text as a whole." Thus, this attitude of discussion is a device affecting movement. However, Thoreau creates a further tension in the text by bringing this more linear form of movement into contrast with the cyclical movement of the seasons. His journey from one world to another is contrasted by the perpetual circle of the seasons. The whole effect of the text is thus to use its themes, intentions, and structure as a tool of contrast.

The effect of this polarity in the text is not the contradiction of these opposites, or even their synthesis. Rather Through uses them as a device by which to give rise to something greater. On page 127 is describing the perfect mirror of the pond, the dual nature, its capacity to reflect gives it its power. "Nothing so fair, so pure, and at the same time large, as a lake, perchance lies on the surface of the earth." Miller identifies the mutual existence of opposites in another part of the text (Miller, 202) in the image of the riverbank, which is both cyclical. Finally, it as at movements when two opposites meet in Thoreau's own experience that he gives the expression of being closest to the truth. Among these are the loss of self in the presence of self (p. 91) and the mystic paradox of time and eternity, leading to a place where "I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet (p.67).

Again, I would argue that the creative aspect of this tension is that it brought into contact with the traditional culture. In keeping with Miller's argument, this new moment presented as a creative tension between opposites affects a dynamism as it accomplishes freedom from traditional norms. However, it is only by working with them, even as a reaction against them , that this unsettling is created. Thoreau's retreat to Walden was done with the society to which he sought to brag lustily and wake up in the forefront of its purpose. Eventually, it was this same society to which he would return.