#Henry D. Thoreau

[rini-descartes]

"Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify! Simplify! Simplify!"

—Henry David Thoreau

[trogo-auto-egocratico]

"El precio de cualquier cosa es la cantidad de vida que cambias por ella".

Henry David Thoreau.

[meli-r]

The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

Henry David Thoreau

[las-microfisuras]

Si bien no creo que una planta pueda brotar allí donde semilla no ha habido, sí tengo mucha fe en la semilla. Convénceme de que guardas una semilla y estaré preparado para esperar el milagro.

_ Henry D. Thoreau, La dispersión de las semillas y otros escritos tardíos de historia natural. Traducción de Esther Cruz.

[denimbex1986]

'In 2022, then-Vox writer Emily St. James coined a catchy phrase to describe an emerging cinematic trend: the “millennial parental apology fantasy.” Daniels’s Everything Everywhere All at Once and Domee Shi’s Turning Red represented the tip of the spear for a cohort of films, usually with explicitly or understood queer themes, that sought to reverse the tide of intergenerational trauma by demanding expiation from its source. Just a year later, however, All of Us Strangers proves that St. James’s term has already outlived its usefulness, what with 1970s-born writer-director Andrew Haigh and star Andrew Scott demonstrating that the dream isn’t exclusively the provenance of a single generation.

Haigh transposes and queers Yamada Taichi’s 1987 novel Strangers to contemporary London, where Scott’s reserved screenwriter, Adam, dwells in a new and largely unoccupied tower block. From outside the building one evening, he peers curiously into the only other tenanted unit. Adam gets quite the shock when the plainspoken Harry (Paul Mescal) recognizes and reciprocates his longing gaze by knocking on his door with a romantic entreaty. In spite of the obvious attraction engendered by the friendly but firm flirtations, Adam rebuffs his neighbor’s advances and withdraws into his own mind to understand his instinct for asceticism.

Such reeling leads Adam back to the childhood relics stowed neatly under his bed, just as they’re compartmentalized in his head. Recognizing his past as an impediment to happiness, he travels back to the home of his youth. There he finds his parents (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy), seemingly alive just as they were before the car crash that took their lives when Adam was 12. They see him now as the adult he is, but as one furtive glimpse into a mirror reveals, Adam still sees himself as the closeted adolescent who never got a chance to know—or be known to—his parents.

Once the disbelief of their improbable reunion wears off, the real work of healing can begin through the conversations the trio never got to have. These low-stakes hypotheticals are played for a bit of light laughter as the parents from the era of Thatcher and AIDS learn about contemporary LGBTQ experience. Bell and Foy imbue their characters with an aching understanding that prevents them from feeling like mere set decoration. They also cast the tensions within Scott’s anguished performance into intriguing relief, as Adam’s repression appears as both a learned behavior and a trauma response when seen opposite his parents.

In typical Haigh fashion, these casual chats between loved ones are soulful. They’re also disappointingly simple. The film offers something of a “greatest hits” album of the coming-out canon, from the initial state of shock to the tentative acceptance to the earnestly vocalized regret over a lack of support. No amount of mysticism can make these touchstones feel new again.

Whether it’s the fade-heavy editing style of Jonathan Alberts or the ethereal colors of Jamie D. Ramsay’s cinematography, All of Us Strangers always feels perched on the precipice of unlocking a deeper register. Yet Haigh remains content to linger in a purely therapeutic mode, offering counsel and comfort to Adam—and hopefully the audience by extension of their spectatorship. Individual scenes can pack real emotional wallops as the restrained performances create tension with the evocative moods conjured by Haigh’s direction. But the film dilutes these moments by building toward a predictable, if nonetheless powerful, catharsis.

Haigh has more surprises up his sleeve in the budding romance between Adam and Harry, which begins to blossom as the former man unpacks his childhood traumas. All of Us Strangers refuses to indulge an “it gets better” fantasy by pretending contemporary urban spaces and millennial openness are signs of inevitable progress. Even as Adam vanquishes certain demons specific to the time of his youth, Harry’s nonchalant acknowledgement of his estrangement from his nominally accepting family points to a queer dislocation that still persists.

Harry feels a bit flimsy and functionary as a character in All of Us Strangers, at times veering on an embodiment of all the internet boyfriend fantasies that have been projected on Mescal. (The film’s third act, to be fair, has some explanations for this.) But even in this capacity, he’s still responsible for sparking the conversations necessary to grapple with the questions raised by the concept. For Adam, it’s impossible to untangle the grief over the loss of his parents with the coyness about his sexuality. The candor and compassion with which Harry approaches his neighbor prompts the slow realization that any form of love is knotty by definition.

When focusing on their sensual and spiritual connection, Haigh allows himself to put aside some of the magical realism and rediscover the magic of realism that powered such incisive love stories as Weekend and 45 Years. The seduction leading up to Adam and Harry’s first sexual encounter is as poignant as any scene in Haigh’s filmography. As the two men struggle to find the verbal and physical language to express what they both want but cannot articulate, the scene proceeds with tactile attention to each tentative shift in their demeanor. While no moment that follows is nearly as sensational, Mescal’s extraordinary capacity for empathetic, reactive listening leaves his sections of the film littered with gently accentuating grace notes.

It’s fitting that, on a lazy day in his flat, Adam’s stray glance should catch Harry reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Nearly two centuries after the publication of that transcendentalist classic, Haigh shows how humanity still must grapple with the complexities and contradictions of self-reliance. The bookending shots of the romantic and poetic All of Us Strangers frame life in celestial terms as it rises alongside the sun to shine briefly and brightly before it must return to the stars. The only thing certain in that time is the self, and to love while you can.

Image/Sound

The Criterion Collection’s 4K digital transfer of All of Us Strangers highlights the delicate beauty of Jamie Ramsay’s cinematography, properly revealing its grain structure. Image detail is immaculate, as is color reproduction, from the icy blues to the fiery reds, with both the cool, low-lit scenes in Adam’s apartment building and the warmer, brighter sequences set as his parents’ home looking particularly fantastic on the 4K UHD disc. And while All of Us Strangers is a quiet film, the subtle 5.1 audio mix nicely layers all of the surrounding, often distant, ambient city noise, while even the most hushed dialogue comes through with perfect clarity.

Extras

The half-hour conversation between critic Michael Koresky and director Andrew Haigh is the highlight of this release’s slim extras package. Haigh talks about getting personal and channeling his artistic interests while adapting Yamada Taichi’s 1987 novel Strangers, but it’s the pair’s sensitive discussion of “queer time” and how Adam’s internalized shame comes out in surprising ways while revisiting the past that stands out as the conversation’s highlight.

In a newly recorded interview, Ramsay delves into the variety of ways that he tried to capture the subjective experience of isolation through his cinematography. And when he discusses his shooting of VFX plates for the exterior backgrounds seen through Adam’s apartment window, he shines a light on an often overlooked part of the production process.

Elsewhere, we get a behind-the-scenes documentary and a couple of featurettes, the most interesting of which focuses on the film’s set design and costuming. Finally, the disc’s booklet contains an essay by critic Guy Lodge, who deftly analyzes the film’s unique perspective on queer isolation and the inextricable pull of the past in the present.

Overall

Criterion’s edition of Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers is a bit lacking in extras, but the two included interviews are fantastic and the 4K A/V presentation is flawless.

Score: 3.5 Stars Cast: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy Director: Andrew Haigh Screenwriter: Andrew Haigh Distributor: The Criterion Collection Running Time: 105 min Rating: R Year: 2023 Release Date: September 10, 2024.'

[thecrystalcrux]

Ye Oldest Book

If you collect books like I do, what is the oldest book in your collection? I don’t have a lot of money to invest in this hobby but I have several books published in the 1930s but they are not the oldest book. The oldest book I have been able to obtain is a collection of writings by Henry David Thoreau simply called, Letters To Various Persons. And the title is accurate in its contents. It is…

[usnatarchives]

Cabin Fever! How the log cabin shaped American history 🪓

Cabins have long been a symbol of the American frontier spirit, a testament to self-reliance and ingenuity. They played a vital role in the early settlement of the United States and have become an enduring symbol of the nation's pioneering past.

Early Colonial Period

Cabins were an essential form of shelter for European settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Built from logs with notched corners, cabins were relatively simple to construct, allowing settlers to establish shelter quickly. This design, known as the log cabin, became synonymous with frontier life.

Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace

One of the most famous cabins in American history is the one where Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. The symbolic importance of Lincoln's log cabin birthplace reflects the "log cabin to White House" narrative that emphasizes his rise from humble beginnings. Though the authenticity of the existing cabin at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park is disputed, it still stands as a symbol of American perseverance and determination.

Western Expansion

As pioneers moved westward, log cabins continued to play a vital role in American expansion. The log cabin's simplicity made it an ideal choice for settlers needing to build shelter quickly. Many of these cabins became the nucleus of burgeoning communities.

Thoreau's Cabin at Walden Pond

In the 19th century, cabins also began to symbolize a return to nature and simple living. Henry David Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond, where he lived from 1845 to 1847, became an emblem of deliberate, contemplative living. Thoreau's experiment was not only a personal retreat but also a critique of modern society, and his cabin remains an iconic representation of the American transcendentalist movement.

Presidential Retreats

Cabins have also served as retreats for American presidents. Camp David, officially known as the Naval Support Facility Thurmont, is the country's premier presidential retreat, featuring rustic cabins. It has been used by presidents for rest and diplomatic meetings since Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration.

Cabins in Modern Culture

In modern times, cabins continue to symbolize simplicity and a connection to nature. They are often associated with vacation retreats and are emblematic of a desire to return to a less complicated way of life. Check out the hundreds of photographs of cabins in our Catalog!

[godzilla-reads]

🎃 Happy Halloween 🎃 Happy October 🎃

Being the last day of the month, I thought I’d do my Reading Wrapup. I finished 18 books and my Top 3 are starred below:

⭐️ Godzilla: Unnatural Disasters by IDW Publishing

🍞 The Bakery Dragon by Devin Elle Kurtz

🐦‍⬛ Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow by James Howe

🖤 The Raven and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe

🐲 A Town Called Dragon by Judd Winick

🍂 October, or Autumnal Tints by Henry David Thoreau, Robert D. Richardson, and Lincoln Perry

🧚 Arthur Rackham’s Book of Pictures by Elizabeth Congden Kovanen and Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

🍁 Autumn: A Folio Anthology edited by Sue Bradbury and Kathleen Jamie

🌵 The Evil Garden by Edward Gorey

🥶 The Iceland Wyrm by Dugald Steer

✨ The Dragon Star by Dugald Steer

🪩 The Dragon Dance by Dugald Steer

🦋 The Winged Serpent by Dugald Steer

⭐️ Mural by Mahmoud Darwish (trans. John Berger and Rema Hammami)

🍄 How to See Fairies by Charles Van Sandwyk

🌋 The Dark Secret by Tui T. Sutherland and Mike Holmes

⭐️ Baba Yaga’s Assistant by Marika McCoola and Emily Carroll

🏴‍☠️ One Piece Vol. 8: I Won’t Die by Eiichiro Oda

What books did you enjoy? 😊

[rivstyx]

Hey! Could I please ask for a NatM fic recommendation? I don't like oneshots or pwp so Idk where to start tbh

YES of course you can my dear anon! it sounds like you're looking for longer, more plotty stories, so here are some fics that may fit that description:

The Barn Raising by PoetryInMotion (7,463 words)

The Old West's barn has been demolished by a fetch-related accident. When they get a new one, the Western denizens throw a good old-fashioned barn-raising party. Jedediah decides to invite Octavius (and both secretly hope that they can kindle a romance between the do-si-do and the two-step).

some classic fluff. if you grew up a yeehaw like me, you'll love the little touches of Western culture; if not, you can still appreciate how damn cute this fic is

Down Then Left by mournwiththemoon (36,024 words, incomplete)

Octavius is balls deep in the closet and a mild midlife crisis. Jedediah just wants to fix the elevator. AKA the corporate loser x mechanical engineer AU that literally nobody asked for.

modern AU that i'm obsessed with. octavius is a sad divorced sandbag, jed is an obnoxious wannabe country singer, and i love them both with all my heart

He Loves Me Not by orphan_account (25,820 words)

Jed stumbles across a stack of unsent/unfinished love letters from Octavius to an unknown person in the museum. Jed sets out to find out who. Not because he’s jealous. No, not all.

big romcom vibes. it's not miscommunication, but it's not not miscommunication

if this was a cowboy movie (i'd give you my boots) by Liviapenn (10,180 words)

There are secret articles in our treaties with the gods, of more importance than all the rest, which the historian can never know.' -- Henry David Thoreau. This hour I tell things in confidence, I might not tell everybody, but I will tell you. -- Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself"

ok this one only sort of fits the bill, but i love it too much not to rec it. it follows jed and octavius as they walk back from the car wreck in movie 1 and tell each other stories about their pasts

living beyond your years (acting out all their fears) by Riv_Styx (16,447 words)

“Go,” Octavius repeated. “Run. I am with you.” Jedediah did the one thing he never thought he was capable of doing. The thing he would have sooner died than chosen of his own accord. He ran. Secret of the Tomb AU. Octavius doesn't make it out of Pompeii; angry and grieving, Jedediah goes home alone. Meanwhile, for Octavius, his whole world changes overnight. The new museum is thriving on the magic of the tablet, but it's not where he belongs. It's going to be a long way home.

oh look a familiar name!

my heart will stop in joy by HungryOnMain (12,433 words, incomplete)

A temporary exhibit, on display at the AMNH for a limited time, brings forth a vengeful force from the past. Terrible, painful memories bubble up from the depths of the minds of everyone on display. They can be taken, and joy restored - for a price.

dark, fucked up, and utterly addicting. i eagerly await every serving. this one says "hey, forget kahmunrah - what else could tablet magic possibly do in the wrong hands?"

Any Weather (series) by EwokRae22 (151,470 words)

On a lucky break from McPhee, Larry brings the exhibits on a winter vacation north of New York. He has everything prepared, or at least that’s what he tells himself. Because nothing can stop Jedediah and Octavius’s useless and oh-so-tiny longing for each other, not even the snow.

a fandom classic! the series follows jed and octavius through some wild adventures and features some genuinely heart-wrenching twists

Cacoethes (series) by Anonymous (25,927 words)

A deeper look into Jedediah and Octavius's experiences during Battle of the Smithsonian, and a look at what could have happened after the end.

take the hourglass scene from natm 2 and turn the homosexuality up to eleven, and you've got cacoethes - though the rest of the works in the series are definitely worth the read!

hope this helps! :D

[cicero-defacto]

Isn’t there another hobo with him? @henry-d-thoreau

Oh Gods, they're multiplying... The market for houses shall surely go out of business soon enough.

[trogo-auto-egocratico]

"El hombre desea escapar del invierno y disfrutar de un verano interminable, y eso es justamente lo que hacen los pájaros. Y no les resulta muy difícil: no necesitan descender al suelo, sino que les basta volar hacia otro sitio cuando llega el frío".

Henry David Thoreau.

Volar.

[placeoftheclearlight]

All good things are wild and free ✨️🦋🐺

- Henry D. Thoreau

[nhungcaunoihayco]

Những câu nói hay về kinh doanh bằng tiếng Anh

"The only thing worse than starting something and failing... is not starting something." - Seth Godin (Điều duy nhất tồi tệ hơn việc bắt đầu một điều gì đó và thất bại... là không bắt đầu điều gì cả.)

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work." - Steve Jobs (Công việc của bạn sẽ chiếm một phần lớn cuộc đời, và cách duy nhất để thực sự hài lòng là làm những việc bạn tin là tuyệt vời.)

"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." - John D. Rockefeller (Đừng sợ bỏ đi cái tốt để theo đuổi cái xuất sắc.)

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." - Steve Jobs (Sáng tạo là điều làm nên sự khác biệt giữa một người lãnh đạo và một người theo đuổi.)

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." - Peter Drucker (Cách tốt nhất để dự đoán tương lai là tự tạo ra nó.)

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." - Bill Gates (Những khách hàng không hài lòng nhất của bạn chính là nguồn học hỏi lớn nhất của bạn.)

"The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same." - Colin R. Davis (Con đường đến thành công và con đường đến thất bại gần như giống nhau.)

"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary." - Vidal Sassoon (Nơi duy nhất mà thành công đến trước công việc là trong từ điển.)

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it." - Henry David Thoreau (Thành công thường đến với những người quá bận rộn để tìm kiếm nó.)

"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson (Tôi thấy rằng càng làm việc chăm chỉ, tôi có vẻ càng gặp nhiều may mắn.)

"If you don't build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs." - Dhirubhai Ambani (Nếu bạn không xây dựng ước mơ của mình, người khác sẽ thuê bạn để giúp họ xây dựng ước mơ của họ.)

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." - Franklin D. Roosevelt (Giới hạn duy nhất đối với sự thực hiện của chúng ta trong tương lai sẽ là những nghi ngờ của chúng ta hôm nay.)

"The harder you work for something, the greater you'll feel when you achieve it." - Unknown (Càng chăm chỉ bạn làm việc cho điều gì đó, càng tuyệt vời bạn sẽ cảm thấy khi bạn đạt được nó.)

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started." - Mark Twain (Bí quyết để tiến lên phía trước là bắt đầu.)

"If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary." - Jim Rohn (Nếu bạn không sẵn sàng đối mặt với rủi ro thông thường, bạn sẽ phải chấp nhận sự bình thường.)

Những danh ngôn này chứa đựng sự khôn ngoan và động viên về kinh doanh và cuộc sống. Chúng có thể truyền cảm hứng và hướng dẫn bạn trong hành trình của mình.

Xem thêm: https://nhungcaunoihay.co/nhung-cau-noi-hay-ve-kinh-doanh-truyen-cam-hung-bang-tieng-anh/

[abridurif]

Qu’il dorme ou qu’il veille, qu’il courre ou qu’il marche, qu’il utilise un microscope, un télescope ou l’œil nu, l’homme ne découvre jamais rien, ne dépasse jamais rien, ne laisse jamais rien derrière lui, sinon lui-même. Quoi qu’il dise, quoi qu’il fasse, il ne rend compte que de lui-même. S’il est amoureux, il connaît l’amour, s’il est au Ciel, la félicité, s’il est en Enfer, la souffrance. Son état spécifique détermine sa localisation. La principale, la seule chose qu’un homme puisse façonner est son état, ou encore son destin. Néanmoins, la plupart du temps, il n’en a pas conscience et ne signale pas cette activité au moyen d’un panneau qui dirait : « Ici s’accomplit et se répare ma propre destinée » (et non pas la vôtre). Il est pourtant passé maître dans cette tâche et s’y consacre 24 heures par jour pour la mener à bien. Quand bien même il négligerait ou saboterait tout le reste, on n’a jamais vu personne négliger cet ouvrage-là. Nombreux sont ceux qui prétendent que leur occupation principale consiste à fabriquer des souliers et qui réfuteraient avec mépris l’idée qu’ils ont leur part de responsabilité dans ces temps difficiles qu’ils subissent. Tout effort tendu vers quelque chose, toute aspiration, est un instinct qui reçoit assistance et collaboration de toute la nature et, en cela, il ne saurait être inutile. Hélas, chaque relâchement dans l’effort, chaque marque de désespoir est également un instinct. Il faut un courage exemplaire pour être actif, en bonne condition et heureux. Être prêt à se battre en duel ou à livrer bataille implique du désespoir, ou bien c’est que vous faites peu de cas de votre vie. Si vous considérez votre existence à la façon des vieilles gens religieux (j’entends par là ceux qui ont fait leur temps et qui sont montés en graine au milieu de la sécheresse, de simples galles humaines inoculées jadis par le diable en personne), alors tout ce qu’il y a en vous de joie et de sérénité disparaîtra et vous en serez réduit à faire contre mauvaise fortune bon cœur. Le fait est que vous devez prendre le monde sur vos épaules, comme Atlas, et progresser avec lui. Vous y parviendrez au nom d’une idée et vous y réussirez en proportion de l’attachement que vous portez à celle-ci. Il se peut que de temps à autre votre dos ait à en souffrir mais vous éprouverez en revanche la satisfaction de le suspendre ou de le faire tourner à votre guise. Les lâches souffrent, les héros prennent du plaisir. Lorsque vous aurez marché avec lui pendant une longue journée, installez-le dans un creux, asseyez-vous à côté et mangez votre dîner. Vous verrez qu’à l’improviste vous serez dédommagé de votre effort par quelques pensées d’un genre immortel. Le talus sur lequel vous êtes assis se couvrira de parfums et de fleurs et, dans ce creux, votre monde deviendra une gazelle légère, au pelage luisant. Henry D. Thoreau, Concord, 20 mai 1860

[espeonmeow]

You see some innocent fair shoots preparing to burst from his gnarled rind and try another year’s life, tender and fresh as the youngest plant. Even he has entered into the joy of his Lord. Why the jailer does not leave open his prison doors,—why the judge does not dismiss his case,—why the preacher does not dismiss his congregation! It is because they do not obey the hint which God gives them, nor accept the pardon which he freely offers to all.

- Walden, Henry D. Thoreau

[princetonuniversitypress]

Listen in to chapter 1 of Three Roads Back: How Emerson, Thoreau, and William James Responded to the Greatest Losses of Their Lives by Robert D. Richardson

In Three Roads Back, Robert Richardson, the author of magisterial biographies of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and William James, tells the connected stories of how these foundational American writers and thinkers dealt with personal tragedies early in their careers. For Emerson, it was the death of his young wife and, eleven years later, his five-year-old son; for Thoreau, it was the death of his brother; and for James, it was the death of his beloved cousin Minnie Temple. Filled with rich biographical detail and unforgettable passages from the journals and letters of Emerson, Thoreau, and James, these vivid and moving stories of loss and hard-fought resilience show how the writers’ responses to these deaths helped spur them on to their greatest work, influencing the birth and course of American literature and philosophy.