Here are the photos from our splendid day in Concord. For this week's blog discussion, let's talk about our experience with the following questions:-What was your experience of seeing Walden after having read Thoreau? How was your impression of the pond shaped by his writing, and conversely, how did your version of Walden as a "place" differ from or resist Thoreau's version?
-We talked about "layers of narratives" in several of our texts so far this semester. (e.g. the way that Leopold sees in a single scene the natural history of the landscape; the history of settlement; the scene as seen from an animal's point of view; and his own personal farm. The Hawthorne passage that we read out loud at the Old Manse similarly looked at this small patch of land through the lens of his own personal history, the history of the Revolutionary battle, the history of a single boy at the scene, and the mythical-historical Native American settlement.) What layers of narrative did we witness today?
-What effect does the tourist industry have on these places as places? What effect does it have on Thoreau for us to turn him into a tourist attraction, taking a bus to go see the site of his house? Why do we even want to see his house? What other literary/historical tourist attractions have you been to? How can we analyze the types of products offered for sale in the shops? (see photos below.)
Everyone fit inside the replica cabin:
Tara and Thoreau holding hands in front of the cabin
The actual site of Thoreau's cabin:
Along the trail
This guy was either a really bad kayaker or was practicing his rolls.
Lunch overlooking the Old Manse and the Old North Bridge
The Old Manse (home of Hawthorne and Emerson)
Views from the Old North Bridge
Orchard House (home of the Alcotts)
The Wayside (home of the Alcotts and the Hawthornes)
In the shops:
Official Thoreau basket weaving kit
The T-shirt gallery:
Huckleberry Tea and other random treats
Walking sticks
"Scrabble" figurines (this is the mouse that hung out with Jo March in the attic while she wrote. The mouse is not a major character in Little Women.) (Please ignore my ghostly image taking the picture with my cell phone.)
Little Women sachet dolls. Just below this shot is a freaky doll with working eyelids that costs several hundred dollars.
11 comments:
First off, I totally didn't know you took all of these photos Professor Scales - like when did you catch us eating lunch on camera? Haha. I'm glad to note that you took a picture of the crazy kayaking guy as well. . .that was my favorite picture!
To comment on the first question, it was striking to actually see and walk the short distance from Thoreau's house to the railroad tracks. I know he included the railroad and home in his map, but it was just so much closer than I expected! Sorry Thoreau but I think that you were far more in tune with society that you made your experience out to be.
The tourist industry has grabbed hold of anything and everything that will real in the cash for them, including Thoreau, Emerson, and the Alcotts. It was pretty cool to go to the place where his house actually stood, but it was so weird to have a replica house near the parking lot and then the actual site of the house a five-minute hike away. Why did the organization who up keeps Thoreau's artifacts think that they needed a replica in addition the to the actual site? He gives a detailed description of his house in his work so there must be some significance behind the replica.
I did not go into the shop at Walden Pond because I was very traumatized after using the "recycling" restroom, but I find it hilarious to hear that they sold stuffed birds that sang songs, t-shirts, and other odds and ends. As said before, tourist attractions will produce anything that will make a profit. I doubt that Thoreau would have wanted a gift shop that sold these items to be erected in his honor at Walden Pond. I think that Thoreau would have fully endorsed the hike that we took around Walden Pond, as well as the other encounters we had with nature. Thoreau did not want society/humans to take over or largely impact nature, rather he wanted them to experience and learn from it. (So I am thinking Thoreau would be sad to see a man made rock pile that is constructed beside the site of his old home???)
P.s. We didn’t read Little Women in our class, but I was very interested in the fact that they were so tiny back them. I’m not sure how a 5”11 female fit into that tiny bed in the blue room, but she must have had major back pain! ☺ And it was cool to see inside the house where Louisa May Alcott and family lived, along with the actual items that were in the house. . .and the fact that all of these famous literary writers are all interconnected is bizarre and pretty sweet!
I used to go to Walden Pond a lot when I was little, without knowing the history behind it or connection with the transcendentalist writer, Thoreau. But after reading Thoreau in high school and this first year in college especially, I saw Walden Pond in a new light. One thing I didn't know was how close the railroad tracks were to the site of his house. He preaches about living in solidarity in the 'woods', but he is not more than a stone's throw (literally) from 'civilization.' Being only a mile from town's center may have made it easier for him to live in his shack, knowing a warm bed with ample space was not more than a 15 minute walk down the road. I have to wonder what he would have written about if he built his shack in the the expansive woods somewhere out in the West, tens or hundreds of miles away from any real sense of society. To the second question, Walden Pond is most certainly a 'place' now. It is a place to see some great artifacts from our areas past. (great writers of Concord) It is also a good spot to take a walk or swim at in the summer. I think Thoreau viewed it not as one pinpoint place, but more of a space as he wanted us to believe that he was in the middle of the woods. Today we saw what inspired Thoreau and the other writers when we toured Concord. We saw that the Hawthorne's house was only two football fields away from the historic 'Old North Bridge.' We saw Walden Pond and how people lived at this time when we saw the Alcott's home. We saw what shaped these minds and how they shaped their minds. Concord, MA has a rich history. The tourist industry glorifies Thoreau. Walden Pond is a common field trip for many local schools now. Thousands of people come to Walden Pond and the historic sites of Concord every year now. This is likely getting away from what Thoreau wanted, living a simple life, experimenting with living away from society and being on one's own, but the commercialism is how to spread the word and keep him 'alive.' We want to see his house because the act of seeing it puts it into a real perspective. It's no longer just reading it in our coursepacks. It's actually living it. I have been to many historical sites: Colusseum in Rome, the ruins at Pompey...seeing them in real person and not a picture in a book or brochure captures the true identity of the object and place, at least for me. Again, with the products in the gift shop, it tends to commercialize Thoreau, but that is how we get his word across and without the gift shops and tourist attractions, people wouldn't bother.
Like Tara and Eric I was also surprised at how close Thoreau lived to the town of Concord. When I visited Walden Pond for the first I had not yet read Thoreau's Walden. But after reading about Thoreau’s experience I was shocked to find that he was barely in the actual wilderness. Although for Thoreau I think his experience was more about just being close to nature as opposed to struggling to survive in the isolated wilderness.
Walden Pond along with the surrounding area seems to be more than a place instead of a space due to the popularity Thoreau’s book and the tourist industry. If this area was not famous it would have been just a pond in the woods like the many others in New England.
The tourist industry has definitely capitalized on Walden Pond with all of the Thoreau-themed gifts sold at that store, such as the What Would Thoreau Do T-shirt. I’m sure Thoreau is rolling in his grave. I don’t think he would have liked what Walden Pond has become. Thoreau would’ve preferred people coming to visit Walden and experience it on their own terms without the help of a tourist industry. I thought it was interesting that the pond was fenced off. Although I know that Prof. Scales said that there was a legitimate reason for this other than preventing people from going near the water, I think it is another aspect of the current site that Thoreau would have disagreed with.
Despite this I think the tourist industry is actually a good thing in most cases. It provides the money to upkeep historical sites and keeps them around longer so that future generations can experience them as well. I was amazed at how much of the Alcott house was original. They had so many original paintings and family pictures and even the original wallpaper in May’s room!
I agree with everyone that in Walden, Thoreau makes it seem as if his house is miles and miles away from all civilization, when in reality it is no more than a two minute walk. However, I suppose it didn’t really matter how close civilization was because Thoreau was still able to seclude himself in his own way, by “caging” himself near nature as he says in Walden. Although Thoreau went into such detail on Walden, for some reason it was much larger than I imagined it. Thoreau’s home, or replica of a home, was pretty much how I envisioned it would be, with nothing more than the necessities inside.
I’m not sure Thoreau would approve of what has become of his former home. Through his writing he embraced the idea that we should all form our own personal relationships with nature. However, Walden Pond has become an area where people visit as a way to understand Thoreau’s relationship with nature. Although the gift shops and other tourist attractions of Walden help with the physical up keeping of the area, in a sense they take away from the natural beauty which Thoreau admired. I agree with Tara’s statement that the tourist industry has transformed Walden Pond into a place. When Thoreau lived there, it seemed to only be a place for him, because of his familiarity with it and comfort there. However, through the tourism and popularity of it today, it has become a place for everyone. However, Eric makes a very valid point when he explains that without these “touristy” parts of the experience, people wouldn’t bother going there. Seeing Walden Pond really illuminated all that Thoreau wrote about. I will admit that when I first heard we would be reading specific excerpts at the pond, I thought it was an odd idea. However, when reading the passages I looked around Walden and was able to really get a sense of what Thoreau experienced so many years ago. Despite the meticulous detail Thoreau gave of Walden, being there was a completely different experience. In my opinion it was one that cannot be understood by merely reading Walden.
First off, I apologize to everyone that I could not make the trip!
Now from what I know about tourism, it’s a double-edged sword. One the one hand, its a huge benefit as it allows the upkeep, as Tara said, of historical sites that often represent more than just physical structures. While Walden Pond is defiantly a place now that is has been introduced into the tourism world, I think that Thoreau's literature on it allows it to remain a “space”. Since I couldn't go, I did a little research and I think that this kind of ecotourism, valuing the land and doing little damage to the ecosystem, is something that Leopold would have approved. However, I'm sure that he wouldn't appreciate the stuff ducked as Tara L. pointed out. That shows the negative side of tourism though: diminishing the importance of a place. Walden Pond and the surrounding area is pretty well known as Thoreau's inspiration for his many essays and books, but places like the Alamo in San Antonio have quickly become fodder for travel magazines and brochures. Having been there, I can tell you all that the Alamo is a tiny clay fort that is surrounded on all sides by the skyscrapers of San Antonio, with a cobblestone park separating them. When visiting, I had a mental image of a huge fort with many artifacts intacted, but because of the growing city around it, the actual sited paled in comparison to my mental image. When I went to Greece though and visited the dozens of ancient ruins and sites and the many islands, I made it a point to do more than pictures. We did the normal walking tour of the sites, but I futility attempted to talk with the Greek people about the sites and their islands and about the overpriced table clothes we were tricked into buying.
So, I guess I'm saying it’s a catch 22. If we are able to preserve the meaning of a site and not allow just its name to be the attraction, but the historical significance to, then tourism can be more beneficial than harmful.
Oddly enough, it seems the trip to Walden made Thoreau and his experience appear less real to me. This is perhaps because, having grown up in New England, and never having lived anywhere else, Walden appeared to me to be a lake just like any other, and all the more unremarkable for it. While reading the book it was simple to picture a wood and then layer Thoreau’s introspections over it, the landscape becoming special because he made it special through his description. Unfortunately, upon visiting the place, I was unable to see any of the exceptional qualities Thoreau endowed it with. The book itself creates a fictional (mythical, if you will) place in the reader’s mind, and Thoreau himself is filled out like the character in a book that he truly is. Of course, the woods exist long after Thoreau did. When viewed, the place itself shrinks down to physical proportions, the house a pile of logs, his bed some silly parody of the Goldilocks tale. Thoreau, without a physical presence, has none of those same obligations, and doesn’t tailor himself to fit real life. For me, at least, his character seemed oddly juxtaposed, disconnected from the landscape that was his, in his own time, and I mostly managed to imagine him elsewhere, in the landscape I had created for him out of his words and my imagination.
I suppose this reaction was in no small way helped by the fact that tourism has turned leaves the place in an odd duality, neither past nor present. The actor on the bridge sums that up nicely- though he pretends to live the life of a soldier from the revolutionary era, he occasionally refers to the events of his life in past tense, and breaks character to discuss a previous career choice. They make the land a movie, a scene of make-believe, and Thoreau a minor celebrity rather than the real person he truly was. Perhaps this idea has been perpetuated by the fact that I grew up in a town that had been previously populated by figures like Mark Twain, Noah Webster, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. In fact, a large statue of Noah Webster still stands outside our library. They were the stuff of legend. Their characters became so large and exaggerated in my mind that I have always struggled to fit them squarely into their tiny historical homes.
First of all, sorry for not being able to go on the trip, it looks like everyone had fun.
While looking at the pictures I realized that there aren't many distinguishing features about Walden. If I had seen those pictures and not known that they were taken of Walden Pond, it would be virtually impossible for me to tell, excluding the statues and signs. To the simple passer-by, the pond is just a pond, but to those that know of Thoreau and his works the pond is Walden. This knowledge and definition transforms a space into a place.
It's isn't the physical features that decide whether something is a space or a place, it's how it is viewed by the people looking at it. The physical features don't change, rather it's the person who is viewing it that changes. If I were to walk into the forest across the street, it would just be a space to me. If I were to kill a bird in that forest, it would immediately become a place to me. The forest itself wouldn't change, but to me it would have definition. Instead of just seeing it as a forest, I would then be seeing it as the place where I killed a bird. Whether something is a space or a place is decided by us as individuals.
I thought Claire's comment was interesting because I thought the same thing when I first saw the pond. It looked just like the hundreds of other lakes and ponds Ive seen around new england. However I think the fact that Concord, walden pond, the old north bridge have been declared "historical sites" made it feel more special to me. The fact that people go there becasue of Thoreau, Emerson, revolutionary war makes people feel like they are witnessing unique, something that makes that site different from any other.
I thought the gift shop was hilarious. The t-shirts witht he picture of thoreau's face accompanied with a quote is such a blatant attempt to cash in on the mysticism of the pond and of thoreau. I hope his family is getting royalties! haha. But really I dont think the tourist industry has ruined these places but I do think they have turned it into a spectacle so that a person that has never read Thoreau or emerson can still enjoy the historic meaning of the place. The quotes on the blocks of wood help to do this. They are some of his most meaningful and important quotes on how to live a better life; something everyone can relate to.
For those who have read thoreau the pond acts as a form of connection. It is so easy to picture him huddled over his miniture desk scribbling about the damn train and society while its 100 yrds away. I also think that becasue we have read portions of thoreau it was easier to view the place on many different levels. You can see it in relation to thoreau, to his account of the pond and his description. You can also see it in relation to concord, and the historical battle that occured close by. While we were there I definately tried to picture those soldiers there and thoreau in his house and it really gives a disconcerting feeling of passing time. How will that place be viewed 50 years from now. Will Thoreau's writing die out or will his messages resonate with future generations. Maybe the pure proximity to philisophical thought made me think like this but overall I think it was a fun trip and if nothing else helped me put an image with the writing of thoreau
When I first saw Walden Pond I was really impressed. I had no idea that it was going to be that expansive or that it was a major tourist attraction. Now after seeing and being at Walden it helped me to connect the text to an actual location. Without even realizing it I think that I have been here before because I went to a sculpture museum that overlooked part of the pond.The tourist industry has a great impact on theses certain historical attractions. They are attracted to these sites yet they probably had different objective for going. A few might have gone because they had read works by the authors yet the others might go just because it’s known as a historical / cultural landmark. It was helpful to go into the houses in order to gain a better perspective of what inspires their writing. Even though I have never read anything by Alcott I was really interested to go inside her house. In a weird way it made me think of my house because I and my mom collect antiques and old dishes. When we went into May’s room and I saw all of her drawings on the wall I could picture her sitting and just sketching. I could also imagine her just sitting near the window looking out into the garden for inspiration. I was really creepy for me to see Louisa’s room because she had a dark wood sleigh bed which is what I have in my room. She also had owl things everywhere which was weird because I also have this weird obsession with owls.. When we went into the replica of Thoreau’s house it wasn’t as personal as Alcott’s but it still gave you a feeling of how he must have survived. I think that by going into their home it made me remember that they were actual normal people.
I agree with everyone in that I have a better understanding of Thoreau’s relation to his place after seeing Walden Pond. I pictured the pond itself to be a little smaller and certainly more secluded from society. My perception could have also been skewed due to the fact that it has become a tourist attraction and there were people all around the area. At the same time however, the presence of people probably gave an accurate picture of how attached he really was to the outside world. Even though Thoreau tries to create this near fantasy of Walden Pond and its surrounding area, seeing the actual location proves that he was in fact just in Emerson’s yard, a short walk away from the train station.
As for the tourist shops… some of those items were completely ridiculous. I did not go into the Walden Pond store, but from the pictures I can tell that, as Tara said, they will do anything to make money. From random items stamped with the name “Thoreau” to creepy Louisa May Alcott dolls to $200 mice figurines, the shops sold items meant to immortalize one’s experience at the place, when in fact these items would distort our memory of it. I see the concept of buying a souvenir as being one of Thoreau’s examples of a distancing from one’s natural view. In class we talked about how, as a person distances him/herself from nature and chooses to move in the direction of commerce, he/she loses a valuable, original view of the place. This is similar because if one were to, for instance, buy a Louisa May Alcott doll, he/she would remember the place based on that item, rather than his/her first impressions of the house or recollections of the tour, et cetera.
P.S. What was up with the rock pile next to Thoreau’s “house” (or where it should have been)?
About the rock pile: the first person to re-discover the foundations of the original cabin built a stone cairn (a pile of rocks as a marker). Visitors have added stones to the pile over time as a way of commemorating Thoreau's life. It's kind of a generic version of the Jewish tradition of leaving a stone on a grave. Here's one Rabbi's explanation for that tradition:
"The source for this custom is that a stone is placed so that when the mourners attend the grave they know that the deceased has been visited by other people. This is a sign of respect to the deceased.
On a deeper level however, the stone is the ultimate symbol of something that has no use. On Shabbat, the stone is the paradigm of a muktsah object. We often relate to ourselves in a very physical way. We spend our lives striving for physical comforts, often to the detriment of our personal, emotional and spiritual growth.
The stone teaches us that in the final reckoning the body is as important as a stone, it is adorned by stones. What is left of us is our good name, character and relationship with God."
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