...Emerson envisions an alternative elite chosen chiefly for its power to reject. "I shun father and mother, wife and brother, when my genius calls me. I would...last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation." The brio of the essay is largely generated from its fantasies of insouciance. Emerson delights in imagining...

...place in the absence of either. So Emerson is dedicating his writing to that promise when he says: "I shun father and mother and wife and brother when...write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim.'''' (I will not repeat what I have said elsewhere concerning Emerson's marking of Whim in the place of God...

...violent shunning, whereas Emerson's and Thoreau's worlds begin with or after the shunning of others ("I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me") and typically depict the "I" just beside itself. The interest of the connection is that all undertake...

...who, 'shun[ning] father and mother and wife and brother when genius calls', famously affirmed that he 'would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim....last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation.' With similar sang-froid Stein concluded her parable: 'Perhaps you do see the connection with that and...

...flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. . . . I shun father and mother and wife and brother when...explanation. Expect me not to show cause why I seek. . . ."" I will return to that Emersonian Whim. But the name of the sublime essayist reminds us that...

...especially to educated society" (p. 73). In "Self-Reliance" the parody is as plain as the allusion: "I shun father and mother and wife and brother when...would write on the lintels of the doorpost, Whim" (p. 150). The shunning reference is to the call to enter the kingdom of heaven at once, today, to follow...

...and wife and brother when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim. 1 hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation. . . . Then again, do not tell me ... of my obligation to ... all poor men. Shunning father and mother...

...works demonstrate that it more closely resembles assault with a deadly weapon where woman are involved. "I shun father and mother and wife and brother when...would write on the lintels of the door-post Whim," Emerson blithely informs us. 15 In innumerable instances Glaspell's fiction and drama demonstrate how...

...And that seems as strong an endorsement of amiability as one might hope to find. However, he adds, "I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation." 15 Had Emerson taken a day off to explain, he might have shown that while "whim" may free us from the...

...points out in "Emerson and the Virtues,"38 even those who did belong to Emerson did not fare better: I shun father and mother and wife and brother when...genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door post, Whim. I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation....