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" I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my 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. "
Select Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson - Page 116
by Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1888 - 351 pages
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Microsociology: Discourse, Emotion, and Social Structure

Thomas J. Scheff - 1990 - 231 pages
...last reference to Emerson evokes another aspect of genius — singleminded dedication to one's work: "I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me." Once again the image which Emerson evokes refers to a high level of self-esteem, in this case, the...
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The Masterless: Self & Society in Modern America

Wilfred M. McClay - 1994 - 386 pages
...Such a liberatory figure would be so socially disengaged as to hold even his own kin of small account: "I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me."46 But he would in the end enjoy the fullest reward for his aloofness, since he would be "exercising...
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Vanguards & Followers: Youth in the American Tradition

1995 - 286 pages
...go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways." Emerson would go further than truth; he would "write on the lintels of the doorpost, Whim....last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation." And in a burst of chagrin at the temptations of comformity: [D]o not tell me, as a good man did to-day,...
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The American Face of Edgar Allan Poe

Shawn James Rosenheim, Stephen Rachman - 1995 - 388 pages
...(call it Whim), to become intelligible, with no assurance that you will be taken up. ("I hope it may be better than Whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation.") Emerson's dedication is a fantasy of finding your own voice, so that others, among them mothers and...
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Knowledge and Belief in America: Enlightenment Traditions and Modern ...

William M. Shea, Peter A. Huff - 2003 - 378 pages
...new ground. The achievement of objectivity cannot be claimed for oneself, that is, for one's writing: "I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim. I hope it may be better than whim at last." But in the necessity for words, "when [your] genius calls [you],"...
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The Translatability of Cultures: Figurations of the Space Between

Sanford Budick - 1996 - 372 pages
...achievement of objectivity cannot be claimed for oneself, that is, for one's writing. As in "Self-Reliance": "I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim. I hope it may be better than whim at last." But in the necessity for words, "when [your] genius calls [you],"...
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Inventing the Psychological: Toward a Cultural History of Emotional Life in ...

Joel Pfister, Nancy Schnog - 1997 - 356 pages
...variously as Spontaneity, Instinct, and Whim. Describing his own creative method, Emerson proudly declares: "I shun father and mother and wife and brother when...me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim."34 Alcott situates her protagonist within this discourse of creative individualism by introducing...
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Waking to Wonder: Wittgenstein's Existential Investigations

Gordon C. F. Bearn - 1997 - 304 pages
...not from below.34 As part of his reply he exclaimed, "I would write on the lintels of the door post, Whim. I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but I cannot spend the day in explanation."35 Just as in Kant, there cannot be an explanation of autonomy.36...
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God in Concord: Ralph Waldo Emerson's Awakening to the Infinite

Richard G. Geldard - 1999 - 200 pages
...have some edge to it, else it is none. The doctrine of hatred must be preached as the counteraction of the doctrine of love when that pules and whines....last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation. Here is Emerson at his very best: unsentimental, even shocking, but always right. Others have pointed...
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A West Texas Soapbox

Jim Sanderson - 1998 - 148 pages
...The doctrine of hatred must be preached as the counteraction of the doctrine of love when that pulses and whines. I shun father and mother and wife and...would write on the lintels of the doorpost, Whim." I'm not sure if I got these slogans from Emerson or from Reebok athletic shoe commercials. Emerson...
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