 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 116by Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1888 - 351 pagesFull view - About this book
 | Stanley Cavell - 1994 - 214 pages
...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... | |
 | Stanley Cavell - 1994 - 214 pages
...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... | |
 | George Alexander Kennedy - 1989 - 584 pages
...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... | |
 | Ihab Hassan - 1990 - 256 pages
...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... | |
 | Stanley Cavell - 1990 - 207 pages
...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... | |
 | Stanley Cavell - 1990 - 207 pages
...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... | |
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