Word: emersonian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Riverboat Devil. What Melville aims at in these episodes is a scathing, nihilistic critique of every reigning belief of 19th century America: shallow assumptions about perpetual progress, Christian hypocrisy and pretensions, easy optimism about man, nature and the universe, Emersonian uplift and self-seeking self-reliance, and the hard-driving spirit of commerce in all things. But Melville will not stop until he can debunk the goodness and glory of God. In a final episode, an old man sits reading the Bible by the light of a solitary lamp. A young sharper (not the confidence-man) exposes...
With this Emersonian diagnosis, Konvitz proceeds to offer a solution. He writes: "I would like to see serious thought given to the possibility and advisability of requiring two years of General Education, with an emphasis on the Humanities, for all Cornell students. During these two years, there should be a prohibition upon anything that looks 'practical' or vocational or directly related to the bread-and-butter aspect of education...
...seen again for a while. The Adams House Musical Society brought unusual music to a large number of people. In making them familiar with unfamiliar music, it became an institution which will be sorely missed. Now, at its end, it has become a reminder of the old Emersonian saw about an institution being the lengthened shadow...