Word: emersonic
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...heart of the play is the sparring between Wilde (Michael Emerson) and his courtroom antagonists. The flip, willfully perverse Wildean wit suffered the rude shock of having to defend itself under pitiless legal questioning. Asked if something he has written is true, Wilde replies, "I rarely think anything I write is true." He was a victim, of course, of Victorian prudery but also of the perennial clash between the aesthetic and the moral, the realm of art and the realm of life. Wilde realizes too late that it's an unfair fight. "One says things flippantly," he apologizes wanly...
Before I even arrived at Harvard for my first year, I completed one of my first intellectual requirements at the College: reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance," which had been mailed to all first-years during the summer. In this famous text, Emerson addresses the value of independent thought and asserts that the propensity to confront authority and orthodoxy was one of the hallmarks of a great intellect. He writes: "I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions... I ought to go upright and vital, and speak...
...ease and security of reaping the type of success that a Harvard education can offer presents a serious challenge to intellectual and ideological resistance. In his day, Emerson realized that the scorn of one's peers was a major barrier to nonconformity; this pressure is still a moderating force today. Yet, Emerson still attempted to articulate a philosophy of radical autonomy. Aspects of his vision remain meaningful, especially his declaration of hope for the future: "I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency... Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment...
...Diego has been my home for all my life. But when I came to Harvard, I didn't think that I would ever return to a home west of the Mississippi. Enchanted by dreams of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the hundreds of other New Englanders whose words fill our literary anthologies, I was convinced I was a transplanted Easterner. I didn't even apply to colleges in California. I thought that coming to Harvard would be a coming home...
...Hanford suspends a College rule prohibiting personal solicitation of funds in the houses and dormitories, allowing the Food Relief Committee to collect funds for relief efforts in countries including Greece, Poland and China. The campaign is supported by folk singer Pete Seeger '40, who gives a free concert in Emerson Hall two weeks later...