Some thoughts on Walden

We were asked today in a class on Literature and the Environment how is Walden environmental?  How do we reconcile seeming contradictions in the text?  I take the work of Walden by Henry David Thoreau as a thought experiment in the midst of a changing world.

Walden reads very much like the Utopian ramblings of a discontented gentleman educated in the Western European tradition, upset by the industrialized world's effect on the common man, but so indoctrinated in Society that it is difficult to pull oneself out of it in order to see more clearly.  Thoreau expresses the colonial quandary that Nature is appealing and necessary, but so is order and society.  His attempts to reconcile these concepts within himself mirror those of modern environmentalists.  "The Universe is wider than our views of it," he wrote.  Thoreau wanted to wake up his neighbors and make them aware that they are building fences that hold them in place.  He wanted Man to be aware of the choices being made.  We have to ask ourselves where we want to be... in society, on Earth and in the Universe.

http://www.amazon.com/Walden-Henry-David-Thoreau/dp/1619493918/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360119911&sr=1-1&keywords=walden

Friends in the Arts

I bought some great playing cards from this group on Etsy an not they want to make t-shirts with some of their original designs.  Let's see if we can help them reach their goal.
If they get $4500 by Friday Feb 1, 10:05pm EST, then supporters will get t-shirts.
$25 or more gets 1 tee, $65 gets 3 tees, and $100 gets 5 tees of your choice.

Check it out!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/78897526/alien-ink-fashion-line
 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AlienInkCards

January book update

I am still working on final edits for Welcome to the Weird (Aurora Bay book 1).  There are some details that I want to work in to the first book that will lead into the main storyline of the second book, but it is taking some serious thinking and rewriting to keep the flow of the story.  Feel free to visit my facebook pages!

 

http://www.facebook.com/author.terye.stephens

http://www.facebook.com/MyUtopianImpulses

On Schedule!

Book One of the Aurora Bay series should be available on Amazon Kindle by the end of February.  There has been a title change: Welcome to the Weird.  I am setting up my author page on Facebook, so feel free to drop in and take a look!  Thanks for the support and encouragement.

Terye Stephens
http://www.facebook.com/author.terye.stephens