‘Thy love afar is spite at home' Emerson, Thoreau and Carey: an alternative perspective of communication in US

The conquest of the West by the stagecoaches and then by railway, Ford and the automobile civilization, the Moon landing by Apollo 11, Microsoft, Apple, CNN, Google and Facebook have appeared to us as celebratory examples of the willingness and ability of the US to overcome the distance and the absence through so-called modern progress of transportation and communication. Undoubtedly, the imaginary and the instrumental power associated to transports and communication of the last century and a half are identified with the mental images that the world has of the US. A world that has eagerly imported and copy their technology and technological culture. Beyond the illusions, this attempting, which has always been praised to transcende space and eclipse the time to get to places and peole increasingly distant and fast, has always a dark side: the political control of population, commercial advertising, the spread of the rumors, noise and gossip. However, since at least the nineteenth century, the political project incorporated in modern transportation and communication technologies was not shared by some of the most remarkable thinkers in the US not only in that century, but also in the 20th century. This paper begins by rescue Ralph W. Emerson and Henry D. Thoreau legacy regarding to communication. Emerson conceived communication as a give-and-take with no coordination between the two, and does not involve contact with the other. Thoreau, in turn, argued that modern trasnportation and communications inventions are but pretty toys which distract attention from serious things, nothing more than 'improved means to an end that is not perfected.' Secondly, we show that this skeptical view of the techological improvement of transport and communication was proceed in an original way with James W. Carey, a media studies thinker who became known for his criticism of the transmission view of communication.

El silencio como recurso del individuo en Thoreau y Nietzsche

El artículo aborda la reivindicación del silencio en las filosofías de Thoreau y Nietzsche como recurso crítico contra la falta de autenticidad que amenaza al individuo de las sociedades modernas. El trasfondo que confiere significado a la comparación es la voluntad convergente de impugnar, a uno y otro lado del Atlántico, el concepto ilustrado de ciudadanía. Para ello, ambos autores parten de la constatación de las deficiencias expresivas —tanto epistemológicas como, fundamentalmente, éticas— del lenguaje que da voz a la vida pública. Sus respectivos planteamientos les llevarán a una comprensión excéntrica de la filosofía como forma de vida, aunque desembocarán en dos sensibilidades morales diferentes.

Bibliography of Henry David Thoreau, with an outline of his life.

Errata slip inserted after t.-p.

Henry David Thoreau : a critical study,

Mode of access: Internet.

Thoreau's philosophy of life, with special consideration of the influence of Hindoo philosophy /

Lebenslauf.

The writings of Henry David Thoreau ...

[v. 1] A week on the Concord and Merrimack rivers.--[v. 2] Walden.--[v. 3] The Maine woods.--[v. 4] Cape Cod and Miscellanies.--[v. 5] Excursions and Poems.--v. 6. Familiar letters, ed. by F. B. Sanborn. Enl. ed.--[v. 7-20] Journal, ed. by B. Torrey, 1837-1846, 1850-Nov. 3, 1861.

Autumn : from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau /

BAL

A record of first editions of Bryant, Emerson, Hawthorne, Holmes, Longfellow, Lowell, Thoreau, Whittier

Mode of access: Internet.

The writings of Henry David Thoreau ...

Mode of access: Internet.

Henry D. Thoreau /

Includes index.