Help me with my homework. If you have read an essay or a poem, please phrase a specific question. I always feel sad when I see cries for help here with questions that are not specific enough to even try to answer, or with questions obviously directly from the teacher. Or, when the student posts a question and then obviously never returns to check for the answer or to thank those who've provided information! Why isn't anyone answering me? This is a cooperative effort -- no one is paid to run this bulletin board system. People frequent the bulletin board either because they have questions or an interest in Emerson. Your questions are most likely being answered by a volunteer. - Consider answering someone else's recent question yourself as part of the conversation.
- Post enough information or a specific-enough question so that someone CAN help you!
- Give it a few days -- no one monitors this board full time.
- If no one answers -- there may not be an answer simple enough for a bulletin board posting. Or there may simply be nobody with the information. Or you might want to try rephrasing the question, providing more information or a stab at your own analysis.
Will you answer my question by email? Probably not. I'd love to personally correspond with everyone who wants to write to me about the Transcendentalists, but I can't. The answers also don't help others when they're exchanged privately. Post questions on the forum for best results, though there's no guarantee. | Help me find a quotation. Please post the quotation here, but first check the Emerson text site and please try the search at Search this site. Unfortunately, many Emerson quotes are taken from his Letters and Journals, which are not (yet) online. Others were jotted down by listeners to his lectures, and may be inaccurate or may not have survived when Emerson published his final essays. Or use the search on this page to find previous posts on the same subject. If all else fails, use a search engine -- try Lycos, Excite, Hotbot, Northern Light. Where did Emerson write "Success. . . to laugh often and much"? He didn't, it seems. Bessie Stanley did, and someone copied Emerson's name from a nearby quote in the same book. For information on the famous "Success" quote, see this page. If you don't like Emerson or Thoreau, go ahead and tell us why. Saying "he's a weenie" (or any of many variations on that statement) only makes you look ignorant and lazy! You don't have to agree with Emerson for his writing to provoke you into some pretty important thinking about the nature of humanity, the universe, and life's meaning. His challenge to you: is your mind in gear enough to take the evidence of the senses (in this case, what you read) and, by applying your mind, understand something about the universe that you might not have understood so clearly before? Why did you edit my posting? I edit postings that don't meet the requirements of this forum -- adding better titles or taking out email addresses. These are all in the interest of other users of the forum who might have similar questions and want to find the answers. Thanks for understanding! |