Emerson vs. Lamb

When reading an essay for my Romantic Period class over the weekend, I was delighted to come across an article which I am almost positive Emerson would be absolutely appalled by. Charles Lamb's article entitled Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading is almost comical in the way that is reinforces Emerson's problem with reading and at the same time fights against Emerson's snobbery and intellectual idealistic view of what reading should and should not be. In the first paragraph of the essay Lamb boldly points out that he reads exactly the way Emerson says one should not read, stating: "I dedicate no inconsiderable portion of my time to other people's thoughts" (Lamb, 504) and "I am reading; I cannot sit and think. Books think for me" (Lamb, 504). Wow. Can't you just seem Emerson cringing at these statements, and, in an intellectual temper tantrum writing even more about what reading should not be? The funny part about it is that Lamb is blatantly poking fun at what some would deem Emerson's intellectual snobbery.

There are a few areas where I do think Lamb and Emerson might form some kind of agreement about reading. For instance, Lamb states praises literary artists of his time, saying: "the names of some of our poets sound sweeter, and have a finer relish to the ear-to mine, at least-then Milton or Shakespeare" (Lamb, 507-508). I do believe Emerson would agree with Lamb in this regard simply because Emerson sees these historical writers as being poets that men have continually imitated instead of thinking and creating for themselves. It is interesting how, although completely disagreeing on how reading affects its audience, Lamb and Emerson might agree on something.

Probably the entire reason I wanted to post this blog is to share a poem from Lamb's Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading that acts as his conclusion to the article. Personally, I found this poem so insightful and witty and a very personal attack on the thoughts of intellectuals such as Emerson. I have become increasingly frustrated with Emerson's thoughts on reading as we have studied them in class and this poem helped to relieve a little of that frustration :)

"I saw a boy with eager eye
Open a book upon a stall,
And read, as he'd devour it all;
Which when the stall-man did espy,
Soon to the boy I heard him call,
'You, Sir, you never buy a book,
therefore in one you shall not look.'
The boy pass'd slowly on with a sigh
He wish'd he never had been taught to read,
Then of the old churl's books he should not need.

Of sufferings the poor have many,
Which never can the rich annoy:
I soon perceiv'd another boy,
Who look'd as if he's not had any
Food, for the day at least-enjoy
The sight of cold meat in a tavern larder.
This boy's case, then thought I, is surely harder,
Thus hungry, longing, thus without a penny,
Beholding choice of dainty-dressed meat:
No wonder if he wish he ne'er had learn'd to eat"
(Lamb, 509-510)

To Lamb, reading is like eating, it is a life giver and sustainer and to not read is just as bad as to not eat. I thought this to be very clever and more along the lines of what I feel about reading.

(all excerpts from Lamb's work were taken from The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period)