Emerson: Need I Continue?

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According to Google Analytics, there are roughly five of you out there keeping up with the Emerson Project. I ran a book proposal based on the project by my agent today and she said don’t bother, it’s been done, she can’t sell it.

This puts me in a tough position because for writers like Emerson, reading isn’t enough for me. I need to write something about the text to reach an understanding of it. But what’s the point of writing if no one is reading?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4JHQNL6Q66PQEXWWUOKMQXHTDU Rex

    Take another look at the quote I posted some few days ago from Sacvan Berkovich on the distinction between individualism and individuality. Yes, all the easy questions about RWE have already been answered. The subtlety of such a distinction as Berkovich’s — there’s a difference between self-interest for self-advancement and self-interest for a more perfect commuity–has to the best of my knowledge not been explored. Comparing RWE to radical right-wing so-called conservatives could be explosive.

  • Kelly Jolley

    I write essentially for myself, accidentally for others.  So–if it’s working for me, it’s working.  If others find it works for them, great; if not, oh well, too bad, –they can spend their time elsewhere, with my blessing.

    One problem with writing on Emerson.  Everyone thinks they’ve read him.  Everyone is wrong.  (Unless a little numb perusal in a junior high English class counts.)  Everyone thinks they understand him.  Everyone is wrong.  The basic problem with Emerson is that everyone thinks he’d ‘been done’, when he’s barely been started.  But it is hard to shatter that conviction.  Emerson is the butt of his own quotability.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for the comment — I agree, Emerson hasn’t been done. I’ve only scratched the surface myself. I can’t go on, I’ll go on.