I went to the hills because I had no choice but to live fortuitously, to usurp the essential facts of life, and see if I could not unlearn all that I had been taught, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living that way can become ostentatious; nor did I wish to practice sentimentality, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live in the moment and unpack all the baggage of life, to live so unaware and workmen-like as to put to rout all that was Spectacle, to cut a narrow path and hew close, to drive self consciousness into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.
uNThoreauLiKe
Self Portrait – Summer, 2009
I went to the hills because I had no choice but to live fortuitously, to usurp the essential facts of life, and see if I could not unlearn all that I had been taught, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living that way can become ostentatious; nor did I wish to practice sentimentality, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live in the moment and unpack all the baggage of life, to live so unaware and workmen-like as to put to rout all that was Spectacle, to cut a narrow path and hew close, to drive self consciousness into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.