Tuesday, November 10th, 2009...9:55 pm
Caffeinated Classics: Transcendentalist Style
By: Alex Scofield
When I read Henry Thoreau’s Walden, I was surprised at the number of coffee references. Call it contemporary arrogance, but it was stunning to me that in middle 19th-century U.S., coffee was already a staple of many people’s lives. When I embarked upon an INeedCoffee article on Thoreau and coffee nine years ago, though, I had initially forgotten the negative light in which Thoreau casts coffee. Water from Walden Pond was invigorating to Thoreau; a morning coffee ruined his day. From Walden:
I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man; wine is not so noble a liquor; and think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea!
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau’s Concord, Mass. neighbor, friend and mentor, seemed to feel similarly about coffee. Said Emerson in his Journals:
Coffee is good for talent, but genius wants prayer.
This may sound like at least a lukewarm endorsement of coffee, but Emerson considers genius and talent to be more or less opposing forces. Genius “lift[s] the curtain from the common,” even as the world tempts him to sacrifice this genius for talent. Coffee enables one to deal with the mundane, but it is not sufficient to nurture genius.
Photo Ralph Waldo Emerson by Flickr user cliff1066.
Tags: caffeinated classics, concord mass, genius, henry thoreau, ralph waldo emerson, transcendentalists, walden pond
8 Comments
November 11th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Cool article. I agree–coffee helps us to deal w/ the mundane… But I wonder if these guys just didn’t know how to make a good cup?
November 11th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
Good point … how differently would Thoreau or Emerson feel if somebody served them up freshly roasted Kona or Blue Mountain, brewed in a French press? I don’t know much about the prevalent roasting or brewing methods of that period, but I’m guessing that when Thoreau’s woodchopper friend served him coffee from a stone bottle, it was neither freshly roasted nor freshly brewed. That’s *so* First Wave.
November 11th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I’m sure they would have some different opinions if they had some Kona or Blue Mountain.
Either way, I’m about due for some re-reading of Walden.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Nothing like some light reading for the beach, eh?
Actually, come to think of it, the beach is about as appropriate a place as any to read Walden.
November 12th, 2009 at 5:30 am
The last time I was reading it I was living in the middle of nowhere upstate New York. The beach might give me a different perspective…or at least help out my lack of tan problem.
November 15th, 2009 at 6:57 am
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November 17th, 2009 at 11:20 am
I am a tea drinker (unless in Seattle or Roma, Italia), and I don’t mean those things called “tea bags” – but really fine loose teas. But I am feeling a bit out of sorts, reading what Thoreau said about tea. Alas, the mind of a genius. I wish I were that gifted.
November 18th, 2009 at 7:46 am
@Farnoosh —
Thoreau’s thoughts on coffee/tea rattled me, too. They clashed violently with what I’d expected him to say on the subject. … And yet I got the impression he drank it from time to time — so why the disgust for these fine beverages, Henry? My conclusion:
“Again, we see not an actual distaste for coffee so much as we see an aversion to what it represents – a luxury imported from foreign places beyond Concord’s borders, an expensive taste which ultimately drains the time and financial resources of those who enjoy it and are unable to deviate from the routine of consuming it.”
http://www.ineedcoffee.com/00/thoreau/
So basically, if your love for tea or coffee is in harmony with your life and doesn’t hinder you from getting “there”, I don’t think Thoreau (or Emerson) would be so critical of your tastes. If, on the other hand, you idle comatose in the Starbucks drive-thru for 15 minutes every morning, awaiting your “fix,” maybe it’s time to listen to what the Transcendentalists had to say.
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