This is my response to Jessica Lin’s post.
I agree with the fact that society in general puts a lot of emphasis on the reliance of facts, theories, and history that have come to shape the modern world rather than observing nature. As such we do indeed live in a world wherein most people tend to base factuality on books and primary sources of information instead of looking at the bigger picture, which is for all of us to think and decide on things for ourselves. To exemplify this, I believe Jessica’s quote from “The American Scholar” by Ralph Waldo Emerson was spot on where she states, “The hour is too precious to be wasted in other men’s transcripts of their readings” (5). The significance of this quote is the fact that it indicates the importance of formulating one’s own ideas and opinions rather than just naively taking into account what a person said or stated. As such, the very essence of our thoughts should in fact be in nature and that books should be utilized to just inspire us, not control us
Careful that you don’t misattribute the quote to Jessica. You said “She” instead of “He.”
Relatedly make sure you’re not just responding to Emerson as abstracted by Jessica. You agree with her reading, but why? I wish you could have wrestled with the Emerson more. I think if you had you might have also noticed how it’s the day time hours when man can be having experiences out of doors and in nature and life when he says man should not be at books, but rather leave the books till the hours when its not possible for that kind of engagement. In short just make sure your responses are building upon the original; not just endorsing it and/or repeating it.