Our worst moments can lead to our greatest triumphs
Our worst moments can lead to our greatest triumphs
A lesser known story about Henry David Thoreau's stupidest decision
Happy Day Fellow Wayfarers!
Today’s dispatch is a little different. I’m giving you an early look at a visual essay/comic I created about Henry David Thoreau. Tomorrow, I will be posting this behind the Medium paywall. But you get to read it for free!
My feelings about Thoreau are complicated. This essay explores some of those complications.
Please let me know in the comments if you’d like to see more of this kind of visual essay or if I should just stick to what I’ve been doing.
Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think about this visual essay.
Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think about this visual essay.
Be the weird you want to see in the world!
Cheers,
Jason
About Haiku Comic
I wrote this verse on September 25, 2019. I was still recovering from kidney cancer surgery and was thinking about mortality and how hard we try in the United States to avoid thinking about death as a part of life. I clipped the tree branch from an image I had previously licensed from Canva. I used Canva for the leaf shapes, but the coloring of all the leaves, clouds, sky, and ground is my handiwork.
About The Accidental Fire Comic
The tranquil scene on the first page and repeated on page 9 is part of a painting by Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os. He lived in The Hague and painted this landscape sometime in the early 19th century.
I also used a few other public domain images, such as the picture of Thoreau, a boat from a 19-century diagram of how to outfit a boat for duck hunting, some Amazonian fish drawn by an unknown naturalist, and a couple of sketches of cranky farmers.
I will have a more detailed image sourcing guide when I publish this comic as part of a longer collection in the future.
A most excellent story on Thoreau! I too have often wondered why he's so lauded as an environmentalist when in actuality he was a lazy land squatter. A far better writer and role model for environmentalism is the great writer Edward Abbey, whose works I became familiar with after a trip to Moab, Utah long ago. "Desert Solitaire" and "The Monkey Wrench Gang" are by far a better books than "on Walden Pond."
Also you should submit this story to The Nib. I'll send you the details.
I very much enjoyed this “visual essay” if simply not for the story itself. For the same reason graphic novels aren’t my jam, and because I am old, maybe it took me a minute to adapt. You are always a source of encouragement in my creativity quest. Thanks for giving us a sneak (free) preview.