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Henry David Thoreau is Alive and Well, Despite All the Murderers

Despite his famous grave at Sleepy Hollow, HDT is alive and well.

There are countless books, events, plays being read, written, performed and published about him every year.

The "interpretations" take on various permutations.  Live-action humans who lead educational programs, or people who write books for children.  Or, theater which extends the documented & literary materials into personal immediacy (not that I am biased, but this is what I do).

Lately, there has also been a video game created about Walden.

And a young graphic designer who wants to "update" Thoreau's words for the modern age.  Something about "how dated the language is" and the "inaccessibility" of its ideas.  (I can't bear to include a link, or even the designer's name for fear of adding to publicity, and thereby adding "support")

The last example is the slippery slope.  At what point does he need to be repackaged, yet again? Instead of taking bumper sticker slogans from the literature, it is building a book based on the bumper sticker format.

How does a reader distinguish from educational aids and the genuine literature? Cliff Notes are built on the idea of helping a student, or providing a way to skim through the Great Works.  Reader's Digest Condensed versions for the populace.  Books for people who will not have the luxury of time to attend classes for each.

Time is the biggest social class divide.  Not the rich vs the poor.  But people who fill their leisure time with things to prevent them from thinking, and those who seek ideas and quiet to fill up their thoughts on their own.

The speed-read of Walden will be a physical oxymoron.  A publication created to last hundreds of years because it is printed on acid free paper, but it only fit for immediate gratification.

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