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Self-Reliance
"Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotations: : ''"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."'' This essay is an analysis into the nature of the ''"aboriginal self on which a universal reliance may be grounded."'' Emerson emphasizes the importance of individualism and its effect on an individual's satisfaction in life. In his essay, he focuses on seemingly insignificant details, explaining how life is ''"learning and forgetting and learning again."'' History The first hint of the philosophy that would become "Self-Reliance" was presented by Ralph Waldo Emerson as part of a sermon in September 1830 a ...
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and his ideology was disseminated through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism in his 1836 essay "Nature". Following this work, he gave a speech entitled " The American Scholar" in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be America's "intellectual Declaration of Independence."Richardson, p. 263. Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first and then revised them for print. His first two collections of essays, '' Essays: ...
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Hobgoblin
A hobgoblin is a household spirit, typically appearing in folklore, once considered helpful, but which since the spread of Christianity has often been considered mischievous. Shakespeare identifies the character of Puck in his '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'' as a hobgoblin. Etymology The term "hobgoblin" comes from " hob" ("elf") The earliest known use of the word can be traced to about 1530, although it was likely in use for some time prior to that. Folklore Hobgoblins seem to be small, hairy little men who, like their close relatives the brownies, are often found within human dwellings, doing odd jobs around the house while the family is asleep. Such chores are typically small tasks like dusting and ironing. Often, the only compensation necessary in return for these is food. While brownies are more peaceful creatures, hobgoblins are more fond of practical jokes. They also seem to be able to shapeshift, as seen in one of Puck's monologues in '' A Midsummer Night's Dream''. ...
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Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reliance and advocate that interests of the individual should achieve precedence over the state or a social group while opposing external interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the government. Individualism is often defined in contrast to totalitarianism, collectivism and more corporate social forms. Individualism makes the individual its focus and so starts "with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importance in the struggle for liberation". Anarchism, existentialism, liberalism and libertarianism are examples of movements that take the human individual as a central unit of analysis. L. Susan Brown. '' The Politics of Individualism: Liberalism, Liberal Feminism, and Anarchism'' ...
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The Dying Night
"The Dying Night" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story first appeared in the July 1956 issue of '' The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', and was reprinted in the collections '' Nine Tomorrows'' (1959), '' Asimov's Mysteries'' (1968), and '' The Best of Isaac Asimov'' (1973). "The Dying Night" is Asimov's third Wendell Urth story. Plot summary Three astronomers, who have been working on the Moon, Mercury and the asteroid Ceres, meet for the first time in ten years at a convention on Earth. They also meet a former colleague of theirs, Romero Villiers, who had to stay on Earth because of illness. Villiers claims to have invented a mass-transference/ teleportation device, but dies under suspicious circumstances before he can demonstrate the device to his friends. Another scientist who has seen the device demonstrated suspects that Villiers has been murdered by one of his classmates, and he questions them. In the course of his investi ...
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The American Scholar
"The American Scholar" was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College at the First Parish in Cambridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was invited to speak in recognition of his groundbreaking work ''Nature'', published a year earlier, in which he established a new way for America's fledgling society to regard the world. Sixty years after declaring independence, American culture was still heavily influenced by Europe, and Emerson, for possibly the first time in the country's history, provided a visionary philosophical framework for escaping "from under its iron lids" and building a new, distinctly American cultural identity. Summary Emerson introduces Transcendentalist and Romantic views to explain an American scholar's relationship to nature. A few key points he makes include: * We are all fragments, "as the hand is divided into fingers", of a greater creature, which is mankind itself. * An individual may live ...
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Moby-Dick
''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, ''Moby-Dick'' was published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. Its reputation as a "Great American Novel" was established only in the 20th century, after the 1919 centennial of its author's birth. William Faulkner said he wished he had written the book himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world" and "the greatest book of the sea ever written". Its opening sentence, "Call me Ishmael", is among world literature's most famous. Melville began writing ''Moby-Dick'' in February 18 ...
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Dream A Little Dream (film)
''Dream a Little Dream'' is a popular 1989 American fantasy- romantic comedy film directed by Marc Rocco and starring Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Meredith Salenger, Jason Robards, Piper Laurie and Harry Dean Stanton. It was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina. This was the third film featuring The Two Coreys. A direct to video sequel, '' Dream a Little Dream 2'', was released in 1994. Plot Bobby Keller ( Corey Feldman) is a slacker high school student who, while running through a short cut through a backyard in his neighborhood one night, collides with Lainie Diamond ( Meredith Salenger), over whom Bobby has recently been obsessing. During the collision, elderly professor Coleman Ettinger ( Jason Robards) is performing a meditation exercise in the yard with his wife Gena ( Piper Laurie), theorizing that if he and his wife can enter a meditative alpha state together voluntarily, they will be able to live together forever. However, just as the Ettingers are on the verge of ...
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What's Up, Doc? (1972 Film)
''What's Up, Doc?'' is a 1972 American romantic screwball comedy film released by Warner Bros., directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, and Madeline Kahn. It was intended to pay homage to comedy films of the 1930s and 1940s, especially ''Bringing Up Baby'', and Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny cartoons. ''What's Up, Doc?'' was a success, and became the third-highest grossing film of 1972. It won the Writers Guild of America (WGA) 1973 " Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen" award for Buck Henry, David Newman and Robert Benton. ''What's Up, Doc?'' was ranked number 61 on the list of the 100 greatest American comedies published by the American Film Institute (AFI), number 68 on the AFI's list of 100 greatest love stories in American cinema, and number 58 on the list of the WGA's 101 Funniest Screenplays published by the Writers Guild of America. The film was very loosely based on the novel '' A Glimpse of Tiger'' by Herman Raucher. Plot Dr. Howa ...
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Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. Best known for his hard science fiction, Asimov also wrote mystery fiction, mysteries and fantasy, as well as much nonfiction. Asimov's most famous work is the ''Foundation series, Foundation'' series, the first three books of which won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. His other major series are the ''Galactic Empire series, Galactic Empire'' series and the ''Robot series, Robot'' series. The ''Galactic Empire'' novels are set in the much earlier history of the same fictional universe as the ''Foundation'' series. Later, with ''Foundation and Earth'' (1986), he linked this distant ...
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Asimov's Mysteries
''Asimov's Mysteries'', published in 1968, is a collection of 14 short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov, almost all of them science fiction mysteries (although, as Asimov admits in the introduction, some are only borderline). The stories were all originally published in magazines between 1954 and 1967, except for "Marooned off Vesta", Asimov's first published story, which first appeared in 1939. Four stories in the collection feature the character of Wendell Urth, who is a leading extra-terrologist (an expert on alien worlds and life originating on them). Urth is eccentric in that he has a phobia of all mechanical forms of transport (an exaggeration of Asimov's own aversion to flying). Physically Urth resembles Norbert Wiener. Urth appears in the stories when he is consulted by an agent of the Terrestrial Bureau of Investigation, H. Seton Davenport, in cases which have him baffled – a parallel with the way in which Inspector Lestrade consults Sherlock Holmes. In a fifth ...
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Emerson By Johnson 1846
Emerson may refer to: People * Emerson (surname), a surname (and list of people with that name) * Emerson (given name), a given name (and list of people with that name) Places Australia *Emerson Crossing, a place in Adelaide Canada * Emerson, Manitoba ** Pembina–Emerson Border Crossing ** Emerson (electoral district), a former electoral division in Manitoba * Emerson, Weldford Parish, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Emerson's Green or Emersons Green, South Gloucestershire, England United States * Emerson (Gary), a neighborhood in north-central Gary, Indiana * Emerson, Arkansas * Emerson, Georgia * Emerson, Iowa * Emerson, Nebraska * Emerson, New Jersey * Emerson, Ohio * Emerson, West Virginia * Emerson Hill, Staten Island, a neighborhood of New York City * Emerson Township, Michigan * Emerson Township, Dixon County, Nebraska * Emerson Township, Harlan County, Nebraska Institutions * Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts * Emerson Hospital, Concord, Massachusetts * ...
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The Singing Bell
"The Singing Bell" is a science fiction mystery short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, which first appeared in the January 1955 issue of ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' and was reprinted in the 1968 collection ''Asimov's Mysteries''. "The Singing Bell" was the first of Asimov's Wendell Urth stories. Plot summary Louis Peyton is a master criminal who spent decades challenging the law, with the police having never managed to gather any direct evidence against him. One August, Albert Cornwell takes him to the Moon to retrieve a cache of extremely valuable "Singing Bells". The Bells are lunar rocks which, when struck by the correct stroker, make an incredibly beautiful sound. Not a dozen people on Earth own a flawless Bell, while the cache contains two dozen, and each can be sold for a hundred thousand dollars minimum (assuming 1955 prices, over a million each in 2022). Cornwell had obtained the map to the cache by killing their discoverer. Once the retrieval i ...
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