Thursday, March 10, 2011

Transcendentalism and the Lolita

The image comes from here!
I felt very fired up to write this entry ever since 6th period English, when we read a short essay with the student teacher in the transcendentalism unit. The essay was called, "Self-Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who is known to be the founder of transcendentalism. Stay with me here~!  I know it sounds a bit boring and complicated, but it's very interesting and the essay was only almost two pages in our literature book. I suggest you read it! The transcendentalists had some fascinating ideas. What had me interested and ecstatic, even, about this essay was how much it reflected on my own philosophy and my love of lolita, of course. All I could think of was lolita and the bravery of lolitas when I read it. Before I read it there was an assignment that had to do with transcendentalism, we had to write about a time when we stood out and the first choice for me to write about, was of course, wearing lolita.  The essay basically says, you should always be true to yourself, no matter what that is and who cares what anyone else thinks! I'd like to think something he says would be like saying, "Dance like no one is watching" that's not exactly what he said, but thats a bit how I interpreted it. Though, maybe it's more like, "Dance like everyone is watching, but you just don't care." He says in his essay that people are more themselves when they are alone, but they should try to be that self all the time. An interesting thing he says is, "Imitation is suicide." I didn't get it at first, not really until the student teacher explained it, but it;s an interesting concept I wanted to point out. he's basically saying, when you try to become someone else, the you that your are starts to disappear and in a way that's like committing suicide and killing the you that you had been instead of being proud of it and true to yourself. Another thing is, he said something that basically meant, there are people who put so much care into what other people think of them that they say, "I can't do/say/dress like that, what will people thing?" Sound familiar? I know many people who won't be a lolita, no matter how much they like it, because of what other people might say and think. Obviously, us lolitas are very much like the transcendentalists. We don't care what other people think and do what we love, because we love it. I think it's a wonderful way to think and live. I was so glad we were learning about it in class. You can find the essay here, I recommend it to anyone. It may not be something you like, but I happen to love the way of thinking that he implies in it. I lost many of the things I wanted to say on the train of thought from 6th period to now, sadly, but nevertheless I got out most of what I wanted to say. I'm very glad to have read this essay and maybe have discovered many people who think similarly to the way I think. I felt so fired up to do this, like I do whenever I think of a really interesting blog topic. Something that really hits me, good or bad. I really do hope I can post more often very soon. Thank you fro reading my pretties! I hope I may have helped you learn something new!

That's it for now! so I'll sign off, bbfn! See you next time!


Challenge- Read the essay and comment with your thoughts below, please! <3

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