[COMPLETE] Representative Men by Ralph Waldo Emerson - tg

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
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williamjones
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Post by williamjones »

This a question to the collection of LV stars working on to this project:
In this small group of talents, I am hoping to build an atmosphere of comradery as tho we're sitting around a table talking and working and encouraging each other. We've all worked together before on LV projects and have an appreciation for the others' skills and sensitivities.

Only in a group this small could such a melding occur. In a group project with 30 sections and 25 or more readers, the comradery just couldn't develop. I offer unsolicited comments and extended words of appreciation and invite y'all to do the same.

Do you think this spirit of comradery is a good thing to foster?
How say you?
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
RitaBoutros
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Post by RitaBoutros »

Ah….a salon of literary minds. Love it
williamjones
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Post by williamjones »

RitaBoutros wrote: July 2nd, 2022, 8:36 am Ah….a salon of literary minds. Love it
and hopefully not a Confederacy of Dunces!
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
williamjones
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Post by williamjones »

williamjones wrote: July 1st, 2022, 9:29 am
FloraMetrick wrote: July 1st, 2022, 8:56 am I have uploaded section 9.

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/representativemen_09_emerson_128kb.mp3 27.04
Thank you, Flora.
I'll PL your file later today.
Well, well..........
What a nice first reading! :clap: This was a tough one for someone's first reading, but you did a fine job. Your years in teaching singers and choral groups how to pronounce lyrics in different languages came in handy.

Just a couple of errors for you to take care of:
11:54 repeat of: "a great poet"
13:02 repeat of "And they are librarians and historiographers"
20:41 thru 22:08 major change in voice -- probably changed location of microphone or the room in which you were recording. There's nothing for you to change at this late date, but in the future take note of where the microphone is locate, how you are sitting at your desk, etc. so that if you need to interrupt your records, you can recreate how you were set up.

Fix the first two things noted above, then re-upload your file and post a message in the project forum saying you've done so. Then, I'll re-check the file and probably give it an PL OK! marking and you're done.

-- Bill
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
RitaBoutros
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Post by RitaBoutros »

williamjones
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Post by williamjones »

Thank you, Rita. Will PL this afternoon.

Are you noticing the same thing that I am: Emerson's words come in one lobe of the brain and out the other and it's difficult to grasp what he has just said?
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
williamjones
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Post by williamjones »

Need some PL help on my two PLATO sections 03 and 04. Please.
Who's going to volunteer?

Note: this text contains the source of the quote: "Plato is philosophy, and philosophy, Plato". It continues "at once the glory and the shame of mankind, since neither Saxon nor Roman have availed to add any idea to his categories."
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
RitaBoutros
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Post by RitaBoutros »

Well, Emerson does have a tendency to be verbose, confounding a sentence with too much coming and going at once, when he could easily have said what he wants to say.

Interesting to note the symptoms of this giant ego (Bonaparte) and compare it to others we know today: Unalterable confidence, vulgar manners, a belief that he is the center of the universe, despising the common man (although claiming to be for him), full scale lying, cheating, with a death grip on power, etc etc. Such men are extremely dangerous. Remind you of anyone??
williamjones
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Post by williamjones »

RitaBoutros wrote: July 4th, 2022, 6:20 am Well, Emerson does have a tendency to be verbose, confounding a sentence with too much coming and going at once, when he could easily have said what he wants to say.

Interesting to note the symptoms of this giant ego (Bonaparte) and compare it to others we know today: Unalterable confidence, vulgar manners, a belief that he is the center of the universe, despising the common man (although claiming to be for him), full scale lying, cheating, with a death grip on power, etc etc. Such men are extremely dangerous. Remind you of anyone??
Yes, it does and he's probably cheating at golf even as we speak.
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
FloraMetrick
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Post by FloraMetrick »

I have uploaded section 9 with corrections.

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/representativemen_09_emerson_128kb.mp3 24:53

This is my first submission!
Flora
Flora Metrick
Music sounds the way feelings feel.
williamjones
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Post by williamjones »

FloraMetrick wrote: July 4th, 2022, 10:55 am I have uploaded section 9 with corrections.

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/representativemen_09_emerson_128kb.mp3 24:53

This is my first submission!
Flora
Way to go, Grasshopper!
Section is now PL OK!
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
FloraMetrick
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Location: Bonita Springs, Florida

Post by FloraMetrick »

Uploaded Section 10, Shakespeare Part 2

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/representativemen_10_emerson_128kb.mp3 23:15

This was a difficult first reading!! Emerson used too many hard words!!!

Flora
Flora Metrick
Music sounds the way feelings feel.
williamjones
Posts: 2248
Joined: April 26th, 2016, 7:47 pm
Location: Florida

Post by williamjones »

FloraMetrick wrote: July 4th, 2022, 6:20 pm Uploaded Section 10, Shakespeare Part 2

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/representativemen_10_emerson_128kb.mp3 23:15

This was a difficult first reading!! Emerson used too many hard words!!!

Flora
Thank you Flora!
Will PL today.
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
williamjones
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Joined: April 26th, 2016, 7:47 pm
Location: Florida

Post by williamjones »

Another fine job with difficult text. Thank you for this reading.
This section is PL OK!

I offer now a couple of my own comments, worth every penny you paid for them:

At first I thought Emerson was going to praise Napoleon to the skies, but later there was such a mixture of praise and criticism, that I became sure of the opposite. Take a look at these quotes:

26:35 "Here was an experiment, under the most favorable conditions, of the powers of intellect without conscience. Never was such a leader so endowed, and so weaponed; never leader found such aids and followers. And what was the result of this vast talent and power, of these immense armies, burned cities, squandered treasures, immolated millions of men, of this demoralized Europe? It came to no result. All passed away, like the smoke of his artillery and left no trace."

And a bit later: "Men found that his absorbing egotism was deadly to all other men" :shock:

and the last paragraph combines praise, bitterness and scorn: "It was not Bonaparte’s fault. [say whaaat!?!?!?] He did all that in him lay, to live and thrive without moral principle. It was the nature of things, the eternal law of man and of the world, which baulked and ruined him; and the result, in a million experiments, will be the same. Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail. The pacific Fourier will be as inefficient as the pernicious Napoleon. As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions. Our riches will leave us sick; there will be bitterness in our laughter; and our wine will burn our mouth. Only that good profits, which we can taste with all doors open, and which serves all men." Whew!!

This very last sentence exemplifies why Emerson is so difficult for us to read and understand today: The common practices of punctuation and capitalization were different. If that last sentence has started like this "Only that Good profits, which we can taste with all doors open and which serves..." it would have been much easier to deliver.
-- Bill Jones

When you think that you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven't.
--- Thomas Edison
RitaBoutros
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Post by RitaBoutros »

It could be that Bonaparte started with all good intentions, keeping true to "liberty, equality and fraternity." It was this spirit that made people like Beethoven admire and respect him, dedicating symphonies to him, etc. But eventually, he became fat and greedy and he stopped pretending that he cared about the "common man."

But I think there was something else at play in his mindset. A biography of Josephine, his society wife, revealed a lot about Bonaparte. Despite becoming emperor (he crowned himself!), he always felt inferior to the French society which his wife commanded with her little finger. She scorned him and his rough Corsican manners. And though he at first claimed to having no respect for the aristocracy, he became the aristocracy whether he liked it or not, and his absolute power as emperor did what it always does.
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