As part of a Unitarian Universalist service focusing on transcendentalism, I revisited the concept of transcendentalism and how it has influenced my writing. The talk is on YouTube and below the video is the text.
When I think about transcendentalism, it seems like a natural fit for me. I have long had a relationship with the muse and, since I’ve gone vegan (now almost four years ago), I’ve had talking animals come to me and tell me to write down their stories. This may not be exactly the kind of transcendentalism that Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau made into a philosophy within Unitarianism in the mid-1800s, but it certainly centers around the belief that “spirituality cannot be achieved through reason and rationalism, but instead through self-reflection and intuition.”
Thoreau influenced many writers important to me, especially Willa Cather. As I proceed on my writer’s journey—which started in the nineteen eighties and nineties Philly poetry scene–I increasingly feel myself being in harmony with nature—which at this period in time is in peril. In doing the research for my latest novel, I learned more about the sad state of the sea.
This past summer, I wrote a novel titled Dick Moby. This is a rewriting of sorts of the American novel Moby Dick from the point of view of the whale who has named herself Dick Moby to remind herself she is fierce and who wants to pass on her fierceness, but not her rage, to her calf that she is pregnant with.
These few paragraphs are from a section called “Swimming Around A Plastic Island” which was recently published in the literary journal Be-Zine, in its SustainABILITY issue.
“As we swam past the island, we were on the surface. My sister and the other whales around me were silent. We gazed at the plastic island as if we were seeing a premonition of the future when all the sea might be filled with plastic debris. Even my young cousin was silent. This was her future. I couldn’t see her eyes since she was ahead of me. But I imagined a single tear sliding out of her eye.
The island stretched on and on as far as my eye could see. We would be swimming around it for a long time before we would feel free enough in the open sea to dive down deep and catch lunch. As I stared at it, I saw the plastic island glittering under the sun. If I didn’t know that it represented death, I might think it was beautiful.
I could see how a bird could mistake the plastic for a fish and eat the wrong thing. After all, the sun glitters on fish jumping out of the waves too.”
–Namaste–
For more information on my most recent published novel Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love, and marriage, click here:
Janet Mason, author 