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Emily Dickinson: Genius or Genius?

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--- Quote from: pilsner on 14 Feb 2010, 06:26 ---...During her most productive period, in the early 1860s, Dickinson ...

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FYP. Though it's interesting to think what Dickinson would have been like if she'd lived in the 1960s instead of the 1860s.


--- Quote from: Prince of Space on 13 Feb 2010, 23:38 ---I suppose my second intent with this post was to discuss atheism if possible. :)  Though that's dangerous water I tread..
 
It's hard to 'come out' here really.  It's not something you can discuss openly without drawing negative(or unwanted) attention a lot of the time.  :\ 

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I wouldn't be too worried about discussing atheism here. There are several forumites who are open about it and there've been discussions in the past, so don't be worried about us reacting like people in your hometown seem to. I never really thought of Dickinson as atheist or agnostic, but I never really got the sense that she was devout or even liked religion, whether she believed in anything or not. It's definitely an interesting thought, especially so (for me) because of all her poems about death. I'll have to pick up some of her work again and think about it.

KvP:
Bruce Dickinson: Genius or Genius?

Surgoshan:
... Bruce Campbell...

Prince of Space:
@ sandysmilinstrange : I actually don't get the 'are you married' or 'what church do you go to?'.  I live in a bigger city though and don't come in contact with a whole lot of people who put importance on those things in conversation.   In my hometown(smaller) the church question came up a bit, but that was back when I actually was Christian (Baptist), so I didn't have a problem answering.     I'm lucky that most of the people I come in contact with are either theists or just know when to shut up/not talk about religion.   However, I'd have to say that 90% of the people I meet are either Christian or are affiliated with religion in some manner.  Makes it hard to relate sometimes.

@ Linds: For reals. I wonder if poet would've still been her profession?

@ Pilsner: I've read up on her a little and enjoy every bit of information I can squeeze from wherever I can get it, so thanks for that.  I think this poem might describe she appreciated the close friendships she did have(and happens to be my favorite from her so far):

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us — don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

I love that one!

jimbunny:
She's fascinating. "Agnostic" is a good word for her. Her relationship to organized religion was always tenuous, I think you could say - as the excerpts above suggest - but she's got a strong spiritual streak in her at times. Atheist? Not if you don't allow for some kind of transcendence, at least in her earlier work. On the one hand, she's definitely wrestling with her received Christianity (there are poems that suggest a more pious side to her; my volume is deep in a box somewhere or I could look up a few), while on the other hand I think there is a part of her that feels sacred, set apart, transcendent, what have you, and it's intertwined with her reverence for the natural world. It's hard to say what she believed, exactly. For one thing, we can hardly call any of her poems statements of belief, as she kept most of them hidden from everyone else while she was alive. Also, what we do have is all over the map, and is oftentimes cryptic or tongue-in-cheek (it's part of what makes her such a pleasure to read).

Dickinson isn't a very firm figure in modern culture. She wasn't widely embraced or studied until the early/mid 20th century. Of course, the mythos of the reclusive poet took hold quickly, and she's certainly now considered a "national treasure" and a staple in English education, but she doesn't fit in in quite the same way as a Whitman, Faulkner, or Frost does. She's a little vague and out of joint, which is a shame, really, because there's a lot of depth to her that people don't often enough pursue.

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