Ashley Ames & Haley Hoyt
Version E is the point at which Thoreau is beginning to make meaning out of and logically organize his Brute Neighbors chapter, compared to what used to be deposits of information in Version A. This section shifts from being majorly information-based to being equally philosophical and observational. Brute Neighbors paragraph nine in Version A seems to be a deposit of information about his direct surroundings, the phoebe and the mice, but he spreads out the information he observes in different sections so that he can make more meaning from the text. His decision to spread out the information and physically make more room in each section makes way for his additions of philosophical and meditative content. We observe these changes specifically in the following areas—in version A, the removal of the content that would become Spring 25b that surrounded Brute Neighbors 9; in version E, the addition of eight paragraphs, featuring the Hermit and the Poet, and the subsequent “bumping” of the ninth paragraph up to its final spot in the text; and in version E, the removal of what would eventually become “Winter Animals” from the text following Brute Neighbors 9. Overall, the changes Thoreau makes to Brute Neighbors from version A to E move away from Brute Neighbors as a deposit of information. Overall, they contribute to an increased sense of philosophical indulgence and strengthened logical flow.
In version A, Brute Neighbors 9 in the manuscript, this section starts with a description of phoebe which is believed to be a bird with the consistent use of phrases like “eggs”, “humming wings”, “talons”. This section changes into Spring 25A in later drafts which is evident in the manuscript by the light pencil marking that can be seen in the top of the page reading number 157. Although, on this page of the manuscript there appears to be different pencil markings in light blue pencil that has a page number of 357. The difference in the colors of the pencil markings indicate that Thoreau reflected on these sections during the revision process and decided to move the opening paragraph to Spring 25A. In the next paragraph, the section that remains in Brute Neighbors 9 he begins describing a mouse that he has encountered living in his house. These descriptions of the animals connect these two paragraphs.
These paragraphs both describe the wildlife that surrounds Thoreau during his time at the pond so why did he move this section to Spring 25A? The answer to this question appears in later drafts as he continues to add and make changes to the Brute Neighbors section. In these additions, which first appear in Version E he adds sections that appear to be more philosophically based in order to balance the in-depth observations he examined. In the manuscript the detailed filled paragraphs are next to each other, which needed to be broken up to fit his philosophical writing style.
Thoreau finishes off section 9 of Brute Neighbors with more description of the mouse. He uses sharp details to depict his interactions with this mouse. Since Version A did not consist as much of Thoreau’s philosophical writing style these long sections read as a bunch of details without a clear understanding of why we need to know about the interactions with the bird and mouse. With the removal of the opening of Brute Neighbors 9 this long section can remain and as a reader, we get clarity on the significance of the mouse which is shown in later versions with the additions of paragraphs 1-8.
Thoreau finishes off section 9 of Brute Neighbors with more description of the mouse. He uses sharp details to depict his interactions with this mouse. Since Version A did not consist as much of Thoreau’s philosophical writing style these long sections read as a bunch of details without a clear understanding of why we need to know about the interactions with the bird and mouse. With the removal of the opening of Brute Neighbors 9 this long section can remain and as a reader, we get clarity on the significance of the mouse which is shown in later versions with the additions of paragraphs 1-8.
In version A, Brute Neighbors 9 was the very first paragraph in Brute Neighbors. In version E, it is the ninth paragraph in the chapter. At this point in the manuscript drafting, Thoreau has had four full rounds of revisions, has sorted out, added, and deleted a lot of information, and this is the point at which Walden becomes more of a philosophical and meditative text. Thoreau invents a bunch of space in this version, which operates as a more intentioned preface to the descriptive pieces of information in Brute Neighbors 9. Version E includes a dialogue between a Poet and a Hermit, which ends with the questions and meditations:
“Why do precisely these objects which we behold make a world? Why has man just these species of animals for instance for his neighbors & no others? as if nothing but a mouse could have filled this crevice? They must be very significant though we fail to perceive their significance. I suspect that Pilpay & Co. Have put them to their best use, for they are are they not all beasts of burden, in a sense, made to carry some portion of our thoughts?” (Walden: A Digital Fluid Text Edition, Version E, para. 8).
This was not included in our TEI file because it is not directly concerned with the content and adding it would have confused the TEI content, but it is relevant in this narrative of change because it pertains to the overall arc of Thoreau’s Brute Neighbors. Thoreau seems to be activating the philosophical potential of this section more obvious to his readers by connecting the observations about, for example, the mice, to questions about (very broadly) why mice, for example, as opposed to any other possible existence, exists.
Manuscript page 785 of Walden Version E
Manuscript page 786 of Walden Version E
In version E, what follows this content is a description of a “long-eared red bellied field mouse” (Walden, or, life in the woods 785). The field mouse that Thoreau spends many lines describing runs over his clothes, ascends the walls of the room he is in, and, to Thoreau, moves like a squirrel (Walden, or, life in the woods 785). Thoreau describes this mouse’s readiness to nibble at a piece of cheese Thoreau holds, its “visiting” Thoreau’s hand, and cleaning its face (Walden, or, life in the woods 786). This section, if it had been constructed before, like Version A, to be in the beginning, preceded by no obviously philosophical or non-descriptive content, would have read as a deposit of information. Now surrounded by questions pointed at the existence of creatures, of “brute creations as were my neighbors” (Walden, or, life in the woods 784), the mouse seems more like a specifically meaningful observation. It’s as though no other observation could have filled that crevice. His questions that now precede Version E’s Brute Neighbors, paragraph 9, color the reading of the mouse, which could be just a deposit of information and observation, as a special, meaningful, and philosophical meditation. The movement of the mouse, its similarity to a squirrel, its nibbling of the cheese, its visiting of the hand, are all singularly important, now that they are preceded by the questions before Brute Neighbors 9, to philosophical questions about existence and belonging. The preservation of the content about the long-eared red bellied mouse and the addition of the philosophical questions that immediately precede in this section. By contrast, in version E, Thoreau’s removal of text also contributes to the logical movements and cohesion of the chapter.
The content that follows Brute Neighbors 9 is also an important change to track in Version E, as it removes the slightly crowded deposit of information. He removes a lot of information that follows paragraph 9 in version E and shifts it to a logically more consistent section. In the last few lines of the TEI file of version E, there is writing that describes “scores of hitch pines,” which “had been gnawed by mice” and describes their existence through the winter (Walden, or, life in the woods 786). The content that immediately surrounds it in version E is the description of the field mouse that nibbled at the cheese and visited Thoreau’s hand. Thoreau’s shift from this to the description of the pines is very sudden. This description of the winter pines does not have a ton of relation to the content that exists before it in Brute Neighbors 9. Thoreau indicates in the manuscript images that this section, while it existed at some point in version E, moves to a different section by boxing it in and with lateral markings (Walden, or, life in the woods 784-5). The section he moves this content to is Winter Animals (Walden: A Fluid Text Edition, Version E, para. 13a) which makes the overall logic and arc of both Brute Neighbors and Winter Animals more logically consistent. With this change, Brute Neighbors reads much more straightforwardly as just one unit of information and philosophical observations about the mouse that he has long described, since version A, in this section. It seems like Thoreau has at this phase in the drafting a better idea of the arc and primary focus of Brute Neighbors 9 in this section. Transferring this part of Brute Neighbors to a different section seems to have been Thoreau’s attempt at making this section more precise and more focused on this specific meditation about the field mouse. He removes some information, steadies it, and makes it more explicitly meaningful by adding questions that prompt his reader to consider the specific significance of the singular object—neighbor—that he describes in Brute Neighbors 9.
Thoreau’s attention to Brute Neighbors and the careful editing and movement–the coming and going of sections that are usually preserved elsewhere–demonstrate much care in the content of the Brute Neighbors chapter. The form of this chapter and the structural or technical revisions that Thoreau makes are, of course, important to pay attention to, but it is the effects of those edits that we, as observers of Thoreau’s work and as readers of Thoreau’s work, care about most. The technical and structural changes that Thoreau carries out in this chapter ultimately makes it a more philosophical and logically organized part of Walden, solidifying to us the importance of the long-eared, red-bellied field mouse and the meaning he brings into the world just by existing.
In the making of this Blog Post, TEI file, and presentation, we faced many challenges. Having a smaller work made the workload a little harder to handle than perhaps was normal, so we had to split the work in such a way that we knew we could each handle what we were doing. Applying the lessons and other practice we learned in class, additionally, was a bit of a challenge and learning curve too. Despite these challenges, Haley and I enjoyed the process of learning Thoreau & Walden through a new angle.
