Hippies, Hindus, and Trancendentalists
The title I have chosen for a discussion of Emerson's essay, The Transcendentalist, comes from a similar title by Bob Larsen: Hippies, Hindus and Rock and Roll. In his book, Larsen tries to set up nefarious connections between the occultic and pagan world of deepest darkest Africa and India. His thesis is that because rock and roll has a connection to these cultures of paganism it participates in their demonic underpinnings. The reason I chose to parody his title is not only to get some secret revenge on Larsen, who is so obviously racist and simplistic, but also because