“One writer says that Brown's peculiar monomania made him to be ‘dreaded by the Missourians as a supernatural being.’ Sure enough, a hero in the midst of us cowards is always so dreaded. He is just that thing. He shows himself superior to nature. He has a spark of divinity in him. They talk as if it were impossible that a man could be ‘divinely appointed’ in these days to do any work whatever; as if vows and religion were out of date as connected with any man's daily work; as if the agent to abolish slavery could only be somebody appointed by the President, or by some political party. They talk as if a man's death were a failure, and his continued life, be it of whatever character, were a success.”
—H.D. Thoreau, “A Plea For Captain John Brown,” 1859.
Cabin is the new season from The Relentless Picnic. It's one story told over multiple episodes. It's a story about solitude and isolation, community and loss, Henry David Thoreau and Ted Kaczynski—and it's told through audio recorded throughout 2019 and 2020.
Support us at patreon.com/relentlesspicnic for access to a ton of bonus content.
Our web site is relentlesspicnic.com
SOURCES (Ep. 4):
- “A Plea for Captain John Brown,” by H.D. Thoreau (1859): bit.ly/2CPiMHT ;
- Walden; or, Life in the Woods, by H.D. Thoreau (1854): bit.ly/3jS0Woq ;
- Videos and resources on John Brown, the raid on Harpers Ferry, and its aftermath: youtu.be/EG4ukrMtdNs , youtu.be/bB_kbFAui-U , youtu.be/LPyqE2zpQCg , youtu.be/Ax7KjLUOt8w , youtu.be/roNmeOOJCDY , youtu.be/q-E-ffXl2Uk , youtu.be/MILN_17KH6M , youtu.be/dmyswQs6_Bw .
- Henry David Thoreau: A Life, by Laura Dassow Walls (2018): amzn.to/2B22qdw ;
- “Civil Disobedience,” by H.D. Thoreau (1849): bit.ly/2OYTQjz ;
- Westward, I Go Free: Tracing Thoreau’s Last Journey, by Corinne Smith: amzn.to/2OUyYKi ; corinnehsmith.com ; thoreausociety.org ;
- Thoreau’s letter to Parker Pillsbury, April 10 1861: bit.ly/2WVVdEg [“Blessed are they who never read a newspaper, for they shall see Nature, and through her, God. But alas I have heard of Sumpter, & Pickens, & even of Buchanan, (though I did not read his message)”] ;
- Thoreau’s journals, 1860-61: bit.ly/2WXHUmI ;
- “The Wreckage,” The Relentless Picnic, ep. 27: bit.ly/2By6Md7 ;
- Joanna Newsom, “Does Not Suffice” (youtu.be/FkjkT-ohCpQ) & “Good Intentions Paving Company” (youtu.be/KCCl3nzL5PI) ;
- Don DeLillo, Mao II (1991): amzn.to/30VqmJc ;
- The Unabomber In His Own Words (2018), documentary on Netflix: bit.ly/2DbHkuh ;
- season photo: "Untitled #2214" by Todd Hido, 1998.
