Item #: SCP-3846
Level 2/3846

Object Class: Euclid
Classified

Walden Pond, Circa 1908.

Special Containment Procedures: Foundation operatives planted in distribution and reception facilities for literature in the state of Massachusetts are to examine all copies of Walden and contain SCP-3846 prior to shelving, preferably through the discreet removal of pages containing SCP-3846. Agents exposed to SCP-3846 in this manner are to keep a dream journal for a period of six months, or until dreams caused by SCP-3846 stop occurring for at least two weeks.

Description: SCP-3846 consists of three pages of anomalous text appearing in approximately half of all editions of Henry David Thoreau's Walden1 that are sold within the Massachusetts Bay Area, including Boston, Salem, Lexington, Concord, and the gift shop at the Walden Pond Visitor's Center. SCP-3846 typically appears as a foreword or afterword, but has also taken the form of a note from the publisher.

The content of SCP-3846 is critical of the life and work of Henry David Thoreau, and appears to be written by an individual or individuals that knew of intimate details of their life not present in historical documents. The exact phrasing of SCP-3846 varies, but it is identifiable by the inclusion of the following portion:

Hypocrite, hack, inspiration, saint, visionary, abolitionist, misanthrope, overrated, simple-minded, and several other phrases have been used to describe Thoreau and his work. The damage he has done to Walden Pond is immeasurable. I aim to correct that.

Individuals who read SCP-3846 will have dreams depicting scenes and actions related to Thoreau, as viewed from an exterior perspective. These scenes and actions do not necessarily correspond to Thoreau's actual life experience, and seem to be largely allegorical or metaphorical.

Excerpts of the dream journal of oneirologist William Applegate, who voluntarily exposed themselves to SCP-3846, follow:

Show Dream Journal Excerpts

– hide block

Thoreau is tending to his bean field by the side of Walden Pond.2 Several beans are blown off their stalks float into the lake.3 These beans germinate upon the water and proceed to cause the Pond to shrink.

Thoreau is in his mother's house, while she does his laundry. A common point of criticism to show how Thoreau was a hypocrite. Several cameras (think 1940s style, Kodaks with large flash bulbs) are outside his window, taking photographs, like an anachronistic paparazzi.

Thoreau is watching as Concord Woods burn.4 He bears no remorse on his face. A bolt of lightning comes from his finger, and another fire ignites.5 Walden Pond shrinks again.

Walden Pond is enclosed by Concord on all sides. Thoreau writes. The city shrinks. As does the Pond. But the city is still there, just out of sight. The Pond is hardly even a pond now, more a puddle.

Thoreau is writing his passage on Solitude within his cabin. Even as he does so, someone cooks dinner for him. Men and women swim in the Pond outside, paradoxically. They seem to drown in a pool they can barely dip their toes into.

People read Walden. The Pond shrinks to the size of a molecule. People come to see it, expecting untamed wilderness, and find a train passing through, ants swimming in the molecule. They are disappointed. Repeat ad nauseum, exit through the gift shop. Books are bought, books gather dust. There is chewing gum stuck to Thoreau's palm.

Darkness. Then, a voice: "He fancied me an Ocean, I was a Lake called a Pond, and now I am scarcely a Drop in the eyes of Humanity."

Despite being known to the Foundation for over fifty years, there have been fewer than sixty reported instances of SCP-3846. Foundation scholars believe that this is due to the fact that, despite the fact that several thousand copies of Walden are sold in the Massachusetts Bay area each year, less than 1% of them are ever read.

Footnotes

1. Published in 1854, Walden is a work of transcendentalist literature recounting Thoreau's experiences during a twenty-six month long stay at Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Walden also acts as a meditation on civilization, nature, and solitude.

2. Thoreau's bean field was actually some distance north of the pond; this dream portrays it as being by the lakeside.

3. Despite its name, Walden Pond is actually a small lake, with a shoreline of approximately 2.7km.

4. In 1844, a campfire set by Thoreau and some companions on a fishing trip led to a large forest fire in Concord Woods. It is speculated that this incident inspired the writing of Walden.

5. Believed to be a reference to a passage in Thoreau's journal regarding the fire, where he states: "I have set fire to the forest, but I have done no wrong therein, and now it is as if the lightning had done it."