Reflecting on Studies in Mark Twain

Close enough.

    The semester has come to an end and in lieu of a discussion of the last work we read for the class (in which Adam is kind of an ass who regards Eve and the rest of Gods creations for a cold scientific perspective, which is a comment on the dangers of looking at the world through a purely scientific perspective) I’d like to reflect on the class as a whole as this class was my first experience with a significant portion of Twain’s works. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve read the works of Samuel Clemens before. I read Huck Finn in a previous class and I saw a horrid film adaptation of the Mysterious Stranger back in high school. However, the breadth of Mark Twain’s works is a fact of which I was unaware. I now believe Earnest Hemingway’s assertion that American literature starts with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is disingenuous at best.

    Before taking this class I was unfamiliar with his non-fiction works like the literary reviews that make me want him to come back to life and be a film critic, his travel writings that satirize American viewpoints, and his endless litany of quotes humorous quotes that get me simultaneously laughing and thinking. I found myself in an odd position in this class as I have come to like his non-fiction writing better than his fictional stories. This position is odd because his fiction is what everyone knows. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are American legends, Connecticut Yankee has spawned an entire sub-genre of time travel stories, and Puddin Head Wilson was an attack on the American perception of race. They are all important and all great works of literature, so why do I like his non-fiction better. It’s simple; I think Mark Twain the observer of humanity is much more interesting than Mark Twain the author.

    I know his keen eye is what makes his novels so great and pervasive but his non-fiction works are more engaging to me because I feel like I am communicating directly with the author. When I read his literary criticism of Fenimore Cooper’s work I find myself fascinated by how his mind works and I feel like I’ve gotten a glimpse of how he sees the world. With his travel writings I literally get his worldview. His confrontation with the sublime, when he looked upon the Sphinx, is a moment that sticks with me more so than anything I read in his stories. His experience getting a shave in a French barbershop is hilarious to read. The mindset he adopts when discussing the atrocities committed by the settlers of Australia got my blood boiling while illuminating the popular mindset of the time. Also, his experience in the civil war that led to him and his fellow soldiers shooting and killing someone whom he was never able to identify is a haunting thought.

    I find this position odd because I find it difficult to articulate why I like one over the other in any concrete sense. Both his non-fiction and fiction writings, mostly, have the same elements. His sense of humor, penetrating observations, and captivating wit (wit is not the same thing as humor) are on full display in both lines of work. I just connect more, on an emotional level, with his non-fiction writing.

    Overall, I have enjoyed this class. I learned more about both Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens than I ever thought possible. The adventures that the author had throughout his life are astounding, heartwarming, and gut-wrenching all at once. Twain was a great writer and I can see his stories being studied for many more years to come.

Made it into Grad School!