Posted on 08/18/2019 4:25:35 PM PDT by poconopundit
Edited on 08/18/2019 5:00:24 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Mark Twain is known as a "great American author", but not enough Americans have firsthand knowledge of his best work.
In this vanity, I hope to interest you in rediscovering this witty social critic and humorist.
I'm probably like you: I read a bit of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn in grade school. At the time, those American-slang "classics" didn't thrill me, and maybe it's because those books were not written for kids anyway.
Twain wrote for readers who have a few decades of life experiences behind them. And when he did speak through the voice of a child (or animal), Twain was usually poking fun at — or deftly critiquing — adult stupidity, lies, prejudices, pride, and mischief.
A few months back I fell in love with many of Twains short stories. And I believe this is where his best treasures lie.
What got me hooked was a terrific audio CD compilation I found at my local library: a 7-hour audio CD series entitled, The Mark Twain Audio Collection (Harper Collins).
Now working as a tech industry pundit, Twain's humor and storytelling style give me great lessons in plain English talk and keeping reader engaged. |
So being a fan of both Twain and Trump, it's natural for me to notice parallels in the two men's lives and skillsets. So I'm now going to highlight a few of those parallels in six categories:
NOTE: There's a lot to read here — and I've also furnished links to one-page samples of Twain's work. So I suggest you bookmark his page. Or, you can always find this story indexed in my FR profile.
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In my Navy days aboard a destroyer, when we arrived outside a port like Hong Kong or Kaohsiung, Taiwan, a boat would come alongside and drop off a pilot.
The job of a nautical pilot is to steer a ship through the dangerous waters of an inner harbor. Now a pilot may not know much English, but what the pilot does know — backwards, forwards, and sideways — is every peculiarity and hazard in the harbor. And by custom, not even the captain of the ship can meddle with the pilot's steering commands inside that harbor.
Mark Twain famously became a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. After studying under an expert pilot for a few years, he served as a full pilot for two years till the Civil War arrived which brought steamboat commerce on the River to a near standstill.
But though his years as a pilot were short, the risk-bearing responsibility and burden of learning the Great River — and keeping abreast of its constant physical changes — strongly molded Twain's character. It made him utterly confident in his own abilities.
Some of the best parts of Life on the Mississippi are when Twain talks about the challenges of piloting:
You must know them so accurately that you can instantly name the one you are abreast of when you are set down at random in that street in the middle of an inky black night. If you can do that, then you have a tolerable notion of the amount and exactness of a pilot's knowledge who carries the Mississippi River in his head.
And then, if you will go on until you know every street crossing, the character, size, and position of the crossing-stones, and the varying depth of mud in each of those numberless places, you will have some idea of what the pilot must know in order to keep a Mississippi steamer out of trouble.
Next, if you will take half of the signs in that long street, and change their places once a month, and still manage to know their new positions accurately on dark nights, and keep up with these repeated changes without making any mistakes, you will understand what is required of a pilot's peerless memory by the fickle Mississippi." |
The meticulous nature of steamboat piloting and being constantly mindful of the risks to the safety of passengers: that sounds a lot like the vigilance and smarts a builder and financer of skyscrapers must have.
During the 2016 campaign, I chuckled whenever someone at CNN would say, "Trump is not really qualified to be President of the United States." Hogwash. No man has ever been better prepared for the Office than Donald J. Trump. Throughout his entire career, Trump dealt with clever bankers, corrupt politicians, shady contractors, demanding customers, and people of many cultures.
What's more, Donald J. Trump, as a businessman, carries on his back today the tremendous responsibility of safety to the people living and working in his buildings. To succeed for decades at that job requires a high degree of mindfulness and managerial talent that very few men possess.
A good President isn't measured by the number of bills signed or foreign dignitaries met. He's measured like a pilot is -- on results, on the safe passage of passengers, and on steering clear of sunken wrecks that if carelessly run over could tear a steamboat to pieces.
Now a pilot's never-ending alertness to danger often has a long range influence on the way he sees the world.
In Chapter 9 of Life on the Mississippi, Twain explains how becoming a skillful pilot caused him to no longer notice the great splendor of the River he enjoyed as a youth.
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Donald J. Trump is a Class A Entrepreneur. He parlayed a million dollar loan from his Dad to build a multi-billion dollar private company. Though Trump struggled mightily to save his company in the recession of the early 90's, he made a spectacular comeback — to the point where his Organization today is financially solid and self-funded, and thus not controlled by banks, venture capitalists, or Wall Street.
Leveraging that financial self-reliance, Trump built his American dream. With great pride in workmanship, he led his Organization to pioneer its future. How? . . . by working hard and constantly tinkering with business ideas to discover what works and what creates new value — then putting those winning ideas into practice.
Trump explained his mission in what I call his Farewell to Real Estate speech, given at the October 2016 opening of Trump International Hotel in Washington:
This [Old Post Office] building is a historic landmark, a true American original. It had all the ingredients of greatness, but it had been neglected and left to deteriorate for many, many decades. It sat there so beautiful and was left to deteriorate for many, many decades.
It had the foundation of success: all of the elements were here. Our job was to restore its former glory, honor its heritage, but also to imagine a brand new and exciting vision for the future. To create a new place for people and families to come together and a magnificent place at that." |
Mark Twained loved the independent life he carved out for himself via lectures and book sales, but he was not financially savvy. In particular, he went heavily in depth investing in a new typesetting machine that never became a commercial success.
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The new media Donald J. Trump pioneered as entrepreneur, politician, and President is pretty extraordinary:
Media was limited in Twain's day: movies, television, and radio hadn't been invented yet. But he made blazed new trails with the media outlets available to him:
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In his 2017 Inaugural Address, President Trump courageously told the truth, that our Nation's government is a fraud:
And every day since, President Trump has tirelessly told the truth about dishonest Fake News, traitorous witch hunts, violence and fraud on our Southern Border, and globalist policies that harm America's interests.
President Trump has is a one-man wrecking ball to Political Correctness: a key element of his strategy is simply exposing the Truth that politicians, special interest groups, and crony capitalists have been been hiding for their own benefit.
Fortunately he's an Equal Opportunity Critic and Cheerleader. It doesn't matter what your race, gender, religion or politics are, if you're doing something good for America, you'll hear words of praise. If you're out to drag America down, you'll hear some pushback.
Twain was also a friend of Truth. Reading Life on the Mississippi you get exactly what the book title advertises: an interesting discussion of the customs, attitudes, commerce, and ways of the people who lived along the Mississippi River in the 1800s.
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As a rule, Twain doesn't tell the unvarnished truth to his readers directly, but lets his characters reveal it through their actions. However, one great exception to this practice is a passage in his Autobiography entitled, The Character of Man. Interestingly, Twain had his Autobiography published only after his death, enabling him to pour out his true feelings in that text.
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Perhaps America has never produced a more skillful "publicity hound" than Donald J. Trump. In fact, his masterful ability to get press as a New York real estate mogul eventually allowed Trump to diversity into new trades: best selling book writer/publisher, golf courses, licensing the Trump name on commercial properties, The Apprentice TV show, and more.
Of course, the billions of dollars in free publicity he earned during the 2016 Presidential campaign and continues to earn today as President is amazing.
Publicity also played a big role in Mark Twain's career. After the Civil War when his steamboat pilot days were over, Mark Twain traveled West and briefly held a job as a newspaper reporter in San Francisco (1864). Though he came to hate the druggery of city reporter work, that experience led him to break new ground as a writer of humorous stories.
Visiting a California Gold Rush town called Angel Camp, he conceived the outrageous tale of a country bumpkin who loved betting on animal contests: horse races, dog fights, and frog jumping bouts. He submitted the story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County to an editor in New York. When published, it became a sensation, paving the way for new opportunities.
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Next, Twain got an reporter's assignment to visit the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) and write a series of stories about the Islands, its culture and people. And this experience enabled Twain to become a national lecturer.
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One of President Trump's key goals has been to been to root out injustice. Chief among his concerns is to get Washington leaders to stop lining their own pockets and start caring about We the People.
From the beginning, he's worked closely with law enforcement to break up criminal gangs like MS-13. He's now in a terrific fight against the Mexican cartels who commit an estimated 150,000 murders at our Southern Border each year.
President Trump continues to call out politicians for their corruption and foolish polities that do grave injustice to small business and private job creation, especially the inner cities.
Mark Twain also had a strong mind to fight injustice, and he fought using his skill as a writer to put a spotlight on humanity's corruption and sins.
He lived through a period of American history when slavery was an accepted social custom. And after the Civil War, Twain wrote a short story titled, A True Story, Word for Word as I Heard It.
The story is a moving first-person account by a former black slave woman who was outwardly cheerful, but harbored a deep sense of injustice when her young son was taken away from her, and sold to another family.
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Another powerful story about injustice is A Dog's Tale. What's special here is the story is told through the voice of the dog who narrates about life.
Incidentally, Twain was a big fan of cats and once wrote: "When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade without further introduction."
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Sorry the text of this vanity is large. The preview looked OK.
Read the text on this link:
http://freeper.org/fr/mark_twain/master_pilots.htm
Or should can adjust the font size of your browser window with Ctrl -, Ctrl +, and Ctrl 0
Hope you like this piece.
Entertaining piece, but very difficult to read, as one column is Trump, the other Twain. A reduction in font size or separating the two articles would help, but that kinda defeats the purpose of the comparison.
Face it, you can’t please everyone, so thanks for the info, I learned a couple of things
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_from_the_Earth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Prayer
The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut
Thanks.
Thanks.
L
Terrific work. Thank you very much. BUMP!
Or should can adjust the font size of your browser window with Ctrl -, Ctrl +, and Ctrl 0
= = =
Well, a couple of days ago I pressed something like ctrl or alt Down arrow
EEK
My screen was upside down!
It was fresh in my memory, so I reversed and got thing back to ‘normal.’
Lesson is — Be Careful using the Computer Dialect.
I read Life on the Mississippi as a kid.
The part about learning the river as the streets of New York, and changing them monthly.
I recall that to this day, although I have not read that book in over 50 years.
Thank you, Kiryandil. I will find and read your suggestions. Great.
Forgive me, Scrambler. The moderator fixed the initial font problem and now it looks much better. The link where the story is on a separate URL shows the story in its most readable form:
http://freeper.org/fr/mark_twain/master_pilots.htm
The part about learning the river as the streets of New York, and changing them monthly.
* * *
I suppose the nearest to a pilot’s knowledge we can find is in the medical profession, where a doctor has a vast amount of material to absorb and keep up with.
And now, with the Internet, there are not many situations where we can’t quickly pick things up.
Nice to hear from another Twain fan.
Don, read the version posted on my separate URL. It should be easier to read and jumping back and forth from Trump to Twain shouldn’t be too bad.
Maybe I should have put the Trump material in a different color. What do you think. I can still change that on my own URL.
Cheers
The HTML was tricky since FR uses pure HTML and allows no CSS styling. So you can't simply <float> an image to the left or right of some text. What I did was create a two column <table> then stuck the text on the left column <td>, and image in the right <td>.
The whole story is organized as one one long <table> with each section being a row or <tr> with two cells or <td>'s, one for each column in the section.
Look at the source code of the webpage to see how this was done.
To make writing and editing easier, I made changes in the free Notepad+++ text reader, then ran the HTML in a separate window. So my computer screen had the webpage on the left and the code to modify on the right.
Another tip: I highlighted each section with comment tags such as: <!--- American Entrepreneur -> to make it easier to navigate the long text.
You have done a great piece of work here! So far I’ve scanned, but also saved for in-depth reading. I recently mailed a letter to the White House to tell President Trump about the great similarity in character between him and the main character of the book “The Navigator” by the late Morris West, one of my favorite authors. I have it in an original hard version and sent my letter with a color copy of the dust cover. The book is all about perseverance and leadership amid a maddening group of troublesome fellow shipwreck mates. Sound familiar? I hope you send your fabulous Mark Twain study to the President, too.
Thanks, Bravada. That’s a good idea. Maybe I’ll do the same.
Good stuff. You have a real talent!
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