President Trump & Mark Twain: Master Pilots on America's Great River

Free Republic ^ | 8/18/2019 | PoconoPundit

[kanawa]

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[Bob Ireland]

Wow! ...and thanks, mod.

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[LucyT]

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PING

President Trump & Mark Twain: Master Pilots on America's Great River
Free Republic ^ | 8/18/2019 | PoconoPundit

Thank you, poconopundit.

[nathanbedford]

My compliments to you on a thoroughly good job presenting a new perspective of Donald Trump as seen through examination of Mark Twain.

My experience as a youth reading Huckleberry Finn, however, differed greatly from yours:

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.

Unlike your experience, I was utterly "thrilled" by Huckleberry Finn as a prepubescent kid when I read it several times. I've picked it up again many times and and I am unfailingly thrilled again as a grown man. I disagree with you, it is indeed a brilliant kids' book that every boy who fidgets in the constraints of school can immediately identify with. But, as you say, it is also in adults' book. That is the genius of the book, it forces us to a new vision of our world by making us see the world through the eyes of a boy, a technique not unlike that used by science fiction writers who create a new paradigm to expose old myths. Mark Twain was so brilliant that he could write a book for two very different audiences yet captivate each. In doing so, Mark Twain tackled the most important issue in American history.

Life on the Mississippi is an evocative book of an age gone by, brilliantly, nostalgically, realistically written but it simply does not soar to the level of the Great American novel as does Huckleberry Finn

From a 13-year-old reply of mine:

… a masterpiece of American letters. Huckleberry Finn is arguably the greatest American novel ever written.

The irony of all this is that Mark Twain in this uniquely American work has undertaken seriously and sensitively to deal with the unique American original sin. As I have observed in my about page, the sin of slavery and, after the war, the sin of racism was in effect papered over in the Declaration of Independence and compromised away in the Constitution. Mark Twain deals with this uniquely American history in a uniquely American book, written in the uniquely American idiom. [That is why I also take issue with your description of Huckleberry Finn as a book of "American-slang." The use of the American idiom is absolutely critical to the fundamental historic question that has challenged the American ethos to this very day]. That idiom, to be truly American, requires the use in that context of the word nigger. Moreover, both plot and character developement - which is the awakening of tolerance personified in Huck Finn-require the sensitive use of the word. If Huckleberry Finn were not a bigot to begin with, he would have no need to be edified. Both he and America would have learned nothing.

No one who boasts of any acquaintanceship whatever with American letters can have failed to have read, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Chapter 31 of the novel makes the ultimate argument against slavery and against racism, done in the American idiom, and sent in time and place. It is the essence of the novel and it is the essence of America's moral struggle:

Miss Watson your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville and Mr. Phelps has got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send.

HUCK FINN

I'd see him standing my watch on top of his'n, stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him agin in the swamp, up there where the feud was; and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me, and do everything he could think of for me, and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had smallpox aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one he's got now; and then I happened to look around, and see that paper.

It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:

"All right, then, I'll go to hell"- and tore it up.

It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved the whole thing out of my head; and said I would take up wickedness again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other warn't. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as well go the whole hog.

As to comparisons of Twain to Trump, I would simply observe that Twain was at heart certainly no conservative, at best he might be described a modern day libertarian. Probably he might in some respect be likened to the curmudgeonly Baltimore columnist, HL Mencken. This from a reply in 2015:

Twain was certainly an iconoclast and rebel his entire life.

He was a deserter from service in the Confederate militia in the Civil War and fled to the far West. Even his earliest writings reflect an ability to see the mirror image of life. I think Twain was, as he suggests, a pessimist. Certainly, personal tragedies such as the death of his child deepened his darkest perceptions.

If one looks at Huckleberry Finn which is a searing indictment of slavery, its brilliance lies partly in the fact that Twain works his magic by writing the mirror image of his intended result. For example, Huck Finn's decision that he will commit a mortal sin and go to hell by being a friend to "Nigger Jim" leaves the reader to reverse the logic and in doing so penetrate the veil of rationalization which had sustained slavery and Jim Crow.

Huckleberry Finn is perhaps the great American novel as Hemmingway said (I agree) because Twain makes the reader really part of the process of grappling with America's original sin but he gives the devil every advantage yet still succeeds in making all of us believers.

The irony of modern race baiters agitating to remove Huckleberry Finn from libraries because it contains the word "Nigger" is very sad.

A final personal word, on an early visit to Germany I was kindly put up by a German family overnight in their spare attic bedroom where I came across A Tramp Abroad and found the essay The Awful German Language which set me howling with laughter because I was then in the throes of trying to master that awful, fascinating language. Later, I discovered that there was a recording rendered by a German and free for the listening under the Gutenberg Press website but decided that an American version of "American-slang" was the way an essay about an American amusingly stepping all over himself trying to master a difficult language, while at the same time shifting all of the blame from himself onto the language itself, deserved an attempt by an American so I recorded it.

The Awful German Language offers another reversal, a writing technique of which Twain was an absolute master. The entire theme of Huckleberry Finn culminates in the reversal in the mind of Huckleberry Finn as quoted above.

[21twelve]

“The irony of modern race baiters agitating to remove Huckleberry Finn from libraries because it contains the word “Nigger” is very sad.”

Yep - makes me wonder if they ever read the book. Two friends, willing to do what it took for each other, regardless of the consequences, and regardless of the color of their skin. And - just a really fun book full of adventure!

I read it twice to my son when he was a child, just starting to read. When we got to the word nigger I told him that was a word used back then - but today it is considered a bad word. So we could either use it knowing that, or replace it with another word.

I think he decided that we should use “slave” instead.

[trebb]

Master pilots is correct....
“Twain” literally means “two.” As a riverboat pilot, Clemens would have heard the term, “Mark Twain,” which means “two fathoms,” on a regular basis. According to the UC Berkeley Library, Clemens first used this pseudonym in 1863, when he was working as a newspaper reporter in Nevada, long after his riverboat days.

[moovova]

Bookmarked AND saved! Thank you.

[poconopundit]

Thanks, trebb. I also recall a passage (somewhere?) that someone else used the name before, so he acknowledged that in his writings.

In Life on the Mississippi, Chapter 7, there's a story about how Horace Bixby, the master pilot who trained Mark Twain, and his skill in crossing a reef.

The leadsmen (men dropping a lead line into the water to measure the depth) call out their readings:

'M-a-r-k three!... M-a-r-k three!... Quarter-less three!... Half twain!... Quarter twain!... M-a-r-k twain!... Quarter-less—'

[poconopundit]

Wonderful, nathan. You've convinced me I've got to get back into Huck Finn.  I have H.L. Mencken's Smart Set Criticism at home, and reading it just now he says that Huck Finn improves as you read again and again.

I also ran across Tramp Abroad on audio at my local library and enjoyed hearing about Twain's adventures in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and so forth.

Great to hear both your scholarly and teenage-reader impressions of Twain.

[GOPJ]

You've captured why Trump is loved by the common people... insightful piece pundit.

When I watched the McCain funeral it showcased the elitist shallowness of Washington DC... the opposite of the Trump effect... Out-of-touch elites showing up in their finery for McCain, ensconced in a cold elegant cathedral clutching speeches written by others... But there were no citizens lining the streets - no one saying their good byes as the hearse drove by - - either in Arizona or DC...

When Trump dies ‘the elites’ and their speech writers will be absent but the people will line every street with love and respect and sorrow.

Mark Twain's funeral was a celebration of his life by people from all walks of life:

http://www.twainquotes.com/19100424a.html

When the people had been filing past only a few minutes it could be seen that almost every nationality was represented. There were several negroes. Jervis Langdon, who was standing near the head of the coffin, was much interested in one of the persons who passed him. He said that the man looked the very picture of tramphood, but his bearing was easy, and he seemed to be unconscious of his tattered clothes, stopping for along look at he face of Mark Twain. Mr. Paine also saw him, and said he was probably some one who had seen better days, in which he had read Mark Twain and conceived a liking for his work. All religions were represented. Some of those who passed crossed themselves as they did so.

[poconopundit]

Thanks for a nice comparison, GOPJ.

Certain people in history have moved people with their character and ability to relate to the common man. Churchill, Ghandi, Twain, Trump, Pope John Paul.

We are so fortunate to have this man at this critical hour in our Republic.

[poconopundit]

Bravada, did you ever hear back from the White House for your letter?

I’ll note that when I was a young boy of 10 years old, I memorized Kennedy’s Inaugural Address and my Dad would have me recite it when folks would come to visit.

We had a summer apartment attached to our house on Cape Cod, and one time we a Secret Service agent assigned to the President staying with his family at that apartment.

I gave the address to him and about 4 weeks later, he had mailed a beautiful poster for the address and a personal typed letter signed by Jackie Kennedy.

My Mom and Dad had that suitably framed. And it’s since been lost. But at that time I was well aware that good Public Relations was being done in the White House.

[poconopundit]

Hey EveningStar. Another one for your collection...

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

(Very) belated pingout.

I have a confession of bias.

My personal experience in trying to get something formatted just so for presentation goes back to my Fortran days, simply trying to get the calculated result to display with the proper number of significant digits. I remember being infuriated one day that the displayed result simply would not come out the way I thought my code “guaranteed” that it would. A situation made even more annoying when my boss made a patronizing remark about what I was doing.

But that was just one instance: I found that kind of issue to be the general case. I could conceive of a useful program to analyze a certain kind of data, and within a week I would probably have the technical details coded so that it would always give the required results. But it would take longer than that to get the I/O working right. In the general case

Likewise on FR. Without even thinking of using fancy graphics, it can readily take more time getting spellings right - and editing the text to say (hopefully with some precision) what I mean - than it does to compose my thoughts. Using cut and paste is a wonderful time saver, but so often in using it I can come out needing to change the number or tense of some word, or eliminate a stray negation of my entire point.

From that perspective - and considering that newspapers, and especially TV, are all about great production values - I have a bias against great presentation values. If you spent the time to create great production values, how much time could you possibly have spent, you know, actually thinking about the point you’re making?

poconopundit seems to provide a strong counterexample to that prejudice on my part.

Bookmark and ping for a great post with edifying links well worth the clicking.

[poconopundit]

Thanks for the compliment, conservatism.

This post is the trickiest one I've ever posted on FR.   When I first posted it, I had to quickly get the Moderator to repost it with a code fix because it didn't display properly.

Things would be easier if we could use in-line CSS styling and javascripts on FR.  But it's a wise move to restrict that — given the security problems that would cause and the open nature of our forum.

I'm sure when you worked in Fortran, you learned certain undocumented "tricks" that made life easier.  That's really all it is.  Of course, the tricks are there to steal: just look at the source code and replicate it.

In my life as a self-employed tech industry analyst/journalist, I've recently been studying Javascript and I'm working on some "low tech" methods to create a more interactive page with overlay HTML divs with pictures and content.

But for that, I'll need to tease FReepers to go to a outside webpage, then come back to FR to comment on it.

One of things I'd like to do is help enable guys like yourself who want to do research and write about a particular &mdash in your case, squashing the Fake News and libelous press.

For example, my website of FR posted vanities and memes, freeper.org gives my content long lasting exposure.

The code for that website is freely available on w3Schools.com.  It's the page, How to Create a Portfolio Gallery with Filtering.

But having that code only gets you halfway there.  Because you still have to organize your photos, links, and figure out how to automate some things.

Hats off to SunkenCiv and DoughtyOne who are applying their data crunching and research skills in support of FR. ... And having fun along the way.

[rlmorel]

Good gosh, I know exactly what you are talking about.

However, I find I have less issue, because I don’t have to spend as much time with spelling and composition because I feel that organically, it just comes out right for me.

I hate spell checkers, because more often they introduce a damned error in context even if the word is spelled correctly.

And I admit...I look down my nose and sneer at products like “Grammarly”, and find myself in the less desirable situation of feeling like a snot, looking askance at people who feel they have to use it!

Sigh. I admit, I don’t like feeling like that. Some people really DO need to use those kinds of tools.

[rlmorel]

Excellent post!

I must say, in my life, I have found much humor in the way people make fun of of the sound of languages other than their native one.

I think every single person, in every single culture finds to one degree or another, humor in this.

I know a guy who does a drop dead Indian accent that has people falling on the floor (as much for the content, as the sound of it)

And there was NOBODY who could imitate (in utter phonetic gibberish) to an uninitiated ear the sound of other languages like Robin Williams! I swear I have heard him mimic with that gibberish a dozen other languages, and as an ignorant listener, could accurately identify every one of them! (Never mind the various American accents!)

But the one that tickled me more than any other and has stuck with me, is having this conversation with a German guy who confirmed the truth that all cultures do this, but his twist was:

“You know what Americans sound like to us Germans?” and followed that with a coarse, loud, abrupt “ARF ARF ARF ARF!” that made me spit my drink!

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I don’t have to spend as much time with spelling and composition because I feel that organically, it just comes out right for me.

I guess I change my mind, at least subtly, when I compose. So I do reverse course in the process of a composition. Consequently I’m green with envy of anyone who can just “let it rip” and have it come out satisfactorily.

[poconopundit]

When I;m doing an industry interview, I audiotape my phone discussion with an industry expert and their content is inevitably excellent. That’s the easy part, because I merely have to polish up the prose of already solid ideas.

The hard task is to step back and try to say something significant as a lead-in to the interview. I spend much time doing that. But it’s key because it sets the context, and gets the reader hooked into reading more.

I find synonym checking (in Word and sometimes Google) very useful. Often I’m looking for a simpler word. As a substitute for “difficult”, I might choose “tough” because it’s a more emotional word and only has one syllable.

One thing I know: regular writing and reading on FR improves your writing ability. I follow a few people here simply because I love their style of writing and thinking.