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You said “for the demise of western literature...” I said nothing about the demise of western literature (although it probably could be argued), but the culture has certainly taken a turn for the worse, overall.

“Tom Sawyer” and “Huck Finn” did not “advance progressive notions about blacks and journeys and escapes into freedom”!! Mark Twain was writing about the life he’d lived and the world he knew and commenting more on general hypocrisy and small-mindedness in general. He would have a heyday with your ridiculous assertions about his works.

“Innocents Abroad” was as funny back then as it is today if you have traveled in Europe (I read it while spending 3 months there with an aunt and laughed myself to tears over it). The churches over there which have collections of skulls and remains and which, after seeing dozens alike prompted his comment, “is he ah, is he dead?” to the poor guide who didn’t get the sarcasm is just being funny, not commenting on mores for heaven’s sake. And the churches still (or as of 1987 did) have them and after seeing dozens you are inclined to laugh. It is not a social comment, just a release of tension while under the stress of travel.

That quote of yours, from a newspaper (which Twain, by the by, didn’t have the greatest opinions of having worked for them) hardly represents anything other than a cranks opinion. I can find you a dozen like that tomorrow if I would look in whatever newspaper is still publishing today.

You said:
“Here, self-sacrifice, embracing your fellow man (and the logic by extension is your fellow woman) is considered a mark of manliness. In other words, treating others as your equal, is, in 1885 America, a mark of manliness.

The logic is NOT by extension your fellow woman and the author of that bit you quoted would not agree with you either, not one iota I am more than willing to bet.
A mark of manliness is “manliness” not womanliness. All your saying they are equal does not make it so and never will.
In 1885 as you might point out, most American men did not consider many people in the world, women among them, as their equals, sorry but true. Women were not lesser but they were not equals to men. They are different.

Any man back then would have some ripe words for you twisting their words and meaning as you do and I’d enjoy listening to him speak about it.

And hey, I’m a half-black woman who in those men’s eyes had a certain place back then that I wouldn’t have liked I admit. But the past it what it was and just because it wasn’t always nice by our standards doesn’t mean it is without merit.

Your post is so riddled with illogical statements, I can't begin to respond. Citing the fact that you are half black, as though that had one whiff of impact on the validity of your argument, doesn't-it doesn't add to or detract from any statement of fact made as an effort to establish a proposition. Huck Finn did not advance notions about blacks? C'mon the majority of newspapers of the day were horrified by the progressive ideas posited in Huck Finn. Whether Twain himself regarded newspapers well is besides the point. The point goes back to your original assertion that writings in that day and age were not, in essence, progressive. They were, "manly" and not open to females, for instance, and to the notion of female suffrage. But you are not right on that. You suggested that over a hundred years ago manly men were in control and were decisevely not progressive about women.

Let's let Mr. Twain speak for himself about the certainty of your position, as he, himself, was if anything not certain, in flux, and, progressive as I contended:

SUFFRAGE (Women's right to vote) Over the years, Mark Twain changes his mind about female suffrage: I think I could write a pretty strong argument in favor of female suffrage, but I do not want to do it. I never want to see the women voting, and gabbling about politics, and electioneering. There is something revolting in the thought. It would shock me inexpressibly for an angel to come down from above and ask me to take a drink with him (though I should doubtless consent); but it would shock me still more to see one of our blessed earthly angels peddling election tickets among a mob of shabby scoundrels she never saw before. - Letter to St. Louis Missouri Democrat, March 1867 Women, go your ways! Seek not to beguile us of our imperial privileges. Content yourself with your little feminine trifles -- your babies, your benevolent societies and your knitting--and let your natural bosses do the voting. Stand back -- you will be wanting to go to war next. We will let you teach school as much as you want to, and we will pay you half wages for it, too, but beware! we don't want you to crowd us too much. - Letter to St. Louis Missouri Democrat, March 1867 Our marvelous latter-day statesmanship has invented universal suffrage. That is the finest feather in our cap. All that we require of a voter is that he shall be forked, wear pantaloons instead of petticoats, and bear a more or less humorous resemblance to the reported image of God. He need not know anything whatever; he may be wholly useless and a cumberer of the earth; he may even be known to be a consummate scoundrel. No matter. While he can steer clear of the penitentiary his vote is as weighty as the vote of a president, a bishop, a college professor, a merchant prince. We brag of our universal, unrestricted suffrage; but we are shams after all, for we restrict when we come to the women. - "Universal Suffrage" speech delivered to the Monday Evening Club about 1875. Reprinted in Mark Twain: A Biography, edited by A. B. Paine At home, a standing argument against woman suffrage has always been that women could not go to the polls without being insulted. The arguments against woman suffrage have always taken the easy form of prophecy. The prophets have been prophesying ever since the woman's rights movement began in 1848 -- and in forty-seven years they have never scored a hit. - Following the Equator I know that since the women started out on their crusade they have scored in every project they undertook against unjust laws. I would like to see them help make the laws and those who are to enforce them. I would like to see the whiplash in women's hands. - quoted in The New York Times, January 21, 1901

Mary, It's always best to go to the source, don't you think? V's wife. Good night.