Mark Twain - Huckleberry Finn

Cover of the 1st edition

So, I finished reading Huckleberry Finn almost a week ago now, and if I'm totally honest, I still have no clue what I think about it exactly. To be clear: there are a lot of bits which I really loved, and I'm going to show some of them to you later on. Equally though, there was quite a bit of stuff that I did not enjoy at all - first and foremost the glaring use of the n-word throughout the book. So let's get right to that to have it out of the way.

Racism in Huckleberry Finn

So, I get that this book was written at a very specific point in time and that Mark Twain probably chose to include the n-word for authenticity reasons, among others ... but that didn't and doesn't make it any easier for me to read it. And that's on the one hand because I only recently saw Selma, and on the other because of reports by students such as this one:

I can still recall the anger I felt as my white classmates read aloud the word "nigger". In fact, as I write this letter I am getting angry all over again. I wanted to sink into my seat. Some of the whites snickered, others giggled. I can recall nothing of the literary merits of this work that you term "the greatest of all American novels". I only recall the sense of relief I felt when I would flip ahead a few pages and see the word "nigger" would not be read that hour. - Allen B. Ballard (Letter to the Editor, NYT, 1982)

It's just such a painful, nasty term - and encountering it in this novel which is supposed to be one of the greats obviously hurts and makes me feel uncomfortable.

So, I really had no clue how to deal with this until I found this segment of The Daily Show in which Larry Wilmore makes some truly excellent points about the use of the n-word and why it needs to stay in the book, despite attempts to have it removed:

The Daily Show
Daily Show Full Episodes,  More Daily Show Videos,  Comedy Central Full Episodes

For me, the most important point that Larry Wilmore makes (and it's almost drowned out) is this: the word is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable. I think all evidence points to the fact that Mark Twain chose to use the n-word for a reason, which was to contrast the savagery of the white people who would use it with the loyalty, intelligence and good-heartedness of Jim and other black people. This comes through most clearly in the drunken tirade of Huck's father, in which he truly reveals himself to be the mean-spirited, evil person that he is:

There was a free nigger there from Ohio - a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too .... They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. And that ain't the wust. They said he could VOTE when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin .... And to see the cool way of that nigger - why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't shoved him out o' the way. I says to the people, why ain't this nigger put up at auction and sold? - that's what I want to know. And what do you reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in the State six months. - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Ch. 6

It's ironic, isn't it? A drunk failure of a man who has no pleasure in life except to make his own son's existence miserable has the audacity to slur against another, obviously well-educated man, just because of his skin colour. It's the epitome of superficiality and only emphasises the stupidity of Huck's father.

So, even though I still feel hugely uncomfortable reading this word, I've now sort of come to terms with why it's important that it stays in the book. I suppose, in the end, it's like a mirror to the past: it shows us what we once were and what we must never return to. And with that in mind it would be wrong to cleanse the book of it and thereby change history just because it offends our sensibilities now.

With regard to Huck Finn documenting the history of slavery, there are a couple of other interesting things hidden away in the novel, such as this picture by the official illustrator of the novel:

Jim and Huck (E. W. Kemble)

What's interesting about this picture, as the people working on the Mark Twain Project have pointed out, is that it directly quotes another picture, which was used in the campaign to abolish slavery:

(c) New York Public Library

Apparently, in order to raise awareness about the evil of slavery, this image was printed onto pamphlets, stationary and even goods such as pottery. I don't know about you, but I have to admit I find stuff like that fascinating - and I'm glad there are people out there researching this, because I would've had no clue otherwise.

Superstition in Huckleberry Finn

What's also fascinating, historically speaking, are all the different superstitions that are infused into the novel: like the belief that you can cure a rattle-snake bite by drinking lots of whisky. This happens near the beginning of the book when poor Jim is bitten by one of these snakes (because of Huck's stupidity, frankly) and the first thing he does is grab a jug of whisky. He also asks Huck to cut off the dead snake's rattles and tie them around his wrists, since that is supposed to help too. There are loads of other superstitions in the novel too - about spiders and witches and hairballs, funnily enough. It's a lot of fun, really!

Regarding the thing about the snake, again with the help of the Mark Twain Project I found out that this was in all actuality the sort of advice you would get from doctors at the time:

Internally, give the patient all the Whisky he can drink. From a quart to a gallon should be drunk in six or eight hours. No fears need be entertained of making the patient drunk. You may fill him with Whisky, then let him swim in it, and it will not make him drunk, so long as the poison of the snake remains in the system. - Gunn's New Family Physician (1867).

... Let him swim in it? ... Alright ...

Selling Huckleberry Finn

There's this webpage called Mark Twain in his Times, which I absolutely adore, as it gives profound insight into the way Mark Twain lived, how he published his books, what his contemporaries thought about him, etc. One of the things it necessarily has a lot of interesting information about is the publication and promotion of Huckleberry Finn - I've picked out two interesting details for this post, but you can always go and browse around for yourself at this address.

1) Sales Prospectus Poster of 1884

(c) Clifton Waller Barrett Collection

So this was one of the posters they would use to sell the new book - I find some of the phrasing truly hilarious fascinating:

"Not a sentence of this book has ever before appeared in print in any form."

I suppose they were sad that they couldn't claim the same thing about every word ...

"This book is simply irresistible, and is pronounced by an author OF WORLD-WIDE Reputation and HIGH AUTHORITY, who has read the manuscript: 'The brightest and most humorous book that Mark Twain has ever written.'"

That's lovely but ... who IS this author you speak of? Unless ... is this Hemingway speaking from the future? >___>

2) Defacing the sales prospectus

Apparently, they had a bit of a prankster working at the printers' where the sales prospectus came into being. It was never found out who did it, but it seems that one of the illustrations that were meant to accompany the prospectus was altered in a ... let's say indecent way. It concerns the illustration of Uncle Silas near the end of the book. You can look at it here, but be careful since it's not safe for work!

Jim and Huck's friendship - or "Why I love this book"

Jim and Huck (E. W. Kemble)

And now we finally get to the part in which this post turns into somewhat of a review, at last. If you've made it this far I applaud you.

So, the most interesting part of the book for me was the relationship between Jim and Huck. A) Because it's lovely how Jim treats him almost like a son and B) because Huck's emotional and moral development with regard to Jim is fascinating. I think we all know how hard it is to go against all the rules of the society you've been brought up in, even if your gut is telling you that those rules are wrong. And that's exactly why Huck's actions are so fascinating: even though he is torn between protecting Jim and telling on him numerous times, he always chooses the right course of action in the end, going by his gut feeling instead of what he has been taught all his life - and I admire him so much for that.

Equally though, I admire Jim for his wisdom and his kindness, and the way he manages to set Huck right when he does something stupid or mean. The most memorable moment (to me) in that regard happens after Huck has decided to play a rather cruel trick on Jim, who had believed his young friend to be dead. This is what Jim says:

“[...] When I got all wore out wid work, en wid de callin’ for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos’ broke bekase you wuz los’, en I didn’ k’yer no’ mo’ what become er me en de raf’. En when I wake up en fine you back agin, all safe en soun’, de tears come, en I could a got down on my knees en kiss yo’ foot, I’s so thankful. En all you wuz thinkin’ ‘bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie. Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ‘em ashamed.” 

Then he got up slow and walked to the wigwam, and went in there without saying anything but that. But that was enough. It made me feel so mean I could almost kissed his foot to get him to take it back. - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Ch. 15

I love this passage so much. I love how confident Jim is, and how honest and straightforward - and I love how much of an effect his words have on Huck. It really shows the budding depth of their friendship - I only wish there could've been more moments like this in the book than there actually were.

So, to sum it up, how much did I enjoy this book? I think I'd give it four rafts out of five - just because I really could not stand the episodes about the two conmen, and the ending of the book was a bit of a letdown (even if it does make perfect sense psychologically speaking, as is explained in detail here). I'm sure as hell going to pick this one up again!

Links & References

Ballard, AB 1982, 'What Huck Finn Says to a Black Child', The New York Times 9 May. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/09/opinion/l-what-huck-finn-says-to-a-black-child-123132.html. [10 March 2015].

Gunn, JC 1876 Gunn’s New Family Physician: or, Home Book of Health. 100th ed. Cincinnati, New York: Moore, Wilstach and Baldwin.

Mark Twain Project Online 2015. Available from: http://www.marktwainproject.org/.

Railton, S 2012, Mark Twain in His Times. Available from: http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/index2.html.

The Daily Show 2011, Mark Twain Controversy (video file) 11 January 2011, Available from: http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/9ez59y/mark-twain-controversy.

Twain, M 1885 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Charles L Webster.

Interesting Facts about Mark Twain

After I started reading Huckleberry Finn last week, I began doing some research on the author, Mark Twain (I do that a lot ... I'm pretty much a research nerd). He was actually a really fascinating guy: he changed jobs a lot, travelled the world, and took a real interest in science - on top of being an excellent writer, of course. But that's just the tip of the iceberg! Here is some of the other stuff that I found out about him (all according to the internet, which as we all know is prone to misinformation - so beware ;)!):

So, what's in a name?

Quite a lot, apparently: his real name was actually Samuel Langhorne Clemens - Mark Twain was the pen name he gave himself which he came up with through the years he spent working on riverboats travelling up and down the Mississippi. "By the mark twain!" would be the call that the leadsmen on these boats would make when they measured the depth of the river and found it to be 2 fathoms deep or more - 2 fathoms being the minimum safe distance to the bottom in order for ships to pass through without sustaining damage. This was a process called "depth sounding", which nowadays is of course done by machines, rather than by using ropes.

Depth sounding in the 19th century (c) Wikimedia

Why "twain" though? Because it's a very old word for "two". Hence, "mark twain" really means "mark two" on the rope, which translates to 2 fathoms (= 12 ft or 3.7 m). And that's how mark twain became Mark Twain ;)!

His Birth and Death

Halley's comet (c) NASA

 

Both Mark Twain's birth and his death happened shortly after a comet known as Halley's Comet appeared in the sky over Earth. Apparently, this comet flies past our planet every 75 to 76 years, and Mark Twain felt a very special connection to it. He said the following in 1909, just one year before his death:

I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'

And then he really did die one day after the comet returned ... creepy, isn't it?

To give you the exact dates though:

Appearance of Halley’s Comet	Birth of Mark Twain
16/11/1830	30/11/1830
Appearance of Halley’s Comet	Death of Mark Twain
20/04/1910	21/04/1910

Bestselling Author

Since the first volume of his autobiography was only published in 2010 and became an immediate bestseller, he is one of the few authors who have managed to bring out bestsellers in three centuries. That's right. Three centuries. Damn impressive!

Lost in Translation

Of course, Mark Twain's works have been translated into many, many languages - but did you know that his first successful story was actually translated into classic Greek? An Oxford professor by the name of Sidgwick decided that it would make good practice for students learning to translate English into classic Greek, so he took the tale, changed the original setting to ancient Greece and translated it so that he could include it in his new textbook.

The frog that travelled the world (c) Susan Jaffe Tane

The funny thing is that when Twain discovered the translation of his own work, he was not aware that this was his own tale and thought that he had unwittingly adapted a classic Greek tale. He eventually discovered the truth though, when he visited this professor in England at a later date and was much disappointed.

And speaking of translations: when Mark Twain discovered the French translation of the same story, he decided to do a back-translation into English of it, giving it the title: "The Jumping Frog: In English, Then in French, and Then Clawed Back Into A Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil". I think his goal was to poke a bit of fun at the art of translation - which is a difficult job of course, and always destined to fail to some degree, since a translation will never be a 100% the same as the original. That's what he wanted to point out, in my opinion, which become clear in the introduction to the back-translation:

Even a criminal is entitled to fair play; and certainly when a man who has done no harm has been unjustly treated, he is privileged to do his best to right himself. My attention has just been called to an article some three years old in a French Magazine entitled, ‘Revue des Deux Mondes’ (Review of Some Two Worlds), wherein the writer treats of “Les Humoristes Americaines” (These Humorist Americans). I am one of these humorists American dissected by him, and hence the complaint I am making.

This gentleman’s article is an able one (as articles go, in the French, where they always tangle up everything to that degree that when you start into a sentence you never know whether you are going to come out alive or not). It is a very good article and the writer says all manner of kind and complimentary things about me—for which I am sure thank him with all my heart; but then why should he go and spoil all his praise by one unlucky experiment? What I refer to is this: he says my jumping Frog is a funny story, but still he can’t see why it should ever really convulse any one with laughter—and straightway proceeds to translate it into French in order to prove to his nation that there is nothing so very extravagantly funny about it. Just there is where my complaint originates. He has not translated it at all; he has simply mixed it all up; it is no more like the jumping Frog when he gets through with it than I am like a meridian of longitude. 

And here's an excerpt of the back-translation:

Original: There was a feller here once by the name of Jim Smiley, in the winter of ’49 or maybe it was the spring of ’50 I don’t recollect exactly, somehow, though what makes me think it was one or the other is because I remember the big flume warn’t finished when he first came to the camp; but anyway, he was the curiosest man about always betting on any thing that turned up you ever see, if he could get any body to bet on the other side; and if he couldn’t, he’d change sides.

Back-Translation: It there was one time here an individual known under the name of Jim Smiley; it was in the winter ’49, possibly well at the spring of ’50, I no me recollect not exactly. This which me makes to believe that it was the one or the other, it is that I shall remember that the grand flume is not achieved when he arrives at the camp for the first time, but of all sides he was the man the most fond of to bet which one have seen, betting upon all that which is presented, when he could find an adversary; and when he not of it could not, he passed to the side opposed.

He liked to be funny ;)!

(I'll be honest with you though, I don't quite understand what all the fuss is about - I read the story and didn't like it much at all - the ending was okay, but it just took forever to build up. Maybe I'm missing something though. You can read it yourself here, if you like: http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/projects/price/frog.htm It's very short, only about 4 A4 pages.)

Filmed by Edison

So, A) he was friends with Thomas Edison, which is cool in itself, and B) OMG THERE IS VIDEO FOOTAGE OF MARK TWAIN! Seriously, Thomas Edison came to Mark Twain's house in 1909 and filmed him for a few minutes. The clip is nothing extraoridnary in itself, of course - except for the fact that it's got Mark Twain in it ;)! You can watch it here (via YT):

The Terrors of the German Language

Oh, German - it seems that Mark Twain could not resist pulling you to pieces for your difficult grammar either. In 1897 he actually gave a speech in front of the Viennese print media club about the horrors of German syntax - the funny thing though? He did it in German!

For those of you who speak German, here's the original version: http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/die-schrecken-der-deutschen-sprache-und-andere-kurze-texte-6678/1

And here's a translated version for those of you who don't (be careful though - it's a very literal version, which tries to stick close to the original): http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3188/3188-h/3188-h.htm#link2H_4_0008

His Grave

Now, this is something lovely that his daughter did for him, after he had died: she erected a monument above his grave which was exactly two fathoms high (= mark twain).

Monument above Mark Twain's grave (c) Wikimedia

Funny and Meaningful Quotes

Lastly, as a writer and a humorist he obviously said and wrote many meaninguful and funny things. Here's a selection of my favourite quotes (I double checked that it really was Mark Twain who said these things by looking at numerous websites and sources - so these should be alright!):

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."

"There are many humorous things in this world, among them the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages."

"Lincoln's Proclamation [...] not only set the black slaves free, but set the white man free also."

"Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet."

"Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."

Links & References

Wikipedia on Mark Twain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

Mark Twain House on Mark Twain: http://www.marktwainhouse.org/man/biography_main.php

Depth sounding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_sounding & http://bymarktwain.com/

Back Translation of First Story: http://translation-blog.trustedtranslations.com/mark-twains-back-translation-2008-10-27.html & http://genius.com/Mark-twain-back-translation-the-celebrated-jumping-frog-of-calaveras-county-annotated#note-3834512

Mark Twain - Huckleberry Finn

So, I started reading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" recently. I read "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" last year and promised myself I would read Huck Finn's story as soon as possible - which is apparently 10 months later. Ergo, I'm sloooow.

Like with "Tom Sawyer" I like the book fine enough for now - but it hasn't really caught my interest yet. There are some exciting bits - the part where (SPOILER: Huck fakes his own death) is just thrilling - and I enjoy Mark Twain's way of telling a stoy. You see, especially in the exciting parts, he stops telling you what the characters are doing and explaining their thought processes behind it, and instead just shows you. So, for instance in the scene where (SPOILER: Huck fakes his own death), Mark Twain doesn't explicitly tell you that that's what Huck is doing, but rather he just shows you all the little preparations he makes, and all the fake clues he plants. It's genius, because that way you're challenged as a reader to pay attention.

But anyway, I'm only on chapter 12, so I can't really do a review on this novel yet. So instead, in order to do a little update to this poor, neglected blog I thought I'd do a book cover compilation post - which for convenience purposes will include CD covers and other media too. Why? Because A) covers are pretty and B) they can also be hilarious. I'll show you ;). But to start with the pretty:

Book Covers I Would Paper My Walls With

First Edition

Mainly because it's the cover of the first edition, I believe ;). But it is still rather pretty - I like the way they played around with the font especially.

Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition

So, admittedly, Huck looks like he's about to enter into a smoking contest with Gandalf here, but I really like the colour scheme in this cover. It's very soft and calming, and I just enjoy looking at it.

Bantam Classics Edition

Another one in which I really like the color scheme. I think I'm just a fan of orange xD.

And now for the hilarious ...

Penguin Classics Edition

So, let me start this category off with being immature: when I skim over this image, I always, ALWAYS think that Huck is grabbing Jim's butt. (That hand is waaaay too close to the other guy's behind, I'm sorry ...)

Classic Comics Edition

In which Huck learns to spit lightning at his enemies ...

Classics Illustrated Edition

I can't shake the feeling that there's something wrong with Huck's teeth here. They're a bit ... horse-y?

Europa Edition (audiobook)

... They weren't really trying were they?

Hope you enjoyed those!