tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post8363389889697096494..comments2024-02-11T03:50:53.613-05:00Comments on Counterlight's Peculiars: Mark Twain, Cranky and Opinionated? Shocking!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-76630555800394172602010-07-13T10:36:13.781-04:002010-07-13T10:36:13.781-04:00Great post on Twain! Thanks for reminding us of hi...Great post on Twain! Thanks for reminding us of his work and contributions.ginny s.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-25175063076777872192010-07-10T23:49:48.527-04:002010-07-10T23:49:48.527-04:00It's hard to imagine a man of conscience who l...It's hard to imagine a man of conscience who lived through the corruption of slavery and then saw the corruption of wealth embraced and celebrated without question, how such a man could not come to bitter conclusions.<br /><br />At least he remained true to the end. He didn't follow the well-worn path of so many British public intellectuals from Wordsworth to Christopher Hitchens; from angry young radical to pillar of the establishment. Like William Blake, Twain remained true to a prophetic moral vision to the end.Counterlighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14345956180434795401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-55760012830971165842010-07-10T21:59:26.397-04:002010-07-10T21:59:26.397-04:00We can only welcome the unexpurgated autobiography...We can only welcome the unexpurgated autobiography, but I doubt that we will thereby come to meet a more cynical, acerbic, or bitter figure than the one already abundantly before the public in Twain's other late writings.<br /><br />It has always been painful to me to see Twain's cheerful irreverence and sharp social conscience leading him into a late nihilism. What must be the interior state of a satirist who is convinced that his satire will not and cannot change anything? How can one both be outraged at what men do and convinced that men are essentially machines? I don't think it diminishes his greatness, and it certainly doesn't lessen the accuracy of his political and social judgments. But it gives his later life an inner tragedy corresponding to the public tragedies that so dogged his later years. Knowing what I know of him, and having read what I have read, I don't know if I could even bear to read this.<br /><br />Twain said of Huckleberry Finn that, above all else, he had a good heart. So does Twain, and even at his darkest he can't totally obscure it, and that, to me, is his saving grace.rick allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07612435616018593956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-2341626619046998332010-07-10T19:55:49.492-04:002010-07-10T19:55:49.492-04:00I cannot wait to read the first book!
His hones...I cannot wait to read the first book! <br /><br />His honesty in that prayer is refreshing. I wish some would see the reality of war for our young men and women.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01203286781888444548noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-72534775048291738032010-07-10T18:26:05.047-04:002010-07-10T18:26:05.047-04:00Twain's War Prayer is surely one of the ten gr...Twain's <i>War Prayer</i> is surely one of the ten greatest works in (US) American lit . . . if not all the English language! [The TRUTH that's always forgotten in the Rah-rah-rush to war... or even now, as Afghanistan goes on and on and on. Oh look: we just killed another half dozen unarmed civilians there. {Yawn}, turn page... (I mean, {Yawn} click link to another page)]JCFnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-91466201500385057622010-07-10T14:06:09.147-04:002010-07-10T14:06:09.147-04:00Want it!Want it!susan s.https://www.blogger.com/profile/03679099677585214433noreply@blogger.com