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Date: | Thu, 17 Jan 2002 10:50:18 -0500 |
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-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Eliasen [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 1:37 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The Tumble-Bug
I think that any of us posed with the Herculean task of distilling all of
the interesting events of Twain's life into 4 hours would soon despair.
It's
like trying to cram an elephant into a hatbox. Even if we could come upon
an
elephant (or a hatbox, in this day and age,) I don't know that we could do a
job that would satisfy even ourselves. I think that Ken Burns at least
managed to coerce the elephant into posing nicely in the steamer-trunk he
was
allotted.
For every anecdote about Twain, I'm sure that all of us recalled a
favorite
quote in Twain's own words that we treasure. With a few more fortnights of
film, we might just start to feel the full contentment that we've all gotten
from reading and re-reading Twain's works. (And for me, reading the man's
own
words are the great joy of knowing Twain.)
Hopefully this effort will awaken a greater interest and familiarity with
the subject, like many of Ken Burns' great films have done for me in the
past. I, for one, enjoyed it, and it gave me a better insight into Twain's
life. I was especially delighted to see some of the obscure and rare
photographs of my favorite author.
"The critic's symbol should be the tumble-bug: he deposits his egg in
somebody else's dung, otherwise he could not hatch it."
- Mark Twain's Notebook, 1904
(Thanks to Barbara Schmidt's wonderful website for putting the above
quote
ready at hand: http://www.twainquotes.com/Critics.html )
--
Alan Eliasen
[log in to unmask]
http://www.mindspring.com/~eliasen/twain/
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