Thanks.

BTW, read "might" for "night."

I think faster than I type, if only by a hair.

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
9307 Glenlake Drive
Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139
Member: ABAA, ILAB
*************************
You may browse our books at:
www.macdonnellrarebooks.com


-----Original Message----- 
From: Warren Brown
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 12:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: American Literary Scholarship 2013 Mark Twain

Thanks Kevin,

Especially enjoyed reading your insights on this. A great time for me to re=
read Huck. Will always give you credit, but believe it was slightly more th=
an a little posting.

Warren Brown

=20

=20

=20

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Mac Donnell <[log in to unmask]>
To: TWAIN-L <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wed, May 7, 2014 11:13 am
Subject: Re: American Literary Scholarship 2013 Mark Twain


A couple of thoughts about the ending of Huckleberry Finn...

Dissatisfaction with the ending seems to be a relatively modern complaint=
=20
(ie, after Twain's lifetime), although I may have missed earlier complaints=
.=20
I don't recall early critics or reviewers whining about it. Could it be=20
possible that modern readers have expectations about how the story should=
=20
end that earlier readers did not share for some reason? Would Huck have bee=
n=20
justified in his desire to light out for the territories if the hijinks and=
=20
humiliations of the "evasion" chapters had not been included?

The most convincing argument I've seen in favor of the last chapters is tha=
t=20
what happened to Jim after he was freed parallel the nonsense that freed=20
slaves had to endure during Reconstruction. Maybe early readers did not nee=
d=20
to be reminded of this.

Another thing I have not seen --but I don't read a lot of Twainian criticis=
m=20
so I may have missed it-- is the possible origin of Tom's name and how it=
=20
provides a clue to his character and the events of the evasion chapters.=20
Although a couple of actual people named "Tom Sawyer" have proposed=20
themselves or been proposed over the years as the origin for his name (both=
=20
easily disproven), I wonder if the steamboat term "sawyer" is not a more=20
likely source for his name.  A "sawyer" was the worst kind of snag a=20
steamboat pilot could encounter. Unlike a "planter" that lay just below the=
=20
surface and gave itself away to an alert pilot who could "read" the waters,=
=20
a "sawyer" bobbed up and down because it was neither wholly waterlogged nor=
=20
wholly buoyant, and for that reason could pop up without warning at any tim=
e=20
and reek havoc for any steamboat. Tom Sawyer certainly shares that quality,=
=20
the way he spreads havoc, especially when he pops up at the beginning of th=
e=20
evasion chapters.

I find Tom Sawyer an annoying kid, the way a pilot might regard a sawyer,=
=20
but I think those chapters serve a purpose.
Problems for slaves did not vanish just because they became former slaves.=
=20
There were still plenty of snags that night pop up at any time. How=20
"post-racial" do you think America is even now, or do you think there could=
=20
be some sawyers lurking up ahead?

If this possible origin has been argued before, my apologies to whoever mad=
e=20
that observation. If not, anyone is free to explore it further so long as=
=20
they credit this little posting in the Mark Twain Forum.

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
9307 Glenlake Drive
Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139
Member: ABAA, ILAB
*************************
You may browse our books at:
www.macdonnellrarebooks.com


-----Original Message-----=20
From: Hal Bush
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 7:47 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: American Literary Scholarship 2013 Mark Twain

it's irony, Steve.  i.e. a joke, or perhaps failed humor.  I believe most
folks on the LIST are pretty familiar with those arguments...

ps:  if you really want to see a scathing review of the flaws of AHF, check
out Jane Smiley's notorious review in Harper's, circa 1996.

-hb


On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 12:09 AM, Steve Hoffman
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> What's so shocking about that?
>
> Many readers of Huck Finn would argue the last
> section of the book (once Tom Sawyer comes in and
> starts running the show) is quite flawed, for a
> variety of reasons!!!!!!
> And I count myself among them.
>
> Many an astute reader of that great novel have
> been disappointed by the turns the story takes
> once Tom Sawyer sort of takes over from Huck Finn.
>
> -Steve Hoffman
> (no academic credentials, just a lay-person
> Twainiac in Takoma Park MD)
>
> On 5/6/2014 12:10 PM, Hal Bush wrote:
> > Tom:  "The Flawed Greatness of Huckleberry Finn"??  "Flawed"? ? ? -- yo=
u
> > must be joking here ... -hb
> >
> >
> > On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 11:01 AM, Quirk, Thomas V. <[log in to unmask]
> >wrote:
> >
> >> John, I did have one essay:  =3DB3The Flawed Greatness of Huckleberry
> Finn.=3D
> >> =3DB2
> >> American Literary Realism 45:1 (Fall 2013) 2: 38-48.  I don't know the
> >> electronic link.
> >>
> >>
> >> On 5/5/14 3:39 PM, "John Bird" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Once again, I will be writing the chapter on Mark Twain for American
> =3D3D
> >>> Literary Scholarship, reviewing all the Twain scholarship for the yea=
r
> =3D
> >> =3D3D
> >>> 2013. If you had an article or book published in 2013, please send me
> =3D3D
> >>> links to articles, copies of articles, or have the publisher send me
> =3D3D
> >>> book copies. Email and mailing address below. Thanks! (I will most =
=3D3D
> >>> likely do this again for 2014, so if you have something this year,
> send =3D
> >> =3D3D
> >>> along!)
> >>> =3D20
> >>> [log in to unmask] or
> >>> [log in to unmask]
> >>> =3D20
> >>> Department of English
> >>> 250 Bancroft
> >>> Winthrop University
> >>> Rock Hill, SC 29733
> >>> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >>> John Bird
> >>> [log in to unmask]
> >
> >
>



--=20
Prof. Harold K. Bush
Professor of English
3800 Lindell
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO  63108
314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
<www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>=20

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