Guldurnit, there's his anti-imperialism snaking it's head in agin...

On Tue, 2011-11-08 at 09:32 -0800, Ellen Komp wrote:
> Don't forget this exchange between Huck and Tom, from Tom Sawyer Abroad:
> 
> "A crusade is a war to recover the Holy Land from the paynim."
> 
> "Which Holy Land?"
> 
> "Why, the Holy Land=97there ain't but one."
> 
> "What do we want of it?"
> 
> "Why, can't you understand? It's in the hands of the paynim, and it's
> our duty to take it away from them."
> 
> "How did we come to let them git hold of it?"
> 
> "We didn't come to let them git hold of it. They always had it."
> 
> "Why, Tom, then it must belong to them, don't it?"
> 
> "Why of course it does. Who said it didn't?"
> 
> I studied over it, but couldn't seem to git at the right of it, no way. I s=
> ays:
> 
> "It's too many for me, Tom Sawyer. If I had a farm and it was mine,
> and another person wanted it, would it be right for him to=97"
> 
> "Oh, shucks! you don't know enough to come in when it rains, Huck
> Finn. It ain't a farm, it's entirely different. You see, it's like
> this. They own the land, just the mere land, and that's all they DO
> own; but it was our folks, our Jews and Christians, that made it holy,
> and so they haven't any business to be there defiling it. It's a
> shame, and we ought not to stand it a minute. We ought to march
> against them and take it away from them."
> 
> "Why, it does seem to me it's the most mixed-up thing I ever see! Now,
> if I had a farm and another person=97"
> 
> "Don't I tell you it hasn't got anything to do with farming? Farming
> is business, just common low-down business: that's all it is, it's all
> you can say for it; but this is higher, this is religious, and totally
> different."
> 
> "Religious to go and take the land away from people that owns it?"
> 
> "Certainly; it's always been considered so."
> 
> Jim he shook his head, and says:
> 
> "Mars Tom, I reckon dey's a mistake about it somers=97dey mos' sholy is.
> I's religious myself, en I knows plenty religious people, but I hain't
> run across none dat acts like dat."
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 12:44 PM, Scott Holmes <[log in to unmask]> w=
> rote:
> > I recently published, on YouTube, a video of my reading chapter 13 of
> > The Innocents Abroad. =A0It received a comment of some degree of
> > astonishment on the degree of dislike Twain held for the Ottoman Empire.
> > I replied with a remark to the effect that in some part he was reacting
> > to the elitism he perceived in the Muslims, ie how anything that
> > Christians come into contact with is defiled.
> >
> > I wanted to research this a bit further and found a paper presented by
> > one Ben Rejeb, Lotfi, "Mark Twain, the Ottoman Empire and Palestine".
> > The paper is not available but the abstract describes it: =A0"... This
> > paper will explore the sources of that vision, Twains orientalism and
> > his modes of expression, as well as the interplay of fancy and reality,
> > of humor and seriousness, of childrens fantasies and historico-political
> > designs."
> >
> > The paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies
> > Association. =A0My print out of the abstract does not contain the date of
> > the meeting.
> >
> > Would anyone care to comment about this?
> >