Bob--

        You put forth an interesting argument, but I wonder where those of us
who were fortunate enough to have come into Twain unscathed (without teachers
to tell us what it all meant) might be now if we'd come upon Brooks' silly
theory while our brains were still soft and green. I used his criticism as the
basis for a paper in high school, contending that to consider SLC inferior
because of how and what he wrote was essentially saying ALL American
literature that didn't meet "high"—British—standards was less valuable, was
utter nonsense.
	But these sorts of heady tussles are what make the forum so much fun, and why
it exists in the first place.

Kathy O'Connell
Hartford Advocate