I like this line.  I see characters such as the Duke and the King as 
creatures of the status quo rather than resisting it.  Gods create a 
status quo therefore Twain's malicious god is not a trickster but a 
nasty feature of "the way things are".  This line from the Wikipedia 
article on Julia Kristeva is illustrative: "Kristeva believes that it is 
harmful to posit collective identity above individual identity, and that 
this political assertion of sexual, ethnic, and religious identities is 
ultimatelytotalitarian. Tricksters work to break up the collective.  
They are generally rather selfish.

It's not that I don't think such analysis of Twain's writings is not 
important, it is.  I'm arguing for a separation of the two types of 
trouble-makers.

On 2/13/23 09:53, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> They are models of resistance to the status quo.
-- 
/Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/