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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Fri, 13 May 1994 08:57:30 GMT
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Hi! I've been lurking for a few weeks, but have been coaxed into action
by Scott Holmes concern about Twain being politically incorrect and no
longer taught in public schools. I too think this would be a tragedy.
I can't understand how people can apply today's social outlook to a
work of fiction based on how things were at the time. I look at it in
a historical context. That's how people thought then, we no longer think
that way ( or should no longer think that way). Slavery is outlawed.
It wasn't then, but even then, Huck felt a dilemma. That's what makes
the book Okay for me. It does not advocate slavery, it presents a moral
dilemma.

So now that I have preached to the choir, I'd like to know how Twain's
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE book is viewed by scholars. I found it to be a very
unusual work. If it were written today, and Mary Baker Eddy were alive,
I suspect he would be sued big time. Are there any stories about this?

Thank you in advance for your time. I am a library system administrator
in Utica, NY and a life long Twain enthusiast. I like his travel books,
The Gilded Age, and his short stories better than Huck and Tom, although
they are great too. I appreciate your indulgence.

Mary Lou Caskey

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