Fri, 10 Feb 2023 09:11:51 -0800
|
There is a characteristic in some of the literary influences on Twain
I’ve noticed. That is that the story is not finished, at least not until
some later time. I’m thinking of the structure of the Arabian Nights
tales and Scherazade. I’ve also noted this in the earliest version of
the Tar baby story from the Gutenberg version of “Uncle Remus: His Songs
and Sayings” (the second story in the collection). "Dat's all de fur de
tale goes," replied the old man. "He mout, an den agin he moutent. “Some
say Judge B'ar come 'long en loosed 'im—some say he didn't. I hear Miss
Sally callin'. You better run 'long."
Harris doesn’t pick the storyup again until the fourth story. I can’t
recall Twain ever directly employing this technique except for possible
vestiges in such as Grandfather’s Old Ram or the Ascent of Mt. Vesuvius.
This is a part of “the framework structure” of story telling. I’ve been
reading John H. Davis’ article, “The Shape of the Story:…” but I’m
curious about Twain’s possible use of this one technique. I’ve read
through the Oxford Edition but that doesn’t mean I’ve retained all that
much.
--
/Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/
|
|
|