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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Thu, 15 Sep 1994 01:55:12 -0400
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The Connecticut Yankee theme is a fairly recurrent one in American science
fiction. Sometimes the CY is a time traveller (L. Sprague DeCamp's Lest
Darkness Fall springs to mind); sometimes the CY is an astronaut on a less
civilized world. Usually, however, the CY is more successful at instituting
change than Twain's hero was. So you might examine the theme of
technological and social progress...perhaps with a look as well at genuine
CY's. For example, John Jewitt, a British sailor and blacksmith, was
enslaved by the Nootka Indians of Vancouver Island early in the 19th
century. Despite his technological wizardry, he stayed a slave until other
Europeans rescued him.

Crawford Kilian
Capilano College
North Vancouver, BC
Canada

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