Thanks, Carol, for sharing your Brazilian adventures. I hope to find that film you described. Here in Finland the gypsy myths are still alive as there is a fairly large Roma community across most of Europe. Many Roma here in Finland are quite visible, the women still wear traditional colorful hoop dresses, and as a group they suffer from some enduring negative stereotypes about gypsies. I am told that some shopkeepers are particularly wary of them due to a prevailing assumption that they are thieves. But this same stereotype is often employed concerning other non-Finnish groups as well. Even today dictionary.com describes the Roma as "traditionally living by seasonal work and fortunetelling." Of course these stereotypes are not factually representative of this group's reality here in Scandinavia, and the Roma remain mysterious to many Finns due unfortunately to what I perceive to be a lack of personal contact between ethnic Finns (Finno-Ugrian) and Roma peoples. I do not personally know much about the life of the Roma peoples south of Helsinki. As I understand it, many of Twain's texts were sold through traveling salesmen operating under the subscription method of sales and distribution. So perhaps we could argue that Twain realized that his products had to function much like many other contemporary forms of entertainment. In other words, much like the traveling bands of circus and dramatic performers who, unlike many of today's entertainers, simply had to bring themselves to their audience in rural communities and play to small audiences. From this perspective I sometimes wonder whether Twain viewed himself as an entertainer or whether he viewed himself as a bona fide literary figure. As a self-educated person he may have felt some nervousness and uncertainty about comparisons of himself with other literary forces of his day. Due to the subscription sales method he employed in which his "productions" would arrive periodically in town, could we make the case that Twain was a traveling circus act himself? Or would that somehow diminish his stature? I wonder if he ever made a conscious connection between some of his characters and his own book distribution methods? Of course he eventually received honorary degrees and much recognition for his intellectual and social enlightenment, but really it seems to me reading his texts that he viewed himself primarily as a provider of entertainment to the masses. Yes, I know there were social messages embedded in most all of his texts but I am simply wondering whether Twain viewed his role primarily as that of an entertainer. Only later does it seem that he accepted a role as a serious social commentator outside of his literary products. But I do not have the encyclopedic knowledge of Twain that other scholars on this list possess, and no doubt some other scholars have developed this perspective already. I also wonder, in view of today's extremely crowded, electronic and fast-paced mass media world, what Twain would be doing now if he were born in 1955, or 1985. Someone has probably already speculated about that as well. Steve Crawford Kulttuuriala, School of Cultural Studies Jyväskylän ammattikorkeakoulu Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences Pitkäkatu 18-22, FI-40700 Jyväskylä FINLAND