Thanks. BTW, read "might" for "night." I think faster than I type, if only by a hair. Kevin @ Mac Donnell Rare Books 9307 Glenlake Drive Austin TX 78730 512-345-4139 Member: ABAA, ILAB ************************* You may browse our books at: www.macdonnellrarebooks.com -----Original Message----- From: Warren Brown Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 12:30 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: American Literary Scholarship 2013 Mark Twain Thanks Kevin, Especially enjoyed reading your insights on this. A great time for me to re= read Huck. Will always give you credit, but believe it was slightly more th= an a little posting. Warren Brown =20 =20 =20 -----Original Message----- From: Kevin Mac Donnell <[log in to unmask]> To: TWAIN-L <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wed, May 7, 2014 11:13 am Subject: Re: American Literary Scholarship 2013 Mark Twain A couple of thoughts about the ending of Huckleberry Finn... Dissatisfaction with the ending seems to be a relatively modern complaint= =20 (ie, after Twain's lifetime), although I may have missed earlier complaints= .=20 I don't recall early critics or reviewers whining about it. Could it be=20 possible that modern readers have expectations about how the story should= =20 end that earlier readers did not share for some reason? Would Huck have bee= n=20 justified in his desire to light out for the territories if the hijinks and= =20 humiliations of the "evasion" chapters had not been included? The most convincing argument I've seen in favor of the last chapters is tha= t=20 what happened to Jim after he was freed parallel the nonsense that freed=20 slaves had to endure during Reconstruction. Maybe early readers did not nee= d=20 to be reminded of this. Another thing I have not seen --but I don't read a lot of Twainian criticis= m=20 so I may have missed it-- is the possible origin of Tom's name and how it= =20 provides a clue to his character and the events of the evasion chapters.=20 Although a couple of actual people named "Tom Sawyer" have proposed=20 themselves or been proposed over the years as the origin for his name (both= =20 easily disproven), I wonder if the steamboat term "sawyer" is not a more=20 likely source for his name. A "sawyer" was the worst kind of snag a=20 steamboat pilot could encounter. Unlike a "planter" that lay just below the= =20 surface and gave itself away to an alert pilot who could "read" the waters,= =20 a "sawyer" bobbed up and down because it was neither wholly waterlogged nor= =20 wholly buoyant, and for that reason could pop up without warning at any tim= e=20 and reek havoc for any steamboat. Tom Sawyer certainly shares that quality,= =20 the way he spreads havoc, especially when he pops up at the beginning of th= e=20 evasion chapters. I find Tom Sawyer an annoying kid, the way a pilot might regard a sawyer,= =20 but I think those chapters serve a purpose. Problems for slaves did not vanish just because they became former slaves.= =20 There were still plenty of snags that night pop up at any time. How=20 "post-racial" do you think America is even now, or do you think there could= =20 be some sawyers lurking up ahead? If this possible origin has been argued before, my apologies to whoever mad= e=20 that observation. If not, anyone is free to explore it further so long as= =20 they credit this little posting in the Mark Twain Forum. Kevin @ Mac Donnell Rare Books 9307 Glenlake Drive Austin TX 78730 512-345-4139 Member: ABAA, ILAB ************************* You may browse our books at: www.macdonnellrarebooks.com -----Original Message-----=20 From: Hal Bush Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 7:47 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: American Literary Scholarship 2013 Mark Twain it's irony, Steve. i.e. a joke, or perhaps failed humor. I believe most folks on the LIST are pretty familiar with those arguments... ps: if you really want to see a scathing review of the flaws of AHF, check out Jane Smiley's notorious review in Harper's, circa 1996. -hb On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 12:09 AM, Steve Hoffman <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > What's so shocking about that? > > Many readers of Huck Finn would argue the last > section of the book (once Tom Sawyer comes in and > starts running the show) is quite flawed, for a > variety of reasons!!!!!! > And I count myself among them. > > Many an astute reader of that great novel have > been disappointed by the turns the story takes > once Tom Sawyer sort of takes over from Huck Finn. > > -Steve Hoffman > (no academic credentials, just a lay-person > Twainiac in Takoma Park MD) > > On 5/6/2014 12:10 PM, Hal Bush wrote: > > Tom: "The Flawed Greatness of Huckleberry Finn"?? "Flawed"? ? ? -- yo= u > > must be joking here ... -hb > > > > > > On Tue, May 6, 2014 at 11:01 AM, Quirk, Thomas V. <[log in to unmask] > >wrote: > > > >> John, I did have one essay: =3DB3The Flawed Greatness of Huckleberry > Finn.=3D > >> =3DB2 > >> American Literary Realism 45:1 (Fall 2013) 2: 38-48. I don't know the > >> electronic link. > >> > >> > >> On 5/5/14 3:39 PM, "John Bird" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> > >>> Once again, I will be writing the chapter on Mark Twain for American > =3D3D > >>> Literary Scholarship, reviewing all the Twain scholarship for the yea= r > =3D > >> =3D3D > >>> 2013. If you had an article or book published in 2013, please send me > =3D3D > >>> links to articles, copies of articles, or have the publisher send me > =3D3D > >>> book copies. Email and mailing address below. Thanks! (I will most = =3D3D > >>> likely do this again for 2014, so if you have something this year, > send =3D > >> =3D3D > >>> along!) > >>> =3D20 > >>> [log in to unmask] or > >>> [log in to unmask] > >>> =3D20 > >>> Department of English > >>> 250 Bancroft > >>> Winthrop University > >>> Rock Hill, SC 29733 > >>> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > >>> John Bird > >>> [log in to unmask] > > > > > --=20 Prof. Harold K. Bush Professor of English 3800 Lindell Saint Louis University St. Louis, MO 63108 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h) <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>=20 =20