I like this line. I see characters such as the Duke and the King as creatures of the status quo rather than resisting it. Gods create a status quo therefore Twain's malicious god is not a trickster but a nasty feature of "the way things are". This line from the Wikipedia article on Julia Kristeva is illustrative: "Kristeva believes that it is harmful to posit collective identity above individual identity, and that this political assertion of sexual, ethnic, and religious identities is ultimatelytotalitarian. Tricksters work to break up the collective. They are generally rather selfish. It's not that I don't think such analysis of Twain's writings is not important, it is. I'm arguing for a separation of the two types of trouble-makers. On 2/13/23 09:53, [log in to unmask] wrote: > They are models of resistance to the status quo. -- /Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/