I'm here, but I'm only newly subscribed to the list. I'm not sure what kinds of things you folks talk about here. I should check what's in the files, I suppose before I begin, but really, I'd like to see how you all respond to this: Mark Twain scholarship promotes a vision of Clemens' masterpieces that accords with a male definition of "American." Nina Baym calls this paradigm the "drama of beset manhood," in which an author struggles to establish himself against hordes of horrible women writers. This critical aesthetic originated in the post-world war I period as a result of newly professionalized male profs of lit seeking to consolidate their cultural authority over women. Thus "sivilization" in HUCK FINN becomes the agency of of women from which Huck rightfully wants to escape, and because of which he and Jim become buddies, indirectly endorsing the melting pot theory. Looking at this from the perspective of nineteenth-century intellectual context, though, one could suggest that "sivilization" might instead be seen as a phase in cultural evolution that comes after "barbarism" and "savagery" and has nothing to do with women at all. Is this confrontational? I hope not. The reason it's on my mind is because I was recently at a conference where the folks vowed on stacks of bibles never to teach Mark Twain ever, ever again because of the "drama of beset manhood" reading of the works. I'm curious what other Mark Twain folks think.