PENNY ([log in to unmask]) writes: >Andy was give some advice on calling his thesis "Situational Bisexuality." >Perhaps that would be a better place to start. It certainly will create a >stir -- did at Elmira. Let's hear it out there for your thoughts. I do have >a copy of Hoffman's paper. I'd like to see the paper before I take any kind of position on its merits, but I have a healthy mistrust of attempts to "out" historical figures. I have the impression that the motives behind such efforts are more sensatinoal than scholarly. I might wish that kind of treatment on James Fenimore Cooper, but not Mark Twain. I hope this paper is a sincere and well-researched effort, not a splashy attempt to establish a reputation. Lastly, why stop at "Situational Bisexuality"? If Andy is postulating that Twain & company turned to each other due to a scarcity of women, how about the local livestock, each others' shoes, and any other persuasion that can be imagined? I suppose there's room for a bevy of papers exploring each of these possibilities in detail. Well, that's made someone's career. Not mine, though. Perhaps this period saw Twain's first systematic exploration of the science of onanism... Robert Dagnall