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Posts tagged Mark Twain

Fan Fail, apologies to Mr. Twain

Fan Fail, apologies to Mr. Twain published on No Comments on Fan Fail, apologies to Mr. Twain

I thought that I was a fan of Mark Twain’s work, though I would usually specify that I enjoyed his essays and sketches more than the novels he is typically known for.  I have to admit, I am not a very good fan, perhaps of anything, because it never occurred to me to find out any more.  I never knew that while working as a typesetting apprentice on his older brother’s newspaper he began penning humorous stories under pseudonyms, or that he would continue this pseudonymous writing on other papers.  I knew that Mark Twain was a pseudonym, but I never knew that it was simply a later and greater pseudonym that followed:  W. Epaminondas Adrastus Perkins, W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab, Rambler, grumbler, Peter Pencilcase’s Son, John Snooks, and Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, and A Dog-Be-Deviled Citizen…  A curious and, perhaps tenacious, view through Chronicling America can call up some of these early articles (example left from the Hannibal Journal September 16, 1852).

My fandom was renewed recently when reading Kipling’s account of searching out and meeting Mr. Samuel Clemens in his 1890 ‘Letter Twenty:  Rudyard Kipling on Mark Twain’ in Kipling’s America:  Travel Letters, 1889-1895.  Of course their conversation turned to copyright as it was one of Mr. Clemens’ favorite topics of the time.  Of course this is what I was looking for, as it is one of my favorite topics now.

For those of you who, like me, may want to improve their fandom of Mark Twain I highly recommend the PBS Documentary.

a little obsession with author voices

a little obsession with author voices published on No Comments on a little obsession with author voices

Before copyright law there were poets and playwrights who bemoaned the theft of their work and words by others while at the same time they stole words to build their poems and plays.  Plagiarism was rampant, though, the act of literary theft was only just termed plagiarism, by one poet’s re-purposing of a Latin term for man-stealing or kidnapping.  After copyright law was established, there were authors postulating its merits and its deficiencies, in writing, to the public and their peers.  Authors were thinking about copyright.

When I discovered that one of my favorite authors, Mark Twain, had stood before congress to give his professional opinion on a copyright term extension I was more than excited.  But, I found myself arguing with Twain.  I could see some of his point, but I did not agree with all of it.  I wondered, where were the author voices on copyright today.  I’m still searching, but what I’m finding is that most of the well known, professionally published and successful authors are letting publishers and author’s guilds speak for them.  Do they really agree with everything that’s being said?

Now that copyright is immediate without registration, the world is teaming with authors.  Some write for fun, and to entertain their friends.  Some make a living off of it, or perhaps off of other creative endeavors offered up to the public via the web.  And just like those poet thieves from before copyright law, all authors are users of copyrighted content as well.  With this huge population of authors, there is still little thinking and postulating and writing about copyright.  I’m not saying copyright theory is crazy sexy or anything…well, no, you know what?  It is.  It is obsession worthy.  It is discussion worthy.  I mean, think about it, copyright law is government regulation over what we birth and grow in our minds and give to the world.  If Athena emerged from Zeus’ head today she would be protected by copyright law!  If art is a conversation, copyright law is keeping checks on what we say!

copyrightfistfight CopyrightposterTwain&Tolstoy
Anyway, my obsession with finding author voices has resulted in these things, so far.  Twain and Tolstoy were contemporaries; and if you think all authors would argue for longer and stronger copyright law, Tolstoy would prove you wrong.  He was against copyright.  He looked on his writing as a service to the public that both provided him the experiences he used to write and the living that let him write.  The burden of his education and leisure was to reach out to people, teach them, and attempt to enrich their lives with the fruit of his literary genius.

Mark Twain stories, 150 years old, uncovered by Berkeley scholars | Books | The Guardian

Mark Twain stories, 150 years old, uncovered by Berkeley scholars | Books | The Guardian published on No Comments on Mark Twain stories, 150 years old, uncovered by Berkeley scholars | Books | The Guardian

Cache shows Twain working as a newspaper man in San Francisco.  As a young man at the Berkeley archivists describe, the stash is ‘like opening up a big box of candy.’

Source: Mark Twain stories, 150 years old, uncovered by Berkeley scholars | Books | The Guardian

Are you excited?  Mark Twain’s short stories, essays, and satirical pieces are what I love about him, and now…there are more!

Reading Mark Twain

Reading Mark Twain published on No Comments on Reading Mark Twain

Like so many other pre and teenagers I had the wrong idea of Mark Twain imposed on me from a young age.  I mean, I liked that thing that Tom Sawyer did where he tricked his buddies into washing the fence for him.  But the standard primary school Mark Twain is just not as fabulous as the man could be.  It is no where near as fabulous.

So, at some point in my early teen-dom I made the this-is-how-fabulous-Mark-Twain-really-is discovery when I picked up From a Pen Warmed in Hell.  Of course I was going to pick it up.  I was immature and it had ‘Hell’ in the title.  Thumbing through it, there could be no doubt that it was something wonderful even though it contained sundry writings from a guy who wrote stories about precocious southern boys (i.e. not my bag).  The more I read, the more I needed.  Pretty soon, I had developed a full on love for Mark Twain.

And that is why, when I was trolling Project Gutenberg for stuff to stock my e-reader with, I downloaded Christian Science.  I started reading it recently in waiting rooms and on planes.  I’m not near done.  But already I can’t stop talking about it.

In his very Mark Twain way, the author is managing to make fun of Christian Science while still somehow convincing me that he thinks its a really good thing.  At least that’s how he starts.  I’m just waiting for him to open up and start slashing it to pieces.  Though I will be no less satisfied if the subtlety continues.  His criticisms of organized religion floored me at my first read of From a Pen Warmed in Hell.  It’s not so much that I wanted to ride the coat-tails of his tirade, or wanted to share in his calculated deconstruction of Christian belief systems.  I found his wit and literary strategy invigorating.  I am enjoying Christian Science no less.

His criticism, on religion, literature, or government, always seems like an act of love to me.  Whether it’s those things he loved or just the human nature that put them in action, I don’t know.  Perhaps I am only projecting something of myself in the mix.  But consider.  How could he spend so much time with those concepts he criticized if he did not love them?  It’s like how we might fight and strain and whole-heartedly disagree with our parents while still holding them dear.

I think perhaps my own reading history had to do with my love of Mark Twain’s criticism.  His sharp phrases read like in-jokes.  I’m sure that, had I not read the books he referenced, studied the history he spoke of, or known the religion he laid bare, I would not have been as enchanted.  That said, if you’ve read The Last of the Mohicans, take a moment to check out Mark Twain’s Literary offenses of Fenimore Cooper as well.

Viva Project Gutenberg!

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