Today is Mark Twain’s Birthday
“ A full belly is little worth when the mind is starved” —Mark Twain.
Last week a friend and I were discussing Mark Twain’s essay-- “THE LOWEST ANIMAL.” We wondered when things will really change with all the wars, the crazy politics, religious abuse of human rights, the destruction of our environment and etc. Twain’s sarcasm and analysis is still fitting for these times.
Twain obliges humans to self-reflect and to transform bad behavior that plagues mankind –greed, cruelty, wars. He argues humans act worse than animals. He nailed it back then with:
Hypocrisy, envy, malice, cruelty, vengefulness, seduction, rape, robbery, swindling, arson, bigamy, adultery, and the oppression and humiliation of the poor and the helpless in all ways have been and still are more or less common among both the civilized and uncivilized peoples of the earth.
For many centuries "the common brotherhood of man" has been urged – on Sundays – and "patriotism" on Sundays and weekdays both. Yet patriotism contemplates the opposite of a common brotherhood. Woman's equality with man has never been conceded by any people, ancient or modern, civilized or savage.
The entire essay is worth reading—so I won’t be a spoiler.—another teaser sentence of his:
“ It seems a tacit confession that heavens are provided for the Higher Animals alone.”
best link I could find to the eassy: https://www.cusd80.com/cms/lib6/AZ01001175/Centricity/Domain/6368/The%20Lowest%20Animal%20-%20Twain.pdf
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was a celebrated American writer, humorist, and essayist. Twain was born into a slaveholding family in Missouri. AI will tell you that Twain's work is known for its humor, vivid details, and memorable characters. That is something AI has gotten right.
According to archives at the Mark Twain House and Museum, Twain adopted the pen name in early 1863 when he was a journalist in Nevada. It referred to his steam boating days, when the measure of the depth of the water was expressed with a crewman's cry “mark twain!” meaning two fathoms, or 12 feet.
Among his works of fame was Adventures of Huckleberry Finn --published in 1886-- has been on the banned book list more often than not. Twain’s anti racist, anti-classicist sarcasm was not always understood back then or today. He had a certain faith in God but was not always a fan of mainstream Christian doctrine.
Twain once said in reference to Christianity,
“Its noble doctrine of universal brotherhood is for the angels, if for anybody -- it is not possible for men. Christianity cannot teach a fish to fly nor aliens to love each other.”
"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
Twain was a complex soul, his writings are still compelling. You will love him or hate him.
Something noteworthy to ponder: : A change of subject: Mark Twain by Evan Jellicoe
Excerpts that caught my eye:
“Published in 1884/1885, Huckleberry Finn is about a racist boy’s realization of the full humanity of a fugitive slave. Ten years later, in Pudd’nhead Wilson, Twain would deconstruct the very idea of race itself as nothing more than ‘a fiction of law and custom’ without any basis in biology. As Toni Morrison stated, "Mark Twain talked about racial ideology in the most powerful, eloquent, and instructive way I have ever read."
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/3/2282187/-A-change-of-subject-Mark-Twain
More to explore:
“Googling Mark Twain will bring up more than 12,300,000 hits. You’ll need to make distinctions between inaccurate or copycat sites and the real thing.” –Mark Twain House and Museum:
https://marktwainhouse.org/about/mark-twain/resources/
Mark Twain and Critical Race Theory
Laura Skandera Trombley and Ann Ryan explore Mark Twain's writing as just one example of how thoroughly American it is to try to unravel the knot of race, racism and U.S. history.
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/10/07/mark-twain-was-american-lits-first-critical-race-theorist-opinion