How do we get it right the first time? Is that even possible? As Mark Twain–author of many important works–once stated, “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.” In this post we are going to examine this quote. It has something to do with you as a writer and us as people. In the very least, the quote is about bending the rules after you’ve learned the rules. This is important to the writing process, regardless if you are a writer OR a Yankee from Connecticut.
Getting Your Facts Straight, According to Twain
As it relates to the Mark Twain quote in this post, the author embellished facts in his writing, especially when it came to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Historically, the novel is a little untrue, and historical critics railed against it for being anti-historical. That is to say, it did not play by the rules of reality, favoring satire and whimsical narrative over fact.
Yet, Twain’s quote makes a valid point when it comes to writing. We do have to get it right and then we can build from there. Getting the known truths out there is essential, as then you have the ability to embellish that truth. I think if the groundwork is laid, then writers have carte blanche to interpret as they see fit. As such, the genre of the writing does change–maybe from historical to historical fiction.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night experiences this interesting transformation. The book deals with the propagandistic efforts of the Nazi party, which truly happened. Then, the reader is given a fictitious trial and imprisonment of the lead character that seems straight from Hollywood.
“Get your facts first” means writers should have a framework for writing first. Wrapped up in a bundle, this means an understanding of grammar or structure, or both. Likewise, writers should hold those things dear and engage in the writing discipline in a practical way. It is at this point that they can “distort” the facts as they please.
A Mark Twain Quote: Bending the Truth and Form
Many famous authors have distinctive writing voices, so we have to take this Mark Twain quote lightly. These authors include James Joyce, Harper Lee, Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Cormac McCarthy, Joyce Carol Oates, Jane Austen, Kurt Vonnegut, and Banana Yoshimoto. Are they on point when it comes to grammar and conventions all the time? No. But that’s precisely the point. You have to learn the rules to break them. With this in mind, I think that Twain speaks to that exact point in the aforementioned quote.
You have to practice and learn the discipline before you can try to break away to create something new. Unfortunately (or fortunately) writers are bound by structure whether we acknowledge it our not. We learn it young and we see it perfected in text by those who have come before us. No matter, we can take what they have done and turn it into something new. That’s as long as we learn the basic structure first.
Getting to the point where we can break the rules in our art takes time. But, with enough practice and understanding of the fundamentals…we’ll get there.
It goes without saying that Mark Twain has a myriad of books that are worth reviewing. In fact, I’ve reviewed A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court in excessive detail on The Writing Post. Yet, Twain has a great many short-form pieces that are worth discussing, including his essay collections. In Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth, published “posthumously” in 1962, the author expresses his feelings about Earth and governance–and a few other life-adjacent topics.
Summary of Letters from the Earth
Background
Twain’s Letters from the Earth features a variety of different writings put together by “Twain’s second literary executor” Bernard DeVoto. These pieces include stories about Satan and his fellow angels, a historical account of Adam and Eve, critiques on other writer’s writing styles, and always a decent amount of perilous satire.
In the foreword of the book, Literary Editor of the Mark Twain Papers Henry Nash Smith writes that DeVoto submitted a manuscript of Letters from the Earth in 1939. However, Twain’s family kept it from seeing the light of day for reasons of impropriety.
As stated: “…when Clara Clemens read the manuscript she objected to the publication of certain parts of it on the ground that they presented a distorted view of her father’s ideas and attitudes.” Obviously, it is to the family’s only opinion whether something is published or not, but I might argue that Twain’s views on life were sometimes overly critical and distorted themselves, shifting from novel to novel. Pastoral, reflective, and cynical in Huckleberry Finn while biting, violent, critical, and depressed in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. However, the critical approach to religion surprised critics as Mark Twain’s atheism shocked a Christian-focused society.
Of course, the book would eventually be published and here we are today. Smith also points out that the volume of writings contained in Letters from the Earth is cut into multiple sections.
Letters from the Earth Writings
The novel features biblical themes in a collection of letters between Satan and the angels Gabriel and Michael. In these letters, Satan dissects human life. In these letters, Satan laments the strangeness of human rationale and how they perceive their own beliefs. He also tears into God’s hypocrisy related to a variety of actions. These include Adam and Eve to violence toward the innocent. Similarly, there are moralistic tales from the POV of a feline family. There is also a good deal of pondering on why humans assume their superiority on Earth in some. The essays in question focused on kangaroos courts and the evil nature of humanity.
Book Blurb
From the book: “In Letters from the Earth, Twain presents himself as the Father of History, reviewing and interpreting events from the garden of Eden through the Fall and the Flood, translating the papers of Adam and his descendants down through the generations. First published fifty years after his death, this eclectic collection is vintage Twain: sharp, witty, imaginative, complex, and wildly funny.”
Critical Response
In looking for a critical response on Amazon, I used my edition of the book (Perennial Classics, Feb. 2004) to siphon reviews. The positive reviewers stated that Letters from the Earth “is sharp, witty, frequently funny, irreverent.” Other stated that it should be “required reading.” Interestingly, one review stated that the book is “For Hardcore Twain Fans Only.” They go on to write that “Its (sic) recommended that you read his most famous titles first and then come back to this if you’re craving more.”
In looking for negative reviews of Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth on Amazon, I found that most of the negatives aimed at the edition of the book. This was different from the text itself, which I suppose speaks volumes of the content. Nevertheless, three to four star reviews address that it is “tough to read” and that some readers had to “look up” words “in a dictionary.” Most damning is that for some readers it “failed to hold interest.”
In positive reviews, The New York Times Book Review stated that Twain’s attitude in the book was “of Swift” and “the intellectual contempt is that of Voltaire,” and finally that “the imagination is that of one of the great masters of American writing.” Likewise, the Chicago Sunday Tribune stated that “Here Twain takes some of man’s most revered beliefs and demonstrated their downright preposterousness when examined in a cold light.”
Impressions
Some of the middling reviews of Letters from the Earth address my own criticisms of the text. Twain’s style and echelon of prioritization in writing is sometimes confusing and arbitrary. In this way, his style can be “wandering and garbled at times.” Some examples include the structure of Letters from the Earth. Perhaps, if I gave it more time, I could put themes together, but the book seems to be organized by no real relationship. Satan writes to Gabriel and Michael in the titular story, and then we venture into a bedtime story about cats. Again, though, I have yet to read this book in full and would need time to analyze its contents.
Though, coming back from Chicago after purchasing this text, I realized that I was going to need some help contextualizing. Twain’s essays and writings often need context. This is because (as a matter of theology) it is important to know when somebody lived and how the populace perceived the Church at that time, as far as politically and necessity. A dry read of Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth book would be create conflict for any reader
Works cited
Twain, Mark. Letters from the Earth. Harper Collins. 1991, 2004. Print.
Mark Twain allegedly was born during a visit from Halley’s Comet and died upon its return some 76.8 years later. Twain certainly has a lot of mystic about his legacy. His death and final words are up for debate as well. While this may be morbid, it’s therapeutic to spend time deciphering the last words of the dead if only to understand our own mortality and what they have to say before crossing over. In this post, we are going to look at Mark Twain’s last words, and see how they are in fact a little sadder than one would think.
Twain’s Last Words (or scribbles)
Twain died of angina pectoris, according to reports, and lay bedridden leading up to his death. Being a legendary author, there are a few versions of his death.
One Version of Events
Conflicting stories exist for most things in history. After all, the winners are the ones writing about history. Or, in this case, those who were there to witness the end times of popular authors. According to some, Twain did not speak his last words; rather, he wrote them.
Twain had been bedridden with sickness and was hardly conscious in his last weeks of life. This may have something to do with his 20-cigar-a-day habit affecting his ability to breath. Regardless, he woke up on the day of his death and briefly spoke to his daughter, Clare, before requesting his glasses to write a note. The scribbles of his note were the last words he jotted before falling back asleep and dying sometime later.
Allegedly, all he only wrote: “Goodbye. If we meet…”
Another Version of Events
Another story, and one of the more popular stories of his death, says that Twain held Clara’s hand and uttered, “If we meet…” before falling to sleep and dying “several hours later.” What he wanted to say is a mystery.
Similarly, he may have asked for his glasses.
Grief, as it has been written, plagued Twain for most of his life. In a 1910 article by the Arizona Journal-Miner, the author states that Twain, “died of a broken heart.”
“Feeling unequal to the conversation, he said, ‘Give me my glasses.’ These were his last words. Laying them aside, he first sank into a reverie, and later into final unconsciousness.”
Why His Death is One Shrouded in Sorrow
Whether true or not, I think there is something peaceful about his death in the second story. After the loss of his wife and two daughters–one to spinal meningitis and another to accidental drowning–one can only imagine the heartache he must have felt at the end of his life. As stated elsewhere on the blog, Twain cared deeply about his family. To pass away quietly while holding his only remaining daughter’s hand sounds lovely to someone who had lived through so much pain and loss. Therefore, it doesn’t really matter what Mark Twain’s last words were, because he had lived and died with those he cared about the most.
Author and friend, William Dean Howells wrote a eulogy for Twain and stated:
“Twain saw the humor of life, for ever he portrays real types with force and truth, to make them permanent … His most audacious sallies were terse and yet strongly grave. As a moralist, he showed his love of humanity and his hatred of sham, and this sense of duty formed his most ironic and debonair preachments.”
Today we are going to take a brief look at the Preface and A Word of Explanation sections of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain. In these sections we learn a little about our protagonist and a sort of metacognitive narrator who stumbles into him. Additionally, we are going to learn about the protagonist. We will glean a great deal from his thoughts about the new, albeit old, world that he now inhabits. If you have never read this book, this post will help guide you.
A Mark Twain Preface
In the preface, Twain defends some of his feelings on the book from later accusations related to accuracy. However, as the preface came out in the 1889, I assume he was preparing himself against future critiques.
More specifically, Twain addresses his historical accuracy within the book. In his own way, he attempts to allay the historical perfectionists’ tempers toward he, the writer. Twain writes: “… it is safe to consider that it is no libel upon the sixth century to suppose them to have been in practice in that day also. One is quite justified in inferring that whatever one of these laws or customs was lacking in that remote time, its place was competently filled by a worse one.”
As he states, a pessimistic view of history may be a useful one to use while reading, as even if you disagree with his assessment of the laws and mores of the culture during the sixth century … it was probably much worse than you can imagine. Though funny, Mark Twain was a man of wit and cynicism.
“Ancient hauberk, date of the sixth century, time of King Arthur and the Round Table; said to have belonged to the knight Sir Sagramor le Desirous; observe the round hole through the chain-mail in the left breast; can’t be accounted for; supposed to have been done with a bullet since invention of firearms—perhaps maliciously by Cromwell’s soldiers.” — Mark Twain
Mark Twain, Narrator
Here, Twain begins the narrative and reveals himself to be a visitor to Warwick Castle. He stumbles into a “curious stranger” who attracts the speaker through his “candid simplicity, his marvelous familiarity with ancient armor, and the restfulness of his company.” Twain points out that the man talked endlessly.
Twain takes note of how friendly the curious stranger seems to be with characters of history: Sir Bedivere, Sir Bors de Ganis, and Sir Lancelot. Similarly, the curious stranger asks him of his knowledge about ‘transmigration of souls.” This includes the “transposition of epochs,” which will both come into play when the story really kicks off. The speaker then finds it both fantastical and a little eerie at that stranger’s proclamation. He claims to have put a hole through an ancient hauberk himself…with a bullet.
The strangeness of this encounter does affect the speaker, and he retires to his room in the Warwick Arms where he reads Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur. Twain presents the following as an excerpt, and therein the reader can view chapter eleven of the text, “How Launcelot Slew Two Giants, and Made a Castle Free.” The story details the gallantry and wonder of the knights, their righteousness, and their capabilities as kingdom protectors.
Afterward, the speaker relaxes until the curious stranger returns to imbibe in Scotch whiskey and the comforts of his room. Soon enough, the curious stranger begins his tale of fantasy, magic (of a sort), science, and history. Here, Twain tells the reader to get comfortable by the fire and prepare to be regaled.
The Stranger’s History
In the first section we learn a little about the curious stranger: “I am an American. I was born and reared in Hartford, in the State of Connecticut—anyway, just over the river, in the country. So I am a Yankee of the Yankees…” Here, we have a practical man who reveals himself to be extremely capable in matters of engineering.
He tells us: “Then I went over to the great arms factory and learned my real trade … learned to make everything: guns, revolvers, cannon, boilers, engines, all sorts of labor-saving machinery.” In other words, the man was an inventor, and he was capable of addressing most needs if they should arise and require gadgetry.
Yet, a man of his prodigious talent is bound to get in trouble, he explains. An ornery coworker named “Hercules” whacks him in the head with a crowbar. At that, he falls into a coma and he “didn’t feel anything more, and didn’t know anything at all…”
He wakes up and is under a tree. Immediately, a man on horseback confronts him. After the assailant nearly runs him over, our curious stranger goes up a tree and makes a deal with the knight. The curious stranger would follow the man on horseback (and be his property) for safe passage. After the agreement, the two begin a journey toward the horseback man’s home…even though the curious stranger believes his home to be an asylum.
He states:
“At the end of an hour we saw a far-away town sleeping in a valley by a winding river; and beyond it on a hill, a vast gray fortress, with towers and turrets, the first I had ever seen out of a picture.
‘Bridgeport?’ said I, pointing.
‘Camelot,’ said he.
It is at this point in the story that the curious stranger becomes groggy and hands over his manuscript. He had written this book as a journal and then amended. The speaker sits down by his fire and opens the book while the curious stranger sleeps. He reads from where the curious stranger told him to carry on.
Conclusion
The mother told me about the beginning of this book. She might as well have told me about the strangest movie moment she had ever seen. Twain and creativity go a long way. I understood that part of the book long before I ever actually cracked the cover. But it is effective for a reason, as it largely gets the action of the story moving very quickly. In three short sections, Twain is able to tell you about his approach to writing, the speaker and the curious stranger’s motives. Then, he gives the inciting incident that caused the curious stranger to be in King Arthur’s Court.
What is more, the opening of Twain’s book reminds me of The Time Machine by H. G. Welles, in which the time traveler regails a group with a story about his travels forward and backwards in time. That tale comprises the whole of the book. However, A Connecticut Yankee was written almost a decade prior and features the time shift narrative trope. It conveys both the fantastical nature of the narrative itself–fairy tale–and the morality play. This is no no doubt carved into each chapter, including knights taking ownership, and castles on hills separating social classes.
Lastly, through both the speaker and curious stranger, Twain is able to create a dichotomy. I would assume this is his own dichotomy. Twain is a practical man of the times and a reflective, bookish character. Through both voices we have one of rational madness and one of careful attentiveness. Each character serves their purpose to propel the initial action and the story moves onward. Mark Twain does this decisively and accurately.
As I had read Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, I couldn’t help but think of the many themes in the text. Twain manages to explore a variety of disparate ideas. These include science and technology in an age when superstitions reigned, and the violence of society throughout time. He also analyzes the permanence of history, and even parental sympathies and loved ones. In this post, I would like to examine just one of these themes: parental love.
Parental Love
Small Pox Episode
Throughout the book, our protagonist Hank Morgan finds himself in situations where individuals are either sick or dying at the hands of society. Nearby are their loved ones. For example, during a plague outbreak in the kingdom, King Arthur and Hank stumble upon a home afflicted with smallpox. A woman lies in bed, dying of sickness. King Arthur, meanwhile, retrieves her daughter from the eaves. He steps over the bodies of her other loved ones on the way out. He places the smallpox-afflicted child into the arms of her dying mother.
As Twain states: “She gave a sharp, quick glance at her eldest daughter, then cried out, ‘Oh, my darling!’ and feebly gathered the stiffening form to her sheltering arms. She had recognized the death rattle.” It is a poignant moment in a book otherwise rife in wackiness.
Later in the book, Hank expresses his own tenderness toward children. He states that childhood is marked by “mispronunciations” and “there’s no music that can touch it …” He also states that “one grieves when it wastes away and dissolves into correctness…” In other words, the loss of a child’s innocence is the real tragedy of life, and cherishing their naivety is the essence of loving parenthood.
Burned at the Stake and Accused of a Crime
Furthermore, a woman is burned at the stake while Hank and Arthur are held captive. The woman in question clings to her children before they are pulled from her and she is set ablaze. This horrifying scene illustrates the betrayal and heinous violence of the Middle Ages. In the scene, the woman is “fastened her to a post,” and “they brought wood and piled it about her.” Eventually, “they applied the torch while she shrieked and pleaded and strained her two young daughters to her breast; and our brute, with a heart solely for business, lashed us into position about the stake and warmed us into life” (Twain).
At one point, somebody accuses a woman of a crime for which she is guilty. However, the story reveals that she stole to afford food for herself and her child. In medieval Europe, “extenuating circumstances” did not exist, so the court’s have her hanged. Yet, before she is executed, she gives her child to a local cleric and thanks him for his generosity in protecting the child.
The scene plays out after “they put the noose around the young girl’s neck,” and then struggled to get the knot in the correct spot because “she was clutching the baby all the time, showering it with kisses, and holding it to her face and her breast, drenching it with tears, and half moaning.” Even the baby cannot understand what is happening, so it is “cooing, laughing, and kicking its feet with delight” (Twain).
Hank’s Paternal Love
Yet, as society changes around Hank, he himself experiences a personal transformation. Initially, he acts in a self-serving manner, leveraging his superior knowledge to gain power and influence. However, as he witnesses the consequences of his actions, Hank begins to question the ethics of his choices. Gradually, Hank begins to see the customs of the kingdom as something nuanced and stunted. This is in part due to the lack of innovation within society. This shift in mindset is a testament to the growth of his character. We see him wed to Sandy years after his initial adventures due to her love and adoration. Finally, Hank Morgan himself lies in bed, holding the narrator’s hand and deliriously calling out to his wife, Sandy, and his child, Hello Central.
Conclusion
Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is replete with themes of parental love and sacrifice. Hank Morgan, as a character, undergoes a transformation throughout the story. At first, he is portrayed as someone who is completely dumbfounded by the foolishness of the medieval kingdom. He views the society around him, with its superstitions and antiquated customs, with a mixture of disgust and disdain. As we know now, he had a paradigm shift and saw the light of love for his family.
As it relates to Mark Twain, he lost three of his four children before his own death. These included Langdon Clemens (19 Months), Olivia Susan Clemens (24 years old), Jane Lampton Clemens (29 years old). This paternal instinct is apparent in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Twain himself had already lost his son Langdon at this point in his life. In Twain’s writings, children were a poignant subject. Twain, too, had a deep care for his children and for the wonder that pervades them.
Twain stated in a letter to Dorothy Quick, daughter of Henry Stanhope Quick and a member of Twain’s Aquarium Club, on August 9, 1907: “I thought this was a home. It was a superstition. What is a home without a child?” Twain was referencing her absence, but in this we see Twain as having effecting for childhood youth as a sort of rejuvenate. His death is made all the more affecting as he held his only remaining daughter’s hand as he pressed on into twilight.
As it appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune, and as stated on this blog, in his final moments, Twain held his loved one’s hand and uttered, “If we meet…” before falling asleep and dying. While we will never know what he wanted to say, the initial sentiment seems both loving and paternal.
Works Cited
Schmidt, Barbara. “Mark Twain’s Angel-Fish Roster and other young women of interest.” Twainquotes.com. Web. [Link to the source]
Project Gutenberg. (n.d.). A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, by Mark Twain. [Link to the source]
We have looked at a lot of movements on this blog, but today we look at the era of literary realism. We have even discussed writers from this particular era, so it’s high-time to see what these realistic writers were up during the time of the American Civil War.
The Roots of the Movement
As we see so often from movements, artistic and otherwise, there can be a good deal of push-back from creators who were too young to contribute to the previous movement or just had no interest in creating in a style they didn’t like (the modernists, for example). Similarly, the realism movement exploded at the end of the Romantic period as the writers of this era wanted to depict a less glamorized world.
Thus, the “realism” aspect of the era itself is derived from authors avoiding a romantic view of the world. They wanted to show people living and breathing in a natural environment as honestly as possible.
Realism rejects imaginative idealization in favor of a close observation of outward appearances. As such, realism in its broad sense has comprised many artistic currents in different civilizations.
If you look closely, it is actually fairly hard to distinguish literary realism from naturalism for the above reasons. However, keep in mind that conveying a real view of the world is essential for these writers, so more honest dialogue and setting were common in the books that appeared in the late 19th century.
Additionally, after the Civil War, the US advanced in numerous ways that included a more literate populace, increased urbanization, and a larger population, and this, “provided a fertile literary environment for readers interested in understanding these rapid shifts in culture,” (Campbell).
Important Authors of Realism
The genre was much defined by the author’s works and their attempts to interpret the world around them. Honore de Balzac, for instance, attempted to give an “encyclopaedic portrait of the whole range of French society …” (Britannica). Meanwhile, the genre did not fully develop until later in the 1860s and 1870s. These authors included Charles Dickens, George Elio, Leo Tolstoy, and William Dean Howells.
Some novels from the realism movement include:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Works Cited
Campbell, Donna M. “Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890.” Literary Movements. Washington State University. Sept. 7th, 2015. Web.
“What is Literary Realism? Definition and Examples of the Realism Genre in Literature.” Masterclass. Aug. 15, 2019. Web.
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