Writings by Mark Twain - religious hypocrisy, unexamined assumptions and more.

Anne led our discussion by 19 attendees at Freed-Montrose Library on May 1st starting with THE JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY by Mark Twain which was fairly short, 8 or 9 pages depending upon which version you downloaded from the web.   It was concluded that the story was a good example of a "yarn" where the storyteller enjoys drawing out the story to the extent that the listener or in our case the reader ends up enjoying the "telling" more than enjoying the understanding of any conclusion that one might draw from the story.  

There were numerous smiles around the discussion table conjuring up the image of a super athletic and tricky frog named Dan'l Webster who was owned by a gambling addict who "if there were two birds sitting on a fence, he would bet you which bird would fly first".  There was no consensus by our group on why Twain chose to have an introduction explain why the narrator was inquiring about the whereabouts of a Reverend Smiley who might or might not be the gambling addict (probably not, most agreed) who owned the exceptional frog.  But as far as I could tell, most enjoyed the storytelling whether or not they agreed on an explanation of the story or its characters.

Next, a discussion of THE WAR PRAYER by Mark Twain was amazingly more substantive than I predicted.  For such a short reading which was only about four pages,  there were many comments about what might have been Mark Twain's position. It was reported as factual that he was a pacifist but how embittered was he actually?  Some of us thought he was motivated more by proving irrationality rather than venting his bitterness.  And of course, as is woven thoughout Twain's writings,  the theme of religious hypocrisy was front and center as this was the story of a religious congregation gathered on a Sunday morning to pray for victory.

But Twain very aptly points out that there are two prayers,  "Many of the prayers of men ask for more than he who utters it is aware of"  "To tear their soldiers {of the enemy] to bloody shreds"   and for "little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst"  were just a couple of the clauses in the "unspoken prayer" that those who claimed to be righteous did not voice in the first spoken prayer but most certainly implied.  

Of course an analogy to Iraq was mentioned but also it was mentioned that this lesson could be applied to any war.  Some thought the denial illustrated by the fact that many are totally unaware of an "unspoken prayer" was more offensive when applied to imperialistic wars such as was fought in the Phillipines, which was invaded by Americans and defended for four years by the Phillipines until they finally lost rather than World War II which some thought was more defensible.  The Phillipines was the war that it is believed according to book notes that Mark Twain was objecting to at the time he wrote THE WAR PRAYER.

Lots more was shared including a contribution by a participant whose brother had fought in Iraq and who was sent there by those who had no intention of sending their own children.  Someone wondered out loud about why Jenna Bush had not joined the troops in combat in Iraq.

We easily transitioned into a discussion of NO. 44, THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER because there were at least two similar themes, one being religious hypocrisy and the other being the case of hidden meanings or unexamined assumptions.  Wish I could describe this last theme better because it was the more fascinating of the two.  I think Mark Twain used this effectively in THE WAR PRAYER but in THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER, it wasn't as obvious until after I completed the story.  

The discussion of Twain's use of "duplicates" indicated that many of us had confusion about their meaning.  Most thought they were somehow analogous to the ego and the id or to Jungian psychological concepts corresponding to the dualities of the self. It was also mentioned that the "dream self"  was an interesting or clever theory attempting to explain how we dream and why our dreams seem disconnected to our consciousness and that there might be another "hidden side" that we aren't aware of that could correspond to the time travels of our dream selves.

One of the humorous stories that gave the narrator, August and the reader as well a surprise "hidden side" was the servant girl who was turned into a cat and as a result, when queried by No. 44, exclaimed how much happier she was as the cat.  

In the end, it seemed that August as a result of his exposure to No. 44 (who doesn't seem to be Satan but perhaps a relative of Satan - we never really seem to know) was a more fully realized person, one who had developed from a narrow cultural environment to one who was less naive about how harmful human nature could be.  Yes, he also learned along the way how No. 44 was very callous toward human life but he also learned that Christians were not always good as exemplified in characters such as Father Adolph and his co-workers in the print shop.

We also discussed intermittently, the differences between the authentic version titled NO.44, THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER and the short story titled THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER that one could download from the web and apparently was edited VERY heavily by Paine, an executor for Mark Twain after his death.  The authentic version was much more tedious to read by all those who voiced an opinion and the shorter version apparently was more in keeping with the traditional Mark Twain style of telling a good "yarn" and as a result was more enjoyable.  Mentioning differences between the two contributed significantly to the discussion especially resulting in a sense of a better understanding of Samuel Clemmons, the author.   

Looking forward to next months discussion of THE STRANGER by Camus.  See
http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/Montrose for more info.