I laid me down last night, and did not read "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg". I got a little tired, and read a graphic novel about Jack Johnson, the boxer, instead. So I'm a little behind. That is to say, I'm a little further behind than the incredibly behind I already was.
So I started A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I'm only about 50 pages in, and have another 150 to go, and Roughing It looks about twice as big as any of the previous Twain novels I've read, and I've got tutoring after school on the morrow and I haven't played Skyrim on my Xbox in like a week and this is why I never attempted to better myself before now.
Nine hundred, seventy three days and counting.
I read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, the kiddie illustrated version, and it REALLY didn't do the story justice. The way the Yankee goes on about the people of his 6th century is so comically disdainful, there's only one modern hero who can really give a similar perspective:
Ash, Housewares. "Don't touch that please, your primitive intellect...wouldn't understand alloys, and compositions...and things with molecular structures in the...what are you doing here anyway?" Army of Darkness is obviously a take on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, with just enough shambling dead and demons added to make it more palatable to the modern moviegoer. Both these guys are excellent examples of their eras, and what's right and wrong about them, respectively.
I find it hilarious that the Yankee takes the time to quietly create Protestantism, as if he doesn't really know how to instill the "Protestant Work Ethic" without it. It feels like he's playing a Civilizations video game. Man, I'll say it again. I love Twain. He shows the effect of tampering with a less technologically developed culture, and does it from the perspective of the tamperer who doesn't really see anything wrong with it - Manifest Destiny through time, rather than across space.
I'm gonna get back into it. Hail to the King, Baby!
-Mike
No comments:
Post a Comment