Mark Twain and Philosophy

I'm going to start assembling some clips of people who have won the Twain Award over the years.  So I'll post this, and update it from time to time. (Please note:  this is not required watching on your part.  Much of it is genuinely profane, and a lot of it is really offensive to many people.  In particular there is blatantly racist and sexist stuff.  I don't endorse any of that, of course.  My goal is not to admire these moments, it is to assemble them, and to think about what they say about our culture, and about what celebrating them with an award says about our culture.) Just a sampling, no special order at the moment. Richard Pryor HERE. HERE  

On to the end of Chapter 18.  This is not longer than earlier readings, but it's an eventful stretch.  Take good notes.  We're back to quizzes on Friday.

Steel Center Stories, Cider and Sweet Treats   Students, Faculty, Staff and Hendrix Families - join us for story time  with Little Red Riding Hood, hot cider and all sorts of sweet treats!  A come and go event in Ellis Hall from 6- 7:30 p.m. tonight hosted  by the Marshall T. Steel Center. Costumes encouraged!

OK, get to the end of Chapter 12.    The link again, HERE .

OK, so.  Finish the Prince and the Pauper . Next is  A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court .  Read the first six chapters.     Take it slow.   There could be a quiz.      LINK . I am still thinking about this idea that maybe throughout our lives we are flitting from one kind of unequal relationship to another...and that that IS compatible with great and genuine care. And great care is also compatible with lying sometimes, at least if think about Twain's view of the subject (the two old aunts, caring for, and lying to, the dying mother and daughter).   Is inequality (and the accompanying caring and lying) compatible, also with genuine respect?  I don't know.  But it is worth pondering.  One way to frame most of the major equality movements of the last hundred and fifty years might be:  "We want not just care, we want equality and respect.  And equality and respect can't be separated."...

Read to the end of chapter 32.  That's only another six chapters. But there's a lot there, so please take close notes.  Those will also help on the quiz.  Is anyone in this story ride-or-die?  This has become an honestly deep question for me. 

OK, so I would normally now have assigned up to the end of Chapter 28.  But to honor my side of the bargain, just get to the end of Chapter 26.  But really know it. We started to get back on the rails today, and I was really glad for that.  We have some great stuff to think about coming up.  (There is a small chance that I'll be out on Friday.  But I'll keep you posted about that.)

We left class early, after our quiz, on Wednesday.  Let's backtrack a little.  For Monday, read up to the end of chapter 20.  And make some good notes.  We'll be quizzing, for sure.   

Read to the end of Chapter 20. Also, I know that we did lean heavily on our reading in today's discussion, but the part about how we're always announcing things about who we are, on all channels, is really important.  We like to think that we are always in control of our own identity, but a lot of it has to do who other people take us to be.  (Hayley Mills, from the 1961 Parent Trap:  HERE .  You should really watch it.  It is not at all sentimental or soppy, like the (several) remakes. Cowboy Bebop, Episode 1.  (This is probably about... PG-13?   just fyi.)  HERE . )

Read the first eleven chapters of The Prince and the Pauper.   Take good notes. LINK

Finish the book.  I want to talk especially about the ending, so make sure you get there.

Read to the end of Chapter 16.  Good discussion today--you are good at close reading.  Keep it going. 

Here's a link to a file you can download.  The book is called "The Tragedy of Puddin'head Wilson." Read the FIRST NINE CHAPTERS for Monday.  Good stuff here--keep taking careful notes. LINK .        Quizzzzzable..... (So very much important stuff here on race.  Please read it carefully.)

"The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg" This is a medium length story, but it is full of details that are important. Read it carefully.  It is about another mysterious stranger.   Here's the LINK .

"It was an awful eleven days; and yet, with a lifetime stretching back between to-day and then, they are still a grateful memory to me, and beautiful. In effect they were days of companionship with one's sacred dead, and I have known no comradeship that was so close or so precious. We clung to the hours and the minutes, counting them as they wasted away, and parting with them with that pain and bereavement which a miser feels who sees his hoard filched from him coin by coin by robbers and is helpless to prevent it."