Book 54: On Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses.

Back when I read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, I mentioned an essay Twain wrote about Mr. Cooper. The essay is called "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" and it is one of the most brilliant things I have ever read. I get the feeling that Cooper is to Twain what Dickens is to me (perhaps I need to write my own "offenses" about Mr. Dickens).

Anyway, in the essay Twain rips apart Cooper's writing, in much the same way I criticize Dickens. But he does it with great humor....and I laugh, a lot. Here is one of my favorite passages:

"Cooper's gift in the way of invention was not a rich endowment; but such as it was he liked to work it, he was pleased with the effects, and indeed he did some quite sweet things with it. In his little box of stage-properties he kept six or eight cunning devices, tricks, artifices for his savages and woodsmen to deceive and circumvent each other with, and he was never so happy as when he was working these innocent things and seeing them go. A favorite one was to make a moccasined person tread in the tracks of a moccasined enemy, and thus hide his own trail. Cooper wore out barrels and barrels of moccasins in working that trick. Another stage-property that he pulled out of his box pretty frequently was the broken twig. He prized his broken twig above all the rest of his effects, and worked it the hardest. It is a restful chapter in any book of his when somebody doesn't step on a dry twig and alarm all the reds and whites for two hundred yards around. Every time a Cooper person is in peril, and absolute silence is worth four dollars a minute, he is sure to step on a dry twig. There may be a hundred other handier things to step on, but that wouldn't satisfy Cooper. Cooper requires him to turn out and find a dry twig; and if he can't do it, go and borrow one. In fact, the Leatherstocking Series ought to have been called the Broken Twig Series."

Okay, I tried to just pick my favorite line, but couldn't, so you get the whole paragraph. The point that I am trying to make is that even these revered authors find fault in their peers. I love that, and I love that Twain rips Cooper a new one.

Anyway, back when I read my first Cooper novel, The Pioneers, back in college, my professor had us read this essay. A good friend of mine, Vicky, was also a huge Twain fan and has glorified this essay. And since I really did NOT enjoy The Pioneers, I assumed I would hate The Last of the Mohicans. After all, it is written by the same guy, and has some of the same characters. Not to mention, I LOVE Mark Twain, and how could he be wrong???

Well...I actually kind of like The Last of the Mohicans. I mean, it certainly has its problems. Alice is a whiny sort of girl that I find myself getting annoyed with. If we were stuck together in the woods I would be very reluctant to help out such a helpless and whiny person. I also have a hard time following who is talking and what they are trying to say at points. I think Cooper is trying to give the impression that Natty Bumppo is all-knowing and wise in his speech, but I find him confusing and long-winded. I also have some problems with the way all of the Native American peoples are portrayed, but that is a result of the time in which this was written. I can deal with that. My biggest peeve, however, is how Cooper will make a few chapters super exciting, and then NOTHING happens, and then something BIG happens and I keep flipping to find that eventually, nothing will happen again.

But even with all of that, I still like it. Granted, I'm not done yet, but this is a far more pleasant experience than I was expecting! I think this just reaffirms my belief that you have to give an author a fair chance before dismissing them (but I might be speaking too soon). Only time will tell.

Book 20: Finished.

I finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer loving is just as much as I always have. It is hard to say anything negative about a book the captures the spirit of childhood and adventure so well.

Sure, it might not stand up to Dostoevsky or Austen in regards to real human emotion, but I love it anyway. It is not meant to be a novel read for depth, but for enjoyment. It is the kind of book meant to be read at night when you're tucking in your children, or to give a child for Christmas so they can get lost in childhood fun.

Tom is the prime example of youth so how can that be a bad thing?

As it says in the conclusion;

"So endeth this chronicle. It being strictly a history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go on much further without becoming the history of a man. When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop-that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can," (227-228).

And while I have read this at different stages of my life-youth and adulthood, I still love it just as much, if not a little more. Perhaps it is because Tom reminds the reader of childhood, and how the biggest adult issues still seems to be just fun to a child. Or how children can always surprise you (by running away for a few days then popping up at their own funeral).

But, it is just a novel about American youth and vitality and how, if you try really hard, good things can come your way. It definitely is a far cry from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which I am less familiar with, but special in its own way.

Happy Reading.

Book 20: Why I Love Tom Sawyer.

I said in yesterday's post that I absolutely adore the character of Tom Sawyer and I wish I could someday have a boy just like him. I told Matt this and he looked at me like I was crazy. I mean, Tom is known for crazy antics, running away, and mischievous schemes, but I love him anyway. Although, I am sure that if I do get blessed to have a boy like him, I may regret this post in the future.

One of the main reasons I love him is that he knows everything about everything. And he usually gets the boys that surround him to go along with what he wants. Take for example the point in time where Tom, Joe, and Huck run away to the island. Here is a snippet of Tom's influence on the others,

"Joe was for being a hermit, and living on crusts in a remote cave, and dying, sometime, of cold and want and grief, but after listening to Tom, he conceded that there were some conspicuous advantages to a life of crime, and so he consented to be a pirate," (94).

Once the boys are on the island, hidden away from the town, Huck asks,

"'What does Pirates have to do?'
Tom said:
'Oh, they have just a bully time-take ships and burn them, and get money and bury it in awful places in their island where there's ghosts and things to watch it, and kill everybody in the ships-make 'em walk a plank.'
'And they carry the women to the island,' said Joe; 'they don't kill the women.'
'No,' assented Tom, 'they don't kill the women-they're too noble. And the women's always beautiful, too,'" (99).

Even though the reader can be 100% positive that Tom has never encountered a pirate, he can pretend and play that he does to get the others to go along with his schemes.

Another great example of Tom's vast knowledge of everything comes in near the end of the novel. Here, Tom is explaining to Huck how gangs work. Again, you can be sure that Tom is really going all out to get Huck to understand how a ransom works and what it is:

"Money. You make them raise all they can, off'n their friends; and after you've kept them a year, if it ain't raised then you kill them. That's the general way. Only you don't kill the women. You shut up the women, but you don't kill them. They're always beautiful and rich, and awfully scared. You take their watches and things, but you always take your hat off and talk polite. They ain't nobody as polite as robbers-you'll see that in any book. Well, the women get to loving you, and after they've been in the cave a week or two weeks they stop crying and after that you couldn't get them to leave. If you drove them out they'd turn right around and come back. It's so in all the books," (214).

See? You just have to love Tom for all his knowledge.

But the real reason I love him? It all comes down to one scene, and probably the most famous scene in the novel.

Of course I am talking about the scene where Tom is being punished by having to whitewash the fence. While the other boys in town get to go out and play, Tom is painting. But, he soon turns it around so he is not doing a spic of work:

"'Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?'
The brush continued to move.
'Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?'
That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth-stepped back to note the effect-added a touch here and there-criticized the effect again-Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:
'Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little,'" (23).

Of course Tom hems and haws a bit before insulting the boy by saying,

"Yes, she's [his aunt] awful particular about this fence; it's got to be done very careful; I reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it's got to be done," (23).

Of course Tom caves, and soon boys from all over are clamoring to help paint the fence by trading Tom precious items in return for a stab at painting the fence. That is pure genius. I love it and I hope my future boys will have that skill. Okay, maybe that's mean, but you have to see how clever Tom is and I have all the respect in the world for cleverness.

Anyway, that's a bit about why I love Tom so much. He's such a great, well-developed character that really comes to life in the way he talks and his attitude throughout the novel. I just love him to pieces.

(Can you tell?)

Book 20: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

I have a big soft-spot for Mark Twain. I think he must have been a very humorous man to know and I would love to have an opportunity to pick his brain. He wrote what I think to be one of the best pieces of writing ever: Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses. I should be fair and say that I have only read one of Fenimore Cooper's works, but it was the biggest chore of my life and I hated every moment of it (I read The Pioneers for an English class in college).

The fact that Mark Twain cites the first offense as, "That a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the "Deerslayer" tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in air."

What's not to love?

Twain has also critiqued a lot of other works and I always find his reviews to be honest and wonderful to read. He had this to say about Austen: “I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.” Now, I love Pride and Prejudice, but really, how can you not love Twain for his honest review?

Anyway, I only have two Twain titles on my list: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I have read both countless times and adore them each for different reasons. But Tom? I have a soft spot for Tom Sawyer. I would love to have a little boy as smart and as clever as Tom. I mentioned as such to Matt when I told him I was reading this and he looked at me like I was insane (But at least Matt knew who he was, as Tom Sawyer is one of the books our school district required everyone to read in the eighth grade).

The last time I read this it was for fun a few summers ago. My copy is pretty battered, but I love it anyway. There is a large essence of childhood and youth lingering around Tom Sawyer and I hope I can recapture some of that as I read through it once again.

Sunday Salon: February 7, 2010.

While Matt is in the other room cuddling with the cats and watching the Super Bowl, I decided to sneak into the second bedroom, aka our "den," to write this quick little post of the week. It's how we do things. :)

I am not a big professional football fan. I mainly watch for the commercials. My two favorites this year were the Doritos commercial with the little boy teaching his mom's date a lesson, and the Dodge Charger commercial. Both were winners in my book. But I still don't like Doritos (I actually don't like any kind of chip), and I can't afford a Charger. So I guess those ads didn't fulfill their purpose, huh?

This has been a relatively decent week in reading. I am still behind in reviews (about a week or so), but I am slowly catching up. I don't like to post more than once a day, so I am trying to space out the posts I already have written. Hopefully it all evens out soon. I don't like being so far ahead. The pressure of not having a post written makes me read faster. Er. Not really. I just pretend it does.

Anyway, I managed to finish The Winter's Tale last Sunday night like I knew I would. I picked up The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain shortly after and managed to fly through it. I finished it Friday night. It was still just as good as I remembered. I started Washington Square by Henry James yesterday and I only have about 30 pages left, so it should get finished tonight.

I'm not really sure what I should read next. I've been more or less just staring at my shelves until a title pops out at me, but nothing is popping. I'm thinking I should read a romance (maybe Wuthering Heights?) seeing as it is February and all, but I don't know if I want to tackle that.

Well, I best go join the husband.

Happy reading everyone!

Sunday Salon: January 31, 2010.

It has been another busy week for us. We finally moved over the last of my things to the apartment, so I am officially moved in! There are only a couple small things to put away and then we are settled...it only took a few months. We were both joking that we don't want to move from here unless we move out of state or we buy a house. We'll see which happens first.

I also spent a lot of time bonding with Sparty, who is growing up so fast. He loves to cuddle and he is finally getting along with Hemi (our older cat). They are currently cuddling together on top of the chair in the living room. We are so happy they are getting along.

In book news, I managed to almost catch up on my reviews. I still need to put all my posts about The Dollmaker up. I should just say now that The Dollmaker was not at all what I expected. But it was very, very, very good. I have lots to say about it, so be prepared.

I am also thisclose to finishing The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare. I only have 1 act left, so I should finish it tonight before bed.

So, goals for this week are:

• Make posts for The Dollmaker
• Finish The Winter's Tale and post
• Start and finish The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Make posts on Tom Sawyer
  
• Start something else??

Now it is time to join the hubby on the couch and watch the rest of the Grammys.

Happy Reading!

On Banned and Challenged Books.

Even though I had a post-it note on my calendar for the last three weeks reminding me what last week was, I completely forgot to write about. Last week was Banned Books Week hosted by the ALA (American Library Association) which an annual event to call attention to the list of books that have been banned and/or challenged in the past, as well as reminding us all of first amendment rights.

Even though the national events took place last week, I still think this is an important topic to discuss. I don’t believe in censoring art and literature is art. I also think that those people who are attempting to ban or censor books haven’t considered everything that is important about that piece.

Let’s talk about one book in particular: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. This novel is contested constantly and usually for one main reason. True, the novel contains a lot of offensive language—particularly the “n word.” Now, why I can see why this book in particular is offensive, it is incredibly reflective of the time period in which it was written. To ban it is to simply pretend that one specific time period in U.S. history just didn’t happen.

For the people who challenge books for this kind of “questionable” content, I have to wonder about a few things. First, are they taking into account the kind of lessons you can teach about these pieces? For Huckleberry Finn in particular, I would love to teach my own children about the past where words like that were acceptable and common and how we have changed.

Secondly, are they challenging the books without reading them? I know this to be the case. We had an incident at one of the schools I taught at where a parent “heard from their child” about the content of the book and challenged it. Without reading it. How is that teaching your child responsibility?

Thirdly, by challenging a book you might be succeeding in preventing many others from reading it. Instead, take an active role in what your child is reading by knowing what they are reading. If you personally have an issue with something, then explain why to your child.

As I continue reading through my own list of books, I have to keep in the back of my mind that many of things I am reading were once considered quite scandalous, but as time as passed on, they have lost that shock value. Just as I am sure that many of the current books being challenged (Harry Potter anyone?) will also fade in offensiveness as time goes on.

For your own personal pleasure I am leaving with a few links. One links to a list of classics that have been challenged sometime in their existence. I am also linking to the ALA’s site on banned books so you can learn for yourself. I encourage everyone to read a “banned book” and see for yourself whether it is right to censor such art.

Banned Classics:
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm

ALA Website on Banned Books:
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/index.cfm

Book 4: Author Criticisms.

I like knowing how authors view the work of other authors. I think what they have to say about another’s work reflects on their own. I also find it humorous to see whether I agree or disagree with what they have to say about books and plays that I consider to be my favorites.

In my edition of Pride and Prejudice, there are a number of quotes in the back from other authors about her work (this is a fun addition to the Barnes and Noble Classics Editions, of which I own many and really like). Austen is obviously well-known and her work is loved. So in addition to the praise, I also wanted to post some of the more…scandalous things that other authors had to say about her work. Many of these authors are on my list and whether I have read their work or not, their words will be on my mind when I finally get around to their pieces.

Enjoy.

Lady Byron:

"I have finished the Novel called Pride and Prejudice, which I think a very superior work. It depends not on any of the common resources of novel writers, no drownings, no conflagrations, nor runaway horses, nor lap-dogs and parrots, nor chambermaids and milliners, nor rencontres [duels] and disguises. I really think it is the most probable I have ever read. It is not a crying book, but the interest is very strong, especially for Mr. Darcy. The characters which are not amiable are diverting, and all of them are consistently supported."

Charlotte Bronte:

“Anything like warmth or enthusiasm, anything energetic, poignant, heartfelt, is utterly out of place in commending these works: all such demonstrations the authoress would have met with a well-bred sneer, would have calmly scorned as outré or extravagant. She does her business of delineating the surface of the lives of genteel English people curiously well. There is a Chinese fidelity, a miniature delicacy, in the painting. She ruffles her reader by nothing vehement, disturbs him with nothing profound. The passions are perfectly unknown to her: she rejects even a speaking acquaintance with that stormy sisterhood ... What sees keenly, speaks aptly, moves flexibly, it suits her to study: but what throbs fast and full, though hidden, what the blood rushes through, what is the unseen seat of life and the sentient target of death--this Miss Austen ignores....Jane Austen was a complete and most sensible lady, but a very incomplete and rather insensible (not senseless woman), if this is heresy--I cannot help it.”

Walter Allen:

“More can be learnt from Miss Austen about the nature of the novel than from most any other writer.”

Sir Walter Scott:

“Also read again, and for the third time at least, Miss Austen's very finely written novel of Pride and Prejudice. That young lady had a talent for describing the involvement and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with. The big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going, but the exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me. What a pity such a gifted creature died so early!”

Anthony Trollope:

“"Miss Austen was surely a great novelist. What she did, she did perfectly. Her work, as far as it goes, is faultless. She wrote of the times in which she lived, of the class of people with which she associated, and in the language which was usual to her as an educated lady. Of romance, -- what we generally mean when we speak of romance -- she had no tinge. Heroes and heroines with wonderful adventures there are none in her novels. Of great criminals and hidden crimes she tells us nothing. But she places us in a circle of gentlemen and ladies, and charms us while she tells us with an unconscious accuracy how men should act to women, and women act to men. It is not that her people are all good; -- and, certainly, they are not all wise. The faults of some are the anvils on which the virtues of others are hammered till they are bright as steel. In the comedy of folly I know no novelist who has beaten her. The letters of Mr. Collins, a clergyman in Pride and Prejudice, would move laughter in a low-church archbishop."

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"I am at a loss to understand why people hold Miss Austen's novels at so high a rate, which seem to me vulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in their wretched conventions of English society, without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world. Never was life so pinched and narrow. ... All that interests in any character [is this]: has he (or she) the money to marry with? ... Suicide is more respectable."

E.M. Forster (who wrote A Room with a View which I just finished and loved):

“I am a Jane Austenite, and therefore slightly imbecile about Jane Austen. My fatuous expression, and airs of personal immunity — how ill they sit on the face, say, of a Stevensonian! But Jane Austen is so different. She is my favorite author! I read and reread, the mouth open and the mind closed. Shut up in measureless content, I greet her by the name of most kind hostess, while criticism slumbers.”

Mark Twain (who has many things to say about many authors—remind me to mention his hatred of Cooper when I get to it):

“To me his prose is unreadable -- like Jane Austin's [sic]. No there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane's. Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death.”

“I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.”

And my favorite, from W. Somerset Maugham:

“Nothing very much happens in her books, and yet, when you come to the bottom of a page, you eagerly turn it to learn what will happen next. Nothing very much does and again you eagerly turn the page. The novelist who has the power to achieve this has the most precious gift a novelist can possess."