Pynchon mention

[vze422fs at verizon.net]

on 2/5/03 10:19 AM, Elainemmbell at aol.com at Elainemmbell at aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 2/5/2003 9:12:39 AM Eastern Standard Time,
malignd at yahoo.com writes:

(And just an aside, speaking of comic novels; does
anyone actually find Mark Twain funny?)


Interesting, and, to me, a timely question!  Story follows:

My 15 year-old is studying Huckleberry Finn this term and HATES it.  She
asked my advice about how she coudl "learn to enjoy Mark Twain".  Sadly, I
admitted to her that I have NEVER been able to get through this famous
novel.  So I went to the library and borrowed the full 9-cassette audiobook
of HF and had been listening to it while making dinner for a few nights just
to give moral support...until finally I cracked and screamed "I can't stand
this book!  Please make the bad man stop!"  I returned it to the library and
took out Henry James' The American which gives me a small laugh every few
paragraphs!  

Weirdly, when my teen happened to be listening in (she at the computer, me
at the stove, HJ on the tape player) she pressed pause all of a sudden and
said:  "Mom, my God, this is great!  Who is it?  Can I find stuff like this
on line?!"  

When I started work this morning I found one document still open--a page
full of quotations from The American which she'd taken from a full text
online and was preparing to send to her friends!  I would NEVER have tried
to introduce her to James when she couldn't make it comfortably through
Twain--but look!  Think she's ready to dig Thomas Mann?
Elaine M.M. Bell, Writer
(860) 523-9225 

I suspect that Huck would seem naive and childish to a sophisticated 21st
century fifteen year old.  I know that's how I found it when it was rammed
down my throat in the seventies. It probably seems even less relevant today.

I appreciate Twain for his place in history - the first true American
novelist ( I can hear the shouts of 'Irving'. I think can back this up but
I'm just free-forming here). Twain broke from the European tradition and
presented non-heroic American life as fit subject for literature. He's still
a subject of national pride. So, I guess it's appropriate to teach him to
American school children. But, their objections should be noted,
appreciated, and understood.

I'm curious as to the opinions of our European friends. Was Twain presented
to them as something quintessentially American? Or ignored altogether?

Joe 
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