Vonnegut wrote the Opening Remarks in The Unabridged Mark Twain, which was edited by Lawrence Teacher and published by Running Press in 1976. They are dated April 24, 1976.
Summary[]
Mark Twain, by A.F. Bradley, 1907
Twain was an "autodidact" who learned while working at mining camps, steamboats, and newspaper offices, which can make one question if school is actually a necessity. However, school is needed for those not like Twain, who was born with natural talent, just as John D. Rockefeller was born with money. Both avoided squandering their natural wealth, although Twain's works are much funnier than Standard Oil. Rockefeller, a devout Christian, thought God wanted him to be rich, while Twain had little to say about God. He found church services and praying silly in world where invention and engineering had produced a machine like the riverboat, and he thought science could run the world without illusion.
While some see the ending of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court—in which superstitious knights battle technocrats—as a prophecy of the two coming World Wars, Vonnegut argues it better represents the Confederacy and the Union in the American Civil War. The mass killing may also simply be a lazy way to end the story, like Moby Dick, where everyone dies except one person to tell the tale. But there are many hints that perhaps Twain favored the unseen more than is commonly believed. Merlin, the personification of superstition, is a transparent fraud until, disguised as a woman, he casts the spell that puts the Yankee to sleep for thirteen centuries. Perhaps Twain suspected that women, praying, and magic actually did have more power than science and engineers. Only three of his works carry dedications: to his mother, wife, and daughters. This is not to do a Freudian interpretation of Twain, although Freud himself wrote about him for his cunning jokes.
Ernest Hemingway claimed all American literature sprang from Huckleberry Finn. Although Hemingway himself in no way writes like Twain, perhaps he simply meant the latter's disinterest in God. The most Twain-like writer is H.L. Mencken, who also grew up in a border state, came from a technical background, did not graduate college, and wrote for newspapers. Both were irreverent about conventional spirituality and patriotism, and were gifted at using the language of America in brilliant ways. So many of America's best humorists began with newspapers, that it may be correct to view them as "editorial writers gone berserk", having become so tired of writing solemnly and respectfully that they now simply jeer at humanity. Unlike Mencken, who never sought popularity among the people, Twain continues to grow in esteem since he wished "to please crowds without lying to them". During his time, he was a popular performer and many of his unpopular ideas would have been unacceptable had he not also made public appearances. Instead of being a monster, Twain showed himself to be "an utterly winsome sort of teddy bear, in need of all the love he could get". Vonnegut claims that if he's correct, then every modern comedian who ends attacks on society with the phrase "only kidding, folks" is an heir to Twain.[1]
See Also[]
- "Mark Twain", a speech given at Twain's home in Hartford, Connecticut on April 30, 1979 which also discusses A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, collected in Palm Sunday
- "Only Kidding, Folks?", a 1978 review of the works of Stanisław Lem, collected in Vonnegut By The Dozen
- Gil Berman, comedian from Vonnegut's unfinished final work, "If God Were Alive Today", who often ends his cultural criticisms with "only kidding, folks"
- ↑ "Opening Remarks", The Unabridged Mark Twain, Lawrence Teacher, ed., pp. xi-xv.