Thursday, October 7, 2010

Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain - Justin Kaplan

Quote of the book:
"'Mark Twain' is comparably responsive to the demands of his readers. He can be instructive and 'serious,' pious, rhetorical, generous, with straight guidebook information...Through Mark Twain Samuel Clemens begins to rediscover his youth and translate it into literature" (page 72).

This excerpt is from the explanation of the origins of Mark Twain. To summarize, Mark Twain was a character, and a persona that Clemens embodied. According to the excerpt, Mark Twain could be any kind of person. His writing style could change, what he chooses to write about could also change, seeing as the amount of published works grew throughout his life, along with the subjects, genres, and other aspects that made his books all rather diverse. I believe this is important to the biography as it shows what it is that really embodies Samuel Clemens. The fact that he has this alter ego who publishes Clemens' work is pivotal to who he is. As for the latter, it can be said that Tom Sawyer incorporates a significant matter of childhood memories that belong to Clemens. An example of this would be Tom visiting the graveyard. Although not exactly the same, this part was an allusion to a memory of Clemen's in which he found a dead body. As mentioned by the quote above, Mark Twain helped Samuel Clemens extract aspects of his childhood and mention them in his writing. Essentially, these are the foundations for some of Clemen's most influential works.

Connection:
A comparison that I remarked in the book actually had to do with what we are currently studying in class. We are currently in the process of reading The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Prior to reading this, we watched a documentary, learning about Kafka's family life. I came to the conclusion that many elements that appeared in Kafka's writing were elements that involved his real life and personal issues, a strong example being the abuse that Kafka was subject to as a child making an appearance in The Metamorphosis. Kafka makes frequent allusions to his personal life in his writings, (i.e. the slight variation of the name Kafka to create Samsa). In Clemen's case, his childhood sweetheart, Laura Hawkins, makes an appearance in his writings, having been developed into a character. However, he goes further to develop her character and create a future for her as well. She also serves as the inspiration of Becky in the popular book Tom Sawyer.

Although it is unknown to me whether Mark Twain was a prodigal writer as a child, his life is similar to Mozart's in a sense. They both went through a rather vicious cycle. Mozart, the young prodigy, got his parents out of debt, and earned money touring Europe, making it from poverty into becoming an internationally renowned figure. When Mozart had finally liberated himself from his father, he lived a rather lavish lifestyle, which soon made him run into problems when it came to supporting the fundamentals. Mark Twain had made a fortune off of The Innocents Abroad. He spent it on a variety of objects and commodities, yet had a difficulty supporting his family, and was often reprimanded by his family on that.

Also, Mark Twain's writing of The Prince and the Pauper reminds me of the many fairy tales that we all know at the moment. It is a fact that I often forget that The Prince and the Pauper was not written during the time of fairy tales, but rather years later. However, similarly to the tales written by the Grimm Brothers, it has an element to it that allows it to be perceived as a fantasy story that may have been written by the people of the time period in which the piece takes place.

Visual Representation:

Since this is a biography, I consider the central image of his biography a portrait of him. However, not any portrait of him would do. That would be taking the easy way out. Instead, I came across this, which was also one of the images included in his biography, and I was instantly struck by the premise of this picture. Here was a Mark Twain exposing himself, doing something that was completely against the values of society. In person, he was someone who acted against society's ideals. He was known for an alcoholic behavior and for a boisterous attitude alongside that. Many referred to him as a drunkard, and there was always something to be said about his behavior. He recalls being a child until he meets Olivia Langdon. I found that this picture really showed his erratic character, alongside his role as a humorist in American society.
Questions:
  1. Were there any people or writings that may have had an influence on Mark Twain?
  2. What do we know about Clemen's parents that could allow us to draw conclusions on how they affected Mark Twain?
  3. Why is the setting of the Deep South so dear to Mark Twain and what effect does it have on his works?
  4. What is religion's value to Mark Twain versus religion's value to Samuel Clemens?
  5. How did the deaths of Mark Twains' children affect him, and could that effect be seen in his work?

Reflection:
I enjoyed the book, however, I felt that it was almost too flourished to be a proper biography. It was more focused on Samuel Clemen's behavior, and less on what he had actually accomplished. Personally, I had never really had much information on Mark Twain, only the books that he was attributed to, long with the fact that he was born and died on Halley's Comet. As a result of this, I learned about Mark Twain's character, and Mark Twain versus Samuel Clemens. I definitely liked this unique and intimate view of a fascinating and esoteric character. However, the downside of this was that I did not learn as much about what he actually contributed, or what else he released.

Another issue that I had with this book was that there was no focus on his childhood. If this book chose to be a psychological study of Samuel Clemens, then the fact that this is lacking in his childhood makes it almost not as effective as the book could be. I believe that the childhood is almost essential to a psychological analysis of a figure. Also, the events start at a very late age of his life, where he is about prepared to adopt the name Mark Twain, and so on. This also was very bothersome, and even Kaplan's justification for the omission of these did not sway me.

The writing style, although lengthy, was interesting and made it a much more interesting read than having to hear fact after fact after fact. Instead, the decorated descriptions made the read much more compelling.