Tales From This Side

Much has been said about this, one of Twain's less well known texts, regarding allusions to the divided America of Twain's age: the knight-errantry of Camelot that Twain derides is a mirror of the proud and genteel American south; the pitiable English slaves are a thin disguise for Twain's contempt for American slavery; the inevitable routing of Camelot by the rational protagonist's forces lay bare Twain's notion that the old customs of the American south were doomed to failure. However, where Twain's most famous work - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - is almost entirely dedicated to the moral dilemmas of the north/south conflict, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court puts on display many other bits of Twain's multi-faceted persona. Anyone familiar with Twain's personal history will know that he was an unrepentant gambler of funds when it came to investing in new ideas and inventions. Unfortunately, history proves Twain's busines

As far as novels goes, it would be easy to dismiss this book. It is virtually plot free, lacks character development of any note, and verges on tedious repetition in many areas. To treat it as a novel, however, would be an error. Ishmael is designed as a Socratic dialogue and as such is never intended to convey much of a story or present particularly robust characters. Rather, Quinn's clear objective is to use the tale's two speakers (Socratic dialogues are generally limited to two speakers who converse in a question-and-answer format) to convey a philosophical idea, and given the nature of this particular idea, it would be difficult for Quinn to have chosen a better vehicle. This idea that Quinn seeks to impart is a difficult one to summarize but it is suffice to say that he challenges the nature and origins of human civilization, beginning with the human discovery and adoption of agriculture. Quinn ultimately uses his "teacher" character to condemn the practi

One of the problems with returning to your childhood home is the disturbing tendency to find your internal progression, as an adult, in vicious retrograde. Try as you might, old locales revive old feelings and ways of thinking. The coffee shop on the corner reminds you of those whispered puffs of tobacco in high school…and you suddenly crave a cigarette. Your mother asks where you are off to on a Friday night and you are struck with worry about whether or not you are going to do anything “cool” tonight. Maybe it’s the old town, maybe its being under the old roof, but regardless of the factors, there is no denying that you feel sixteen years old, and what poor soul really wants to go through that again? So it was with gusto that I set out to rein in this ridiculous trend that had set in during the recent time in which I had remade residence in my hometown. I’m an adult, dammit, and things will go the way I want them to! (Please ignore all historical evidence to the contrary.) A