THERE were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.
dude knew who he was and what he was about. today his works are treated as if he wrote in our time. districts want to pull his books because he used the n-word, missing that through the course of the Adventures of Huck Finn he was writing about a man whose society didn’t see him as fully human. but how does the author’s protagonist see him? he loves him. he’s his friend.
the book has been labeled by modern audiences as racist despite in its context being a rebuke of racism. the fact that we read Huckleberry Finn and feel uncomfortable is a demonstration that it succeeded. someday books from our time will have the same effect on audiences.
i think today, Mark Twain would write things inspired by people like Ursula K Le Guin, Becky Chambers, or Sarena Ulibarri
That’s one hell of a quote. Thanks for the reminder of what a great thinker Clemens was.
dude knew who he was and what he was about. today his works are treated as if he wrote in our time. districts want to pull his books because he used the n-word, missing that through the course of the Adventures of Huck Finn he was writing about a man whose society didn’t see him as fully human. but how does the author’s protagonist see him? he loves him. he’s his friend.
the book has been labeled by modern audiences as racist despite in its context being a rebuke of racism. the fact that we read Huckleberry Finn and feel uncomfortable is a demonstration that it succeeded. someday books from our time will have the same effect on audiences.
i think today, Mark Twain would write things inspired by people like Ursula K Le Guin, Becky Chambers, or Sarena Ulibarri