Introductions are in order...
My name is Toni Morgan. I am a college student majoring in English with a minor of Creative Writing. I am in my final year before graduating with my Bachelor’s Degree (as I type this). I am currently sitting on 86 completed hours of Literature with another 30 hours before I graduate.
This blog is to take a mental and personal record of my thoughts, reactions, and responses to a class where the main focus is on the author of Mark Twain. I would consider myself entry level when it comes to my previous knowledge (or lack there of) of Twain himself. In a previous class, I had read “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” and that was it. I know more American History that he influenced than I do of any of his work. I am familiar with some of his titles but not his content. So, as I read and type, these thoughts are to be noted as my introductory thoughts and responses to my new exposure to Twain himself.
My first impression of Twain might have been a bit judge mental. This is based off of the idea of an author of today’s time stopping what he is doing to shit on another author to the extent of writing AND PUBLISHING an itemized list of why their work should not be considered in the taste of ‘good literature’. I feel like by this day and time that we all recognize that there are all kinds of kind that makes the world turn and literature, like all art, is subjective to its specific audience. If an author of today’s time did the same act, he would receive a lot of press and attention, but at the end of the day, it is still an asshole move. I mean for real. Imagine James Patterson and Stephen King going at it.
Within our first week, the class (and myself) have been assigned to read “The Christmas Fireside”. I found myself very taken aback by my lack of criticism for Twain, his style, or the story here. It is not very hard for someone like to my form an opinion or critique anything of any author. And yet, I found myself oddly satisfied by reading a story of a timeless theme of “good vs. evil”, family dynamics, moral values, and more. I particularly love how Twain wrote this not just for children, but for adults too.
I feel like when choosing the title, it really felt like a “come on kids, gather around the rug and listen to pawpaw’s story about little James” around Christmas time when behavior is already under a microscope either for religious honors or adapted holiday tales. I feel there was a story to be heard by both children and adults within. I mostly liked that I had not read much literature from this time that really addressed family dynamic issues. For this time period, a lot of literature is focused on outside of the house. Maybe this is Twain’s way of saying Evil or Good starts from within the house.
As this entry comes to a close, I would like to state that I hope that I can learn a lot not just from this class, but from blogging it in a form as such. This is my first time blogging and I am interested to see where this goes.
