Re: Huck Finn / Uncle Tom's Cabin

[Ralph Dumain <rdumain@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Who is this Jane Smiley, anyway, and why would anyone read
HARPER'S magazine?  I don't see anything profound in this
ahistorical piffle, except that it might be a good kick in the
teeth to the sort of people who read HARPER'S.  To put Twain's
relationship to the racial issue in perspective, there is much
better material out there.  Start with WAS HUCK BLACK? by some
well-meaning Jewish lady named Fishbein, I think.  You can get
this for $5.99 on the remainder tables of many bookstores.  Half
the book is footnotes, and you will learn a lot from these alone.
Also, Ralph Ellison has a much more balanced portrayal of Twain's
work.  The minstrel characterization of the slave Jim does not
pass muster with a lot of people, understandably, but that doesn't
mean that Twain's view of black people was limited to the minstrel
notion.  Quite the opposite.  Twain liked the  tomfoolery of
minstrel shows while recognizing that they were not real.  Why he
decided to minstrelize Jim even though he knew better is a valid
historical question, but it is stupid to blame Twain, whose
indictment of  his own culture was daring for its day, for the
appropriation of  his work in public schools and universities
decades later.

Then to elevate UNCLE TOM'S CABIN over HUCKLEBERRY FINN on
political grounds is just sickening.  This is the worst kind of
agitprop approach to literature.  The Canon -- being for or
against it -- matters to the midcult mavens of HARPERS.  What
matters to me is intellectual honesty and historical perspective.


P.S.: One day I brought my copy of WAS HUCK BLACK? with me to my
local.  A number of teenage black girls work there.  One spotted
my book, picked it up, showed it to a co-worker, and I was asked
what it was about.  I said it was about the cultural origins of
Huckleberry Finn.  One girl said: "Who cares?  It's a great
story."  The other, after agreeing, threw the book back down on
the table, screwed up her face, and said, "Whatever interests
you."  Is it possible that all these well-meaning whites have
wasted their time agonizing over the embarrassment Mark Twain has
caused them?


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