And Still Twain Towers

As Salon just reminded me, Mark Twain once wrote a memorable sendup of children's morality tales, in which he masterfully substituted bile for saccharine. Jim, his young protagonist, is a far cry from a Good and Noble Boy. In fact, Jim is a nasty, petty little ne'er-do-well who, in the genre conventions of the day, should have been struck down by a lightning bolt, or fallen into a dry well from which, days later, he was  rescued by a good samaritan who led Jim to become a pious, upstanding citizen. But Jim never mends his ways. And instead of getting his karmic comeuppance, he is rewarded for his low character with a long and prosperous life.

Here's my favorite line — a cheap shot, admittedly, but not altogether wrong in implying that, in general, politicians are the last people we should turn to for guidance on morality.

"[Jim] grew up and married, and raised a large family, and brained them all with an axe one night, and got wealthy by all manner of cheating and rascality; and now he is the infernalest wickedest scoundrel in his native village, and is universally respected, and belongs to the Legislature." 

À propos of nothing, really, I also love Twain for the funniest story ever written about learning a foreign language.

Comments

[Martin Owens]

If you are just discovering Mark Twain, I envy you. He is surely among the greatest authors America ever produced. If it is ever judged there is a genuine American culture, an American civilization, Mark Twain will be found as one of its keel plates.

[colson]

That story about languages is one of my all time favorites. Humorous and with a point!