Mark Twain depicts the verbal art of shout boasting. Maybe Trump operates out of this tradition.
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Tag Archives: Huckleberry Finn
The Novels that Shaped John McCain
McCain’s favorite novels included “Great Gatsby,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Huckleberry Finn,” and works by Somerset Maugham. One can understand why.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Great Gatsby, John McCain, Kidnapped, Mark Twain, Of Human Bondage, Razor's Edge, Robert Louis Stevenson, Somerset Maugham, Tom Sawyer Comments closed
Pap Would Have Voted for Trump
“Last place aversion” accounts for white resentment of safety net programs. Huck’s father is an example of the process at work.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged last place aversion, Mark Twain, Pap, racism, social safety net, status anxiety Comments closed
My “Last Lecture”
I share here my “last lecture” from my retirement ceremony. (But rest assured: I will not be retiring from this blog.)
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aristotle, Bertolt Brecht, Chinua Achebe, Divine Comedy, Goethe, Heart of Darkness, Horace, integration, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, Martha Nussbaum Wayne Booth, Matthew Arnold, Percy Shelley, Plato, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Samuel Johnson, segregation, Sir Philip Sydney, Terry Eagleton, W. E. B. Du Bois, Wayne Booth Comments closed
A Cradle Yet Shall Save the Earth
Mark Twain has fun in “Huckleberry Finn” with today’s New Testament reading, which is about Moses being discovered in “the bushrushers.” Victor Hugo also has a charming poem about the incident.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Moses on the Nile", Exodus, Mark Twain, Moses, Victor Hugo Comments closed
How Trump Is Changing the Discourse
Adam Gopnik of “New Yorker” and Andrew Sullivan of “New York” are very, very frightened by the rise of Trump. As they explain why, they quote Tom Stoppard, Sinclair Lewis, Mark Twain, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Plato.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Fascism, GOP, It Can't Happen Here, J. R. R. Tolkien, Jumpers, Lord of the Rings, Mark Twain, politics, Presidential politics, protofascism, Sinclair Lewis, Tom Stoppard Comments closed
Cruz as Beowulf? Try Grendel
Thursday Normally I would be delighted with a New York Times article that matched up presidential candidates with works of literature, such as Ted Cruz with Beowulf, Hillary Clinton with Persuasion, and Bernie Sanders with Around the World in 80 Days. This piece, however, strikes me as so uninformative that it’s all but useless. I’ve tried […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Around the World in 80 Days, Beowulf, Bernie Sanders, Carla Fiorina, Charles Dickens, Democrats, Donald Trump, Election 2016, GOP, Hillary Clinton, Jane Austen, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne, Mansfield Park, Marco Rubio, Mark Twain, Mike Huckabee, Oliver Twist, Persuasion, politics, Rand Paul, Tale of Two Cities, Ted Cruz Comments closed
Trump as the Duke of Bilgewater
Although a couple of recent articles have compared Donald Trump to Pap in “Huckleberry Finn,” I find him to be much more akin to the Duke and the Dauphin. Which is to say, an ace con artist.