DAY 5 - CYCLE 12 - SEMESTER 2

Today, we began by double-checking the T-Shirt order form. Greg, I know you want green. What size? S, M, L, XL?

We then listened to a lecture about Twain, and I had you practice your notes. Here are mine. Compare.

What are the things that made Huck unrespectable at the time, and throughout the various cultural climates the novel has passed through since?
Initially banned on basis of:
.....CHARACTER: He was considered a horrible role model for others.
.....GRAMMAR: It used the vernacular of the uneducated rather than the more highly esteemed language of the educated classes
.....FIRST PERSON PERSPECTIVE: Far from being a trusted authority, Huck was a disreputable child allowed to tell his story without any interference from “one who knew better.”
..........It was these first three elements that made Adventures of Huckleberry Finn so innovative. A common child telling a story in his own words was really revolutionary. This fresh, creative approach was seen as a threat by literary traditionalists and moral purists.
.....REPRESENTATION OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS: Now, its use of now-offensive terms has been problematic since about WWII. Less insightful readers challenge the novel’s representation of African-Americans, assuming the way the characters present themselves/are presented by Huck is how they actually are. Be careful in your assumptions as you read.

How did this novel differ from conventional literature of the 1880s?
FAR LESS FORMAL:
.....IN PHRASING: compare the text of the novel to the trumped up, stiffened prose of Emmaline Grangerford (a Southern aristocratic character in the novel who uses “hark,” “Lo,” “Whilst,” “Behold,” and the like, which speaking people simply did not do then any more than they do now.)
.....IN SUBJECT MATTER: Huck does not need an occasion to speak (i.e. a death, a significant event, a tidy story to tell, etc.)
.....IT’S SOURCE OF TONAL AUTHORITY: the novel relies on idiom (the way people actually speak and the things they speak about) as an authority, not traditional cultural authorities (i.e. European style novels and traditional Western myths/tropes/conceits).
..........By breaking with this formality and deliberately and satirically calling into question our reliance on traditional sources of cultural authority, Twain both creates and unleashes a distinctly American voice, more richly steeped in the oral, story-telling tradition than the European, literary tradition.
..........Huck’s language is derived from PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, not LITERARY TRADITION. For instance, to describe the color white by comparison, he uses words like “fish belly” and “tree toad,” things he knew and saw. Emmaline, drawing from books rather than experience, would use words like “alabaster” and “ivory,” even though she had probably never actually laid eyes on either.

How does the novel change Americans’ sense of themselves?
.....By giving an uneducated boy the chief say, he allows the traditionally marginalized (but nevertheless, the majority of folks) a loud voice.
.....Since Huck is unaware of traditional authorities (books, the Judeo-Christian tradition, etc.), Huck has to take a basic, practical, pragmatic approach to everything, rather than base his actions on long-held ideas about right and wrong that have been handed down to him. This approach in the novel reveals the self-importance, weak rationalizations, and other silliness in traditional thinking.


That’s how satire works. Watch the following clip in which Sacha Baren Cohen (as Ali G.) inteviews venerable elder statesman of the Republican Party, Pat Buchanan.



Here, "Ali G" is woefully inappropriate for the occasion, from the way he is dressed to the clear lack of knowledge he reveals, and quite poorly spoken. Would you want your kid genuinely emulating him? Yeesh... These are the same criticisms leveled at Huck when he appeared on the scene. Ali G. isn't doing anything new, yet we watch "Ali G." Why? What is it about the cringe-worthy moments about "BLTs" that has us hooked? What is revealed about Buchanan in this process? About what Buchanan thinks of himself? (Buchanan is actually one of the more gracious guests. Crusty old Andy Rooney tossed him out! Ralph Nader's turn on the seat is also quite cringe-worthy.)

In this novel, Huck is Ali G., but he doesn't know it. Twain knows it, but Huck doesn't, and Twain doesn't tell us. He lets us figure it out for ourselves. And everything that Huck talks about is Pat Buchanan.

However, Twain's agenda is a serious one. He is getting at some of the foundations of our cultural beliefs in this novel, in a remarkable way. We take his criticism like her were offering us dessert. Why? He's funny. Note the NOTICE and EXPLANATORY NOTE at the beginning of the novel. From the very get go, he tells us that traditional thinking won't apply here, and that he's very deliberately, and very carefully rendering the words so likely to give us pause.

As noted above, this book is steeped in the ORAL tradition. He writes in the vernacular. When you don't understand when reading silently, read aloud. Your ear will catch what your eyes won't. (e.g. "shet de do" (201) = "shut the door")

You'll find the full reading schedule for your class here.

HOMEWORK:
Read through page 28 (up to chapter 6). We will begin the day with the question, "Does Jim know the boys are there?"

Remember, you will be reading Of Mice and Men on your own this month and will need to have it completed by Tuesday, May 26th.