The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain, edited by Alex Ayres, is unlike any book I have ever read, unless you
count the dictionary (but I don’t!).
Before I opened the book, I thought it would be a biography about Mark
Twain, incorporating pieces of his work here and there. However, the book is actually a dictionary of
quotes, starting with “Adam” and ending at “Youth”.
The style of the book reminded me of The Tales of Juha, so I assumed that the content would be much
similar. Yet again, I was wrong.
I was excited to read this book, but I honestly am not too
fond of it. I think, as I mentioned in
other posts regarding various texts we have read in this class, some of the
content is hard for me to relate to because Twain lived nearly one hundred
years before my time. While I will
concede to humor in many of his jokes, such as, “I would rather have my
ignorance than another man’s knowledge, because I have got so much more of it,” (p. 113), I find myself somewhat
bored while reading. It is as if I have
become immune to cognitive shifts.
My boredom may come from the book being quite long or the
fact that I am stressed beyond all get out, but I have yet to lose myself in
this book. In addition, I think that I
had incredibly high expectations for this text, and because they were not met,
I read it with a little aversion.
Nevertheless, the importance of this post is to relate
this book to what I have learned and continue to learn about in class. As I have wrote in nearly every single one of
my posts, cognitive shifts are widespread throughout the text. I think he is going to finish the quotation
with one thing, but then he finishes it with another. For example, he writes, “both marriage and
death ought to be welcome: the one promises happiness, doubtless the other
assures it,” (p. 147). This quote
definitely made me laugh. It also
reveals social commentary that Twain displays throughout his works. Furthermore, you can apply any of the
theories, like the Incongruity Theory, the Relief Theory, or the Superiority,
to an array of quotations.
I will admit, though, that I feel like I know what kind
of person Mark Twain was through reading his work. He sounds like a fascinating person (which
may be another reason why I was upset that this is not a biography), and I
think he brings a lot of value and humor to what he speaks and writes about.
Lastly, I want to point out that this is not a bad book;
I have just been in a bad mood. I am
tired, stressed, and drained. On a more
positive note, I bet Twain will have some advice for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment