Mark Twain Reaction

Unlike many of my peers, I enjoyed my first experience reading Mark Twain. Maybe because it came in a small dose. Adding to this was Wit and Wisdom's structure. Twain's top quotes were organized by topic. This prevented me from running into any of the roadblocks that my classmates did with symbolisms or language. Instead it was quick and thought provoking. Moreover, it fit well with Tales of Juha. While the two readings are unique, they share many themes and mirror one another in their illogical logic. Both made me stop for a minute to think.

The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain couldn't have a more appropriate name. Each quote/short story was packed a philosophical punch. Below are two of my favorite quotations. One is humorous, the other prophetic.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered- either by themselves or by others.

This sums up everything we're told from our youth. "Push yourself." "The sky is the limit." "You can be anything  you set your mind to." Etc. Etc. The point is, our parents, teachers and friends want us to tap into our potential.

A visitor to Mark Twain's house in Hartford observed mountains of books stacked on the floor.
The author apologized for the disorder. "But you see," he lamented, "it is so very difficult to borrow shelves."
For Mark Twain, borrowing was a more convenient and economical means of acquiring property than buying. But his friends and neighbors soon grew wary of him. When he once asked a neither if he could borrow a certain book, the neighbor, aware of Twain's reputation as a notorious book-borrower, replied archly, "Why, certainly, Mr. Clemens, you are welcome to read it. But I must ask you to read it here. I make a rule never to let a book leave my library."
A few weeks later, the same neighbor asked if he could borrow Mark Twain's lawn mower.
"Why, certainly," was Twain's answer. "You're welcome to use it. But I must ask you to use it here. I make it a rule never to let my lawn mower leave my lawn.

I feel like you could find a similar short-story in Tales of Juha. I got a good laugh out of this as it produced a cognitive shift. I feel like we've overused that term throughout this semester, but that how most humor is produced. I wasn't expecting Twain to turn the man's words around on him, but it was humorous when he did.

Altogether, I've found Mark Twain to be an insightful and thought-provoking author. I didn't have to put up with the lengthy Twain readings that many of my classmates did or sift through a mound of symbolism, which may be why I am so pro-Twain.