The First "American" Writer

Although your travel section is in Beta, I'm surprised you didn't include two of my favorites on the subject.  Both are on the wall above my desk, so I can remind myself of all the places I haven't yet made it to!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.

Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover."
~ Mark Twain

The second is:

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.

~Mark Twain

There's another Twain quote on this list, along with the two that hang on my wall.  Thought you and the readers might enjoy them. Sorry for the length.

080307-The 50 Most Inspiring Travel Quotes of All Time

http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/

Posted By Lola Akinmade

Editor's Introduction - [1] Tim Patterson: I'm typing on the deck of a hostel in a little Uruguayan surf town called Punta del Diablo.  Travelers are chatting around me; the usual conversation about where they came from and where they're going next. Down on the beach, surfers are catching the last waves of the day and men driving horse-drawn carts haul firewood into town.

In many ways this is an idyllic scene, but to be honest, for a while today I was feeling a bit tired and jaded about travel. When you're on the road too long the spark of newness fades, and travel can feel like a long, pointless slog, a detour from loved ones and from life.

Then I started reading the quotes you'll find below. Some made me laugh. Some made me wince. But all of them rang true, and reminded me of why I travel: to learn and grow, to challenge myself, stretch my limits and foster an appreciation of both the world at large and the chair waiting in front of the woodstove back home.

I hope you'll find similar inspiration in these quotes. Without further ado...

The 50 Most Inspiring Travel Quotes Of All Time

[2] 1. "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - [32] Mark Twain

2. "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." - [3] St. Augustine

3. "There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign." - [4] Robert Louis Stevenson

4. "The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are." - [5] Samuel Johnson

5. "All the pathos and irony of leaving one's youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time." - [6] Paul Fussell

6. "Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life." - [7] Jack Kerouac

7. "He who does not travel does not know the value of men." - Moorish proverb

8. "People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home." - Dagobert D. Runes

9. "A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it." - [8] John Steinbeck

10. "No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." - [9] Lin Yutang

11. "Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty-his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure." - [10] Aldous Huxley

12. "All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it." - [11] Samuel Johnson

13. "For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." - [12] Robert Louis Stevenson

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." - [13] Henry Miller

14. "Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it." - [14] Cesare Pavese

15. "One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." - [15] Henry Miller

16″A traveler without observation is a bird without wings." - [16] Moslih Eddin Saadi

17. "When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don't know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in." - [17] D. H. Lawrence

18. "To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world." - [18] Freya Stark

19. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - [19] Mark Twain

20. "Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." - Miriam Beard

[20] 21. "All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." - Martin Buber

22. "We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open." - [21] Jawaharlal Nehru

23. "Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going." - [22] Paul Theroux

24. "To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted." - [23] Bill Bryson

25. "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail" - [24] Ralph Waldo Emerson

26. "Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by." - [25] Robert Frost

27. "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." - [26] Lao Tzu

28. "There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it." - [27] Charles Dudley Warner

29. "A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." - [28] Lao Tzu

30. "If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home." - [29] James Michener

31. "The journey not the arrival matters." - [30] T. S. Eliot

32. "A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles." - [31] Tim Cahill

33. "I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them." - Mark Twain

34. "Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey." - [33] Pat Conroy

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." - Lao Tzu

35. "Not all those who wander are lost." - [34] J. R. R. Tolkien

36. "Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen." - [35] Benjamin Disraeli

37. "Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends." - [36] Maya Angelou

38. "Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation." - [37] Elizabeth Drew

39. "Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe"......[38] Anatole France

40. "Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind." - [39] Seneca

41. "What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road." - [40] William Least Heat Moon

42. "I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within." - [41] Lillian Smith

43. "To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries." - [42] Aldous Huxley

44. "Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art." - [43] Freya Stark

45. "The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it." - [44] Rudyard Kipling

46. "Travel is glamorous only in retrospect." - [45] Paul Theroux

47. "The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." - [46] G. K. Chesterton

48. "When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable." - [47] Clifton Fadiman

49. "A wise traveler never despises his own country." - [48] Carlo Goldoni

50. "Adventure is a path. Real adventure - self-determined, self-motivated, often risky - forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind - and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white." - Mark Jenkins

What quotes did we miss? Which one was your favorite? Please leave a comment below!

[49] Lola Akinmade is a GIS consultant who moonlights as a photojournalist. She has contributed to many online travel resources such as Matador Travel, Common Language Project, Black Travels as well as magazines. She can be reached via her [50] personal site.

51. When you get back from your travels, and tell your friends of all the interesting people you have met in obscure bars and hostels. Only to realise after years of travel, you are the guy they talk about. Cedric Pieterse

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Article printed from Brave New Traveler - Online Travel Magazine: http://www.bravenewtraveler.com

URL to article: http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2008/03/07/the-50-most-inspiring-travel-quotes-of-all-time/

URLs in this post:

[1] Tim Patterson: http://matadortravel.com/travel-community/rsw

[2] 1. "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bravenewtraveler/2315057159/

[3] St. Augustine: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02084a.htm

[4] Robert Louis Stevenson: http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/stevensonbio.html

[5] Samuel Johnson: http://www.samueljohnson.com/

[6] Paul Fussell: http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1272672,00.html

[7] Jack Kerouac: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kerouac

[8] John Steinbeck: http://www.steinbeck.org/MainFrame.html

[9] Lin Yutang: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Yutang

[10] Aldous Huxley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

[11] Samuel Johnson: http://www.samueljohnson.com/briefbio.html

[12] Robert Louis Stevenson: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson

[13] Henry Miller: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Miller

[14] Cesare Pavese: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Pavese

[15] Henry Miller: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Miller

[16] Moslih Eddin Saadi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saadi_(poet)

[17] D. H. Lawrence: http://www.dh-lawrence.org.uk/

[18] Freya Stark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freya_Stark

[19] Mark Twain: http://www.cmgww.com/historic/twain/

[20] 21. "All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware." - Martin Buber: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bravenewtraveler/2315866962/

[21] Jawaharlal Nehru: http://www.bookrags.com/biography/jawaharlal-nehru/

[22] Paul Theroux: http://www.paultheroux.com/

[23] Bill Bryson: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/

[24] Ralph Waldo Emerson: http://www.transcendentalists.com/1emerson.html

[25] Robert Frost: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost

[26] Lao Tzu: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/lao.html

[27] Charles Dudley Warner: http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/warner.htm

[28] Lao Tzu: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/lao.html

[29] James Michener: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Michener

[30] T. S. Eliot: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/eliot.htm

[31] Tim Cahill: http://www.rolfpotts.com/writers/cahill.php

[32] Mark Twain: http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/index2.html

[33] Pat Conroy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Conroy

[34] J. R. R. Tolkien: http://www.tolkiensociety.org/

[35] Benjamin Disraeli: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRdisraeli.htm

[36] Maya Angelou: http://www.mayaangelou.com/ShortBio.html

[37] Elizabeth Drew: http://www.nybooks.com/authors/7333

[38] Anatole France: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1921/france-bio.html

[39] Seneca: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_the_Younger

[40] William Least Heat Moon: http://www.powells.com/authors/leastheatmoon.html

[41] Lillian Smith: http://www.libs.uga.edu/gawriters/smith.html

[42] Aldous Huxley: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

[43] Freya Stark: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9104856/Freya-Stark

[44] Rudyard Kipling: http://www.kipling.org.uk/

[45] Paul Theroux: http://www.paultheroux.com/

[46] G. K. Chesterton: http://www.chesterton.org/

[47] Clifton Fadiman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifton_Fadiman

[48] Carlo Goldoni: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Goldoni

[49] Lola Akinmade: http://matadortravel.com/travel-community/geotraveler

[50] personal site.: http://www.lemurworks.com/lola

...there goes the neighborhood.  M. Twain

Hmmmm.... oh, well.   I'm dying to read Olivia's comments on Twain, since we share a common admiration of him.   One of the many, many things I'm grateful for is that, many years ago, a young Hal Holbrook appeared at the college I attended and did his 'Mark Twain' schtick; I was disappointed when -- 30 years later -- I again saw him, now in Houston, and it 'just wasn't the same'.  

In many respects, 'Mark Twain' had a tragic life, and is one more wrang-wrang.  ("A wrang-wrang, according to Bokonon, is a person who steers people away from a line of speculation by reducing that line, with the example of the wrang-wrang's own life, to an absurdity". - Kurt Vonnegut's 'Cat's Cradle') .

Though I can only take it in small doses, Twain's 'Letters From the Earth' http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/twain/letearth.htm  expresses both my feelings about Christianity -- and a warning sign about how bitterness and militant atheism (and lots of my friends are atheists) can 'get out of hand'. 

Perhaps the hardest I've ever laughed has been at the (famous) 'Jumping Frog of Calaveras County' translated into French and then (literally) retranslated back into English, with commentary by Twain on the quality of the translation.  (Yes, it's all a send-up by 'Twain', who is at his hilarious best when he plays with his readers, taking advantage of their credulity...)  I have only ever found this in one place, or I'd share it here.  Those interested need only let me know and I'll scan and email the entire piece to them.  (Olivia, are you there?  Heh, heh).

I read somewhere that Clemens/Twain would greet houseguests at the breakfast table, complaining that their bedroom noises had kept him up.

Good morning, Doc and all. I'm here, nursing a hot cuppa and percolating my admiration for Mr. Clemens. I'd have to say he is my favorite author, if there can be only one, and that's a hard thing to narrow down. Usually, it's whoever I'm reading at the moment, but Twain is always in the back of my mind, my spiritual Pappy and adolescent inspiration, the first of the irreverent rebels I read that affirmed my secret anarchist, the hilarious leaping literary batrachian who cemented my association with 'that sort' of writer. Father to many-HST, HItchens, Vonnegut, and so many more. RLS was his Scots analogue, but not quite his equal in my mind. Still.

And I'm regally annoyed about this picture upload thingy. Make it work democratically, please!

Good morning, my friends.  Sorry I have been absent these last few weeks.  Life has been very full lately and opportunities to sit down at the computer and chat with friends on the Eye have been non-existent.

But I must make time to say a word or two about my fellow small-town Missourian, Mark Twain.  Like myself, he left his home in Missouri and came to New York where he found friends, work, and vision.  It was here in the economic and commercial capital that he truly appreciated NOT being in the political capital:  "Say you're a member of congress and say you're an idiot... but I repeat myself."

Though I did not know, I am not at all surprised to find that Olivia is such a great fan of Twain.  Among his witty sayings, he included the kind of self-deprecation of which she is so fond.  Note the preface to Huckleberry Finn:  "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted.  Persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished.  Persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. -- by order of the author."

I don't think I can agree with Mr. Peterman that The Diaries of Adam and Eve feature a visit to Twain's "dark side".  Domestic troubles are a famously interesting part of life and the healthiest of couples have them.  By all accounts, Twain and his wife were devoted to each other and I have no doubt he saw the work as a reflection of the little difficulties that two people who are very much in love can have.  We do not traditionally think of Twain as an especially romantic writer, yet I have always credited him with my vote for the single most romantic sentence in all of literature:

"Wherever she was, there was Eden."

that would be "common eye"...must need more coffee...Twain has a little something to say about almost every subject...

"To particularize: the average American's simplest and commonest form of breakfast consists of coffee and beefsteak; well, in Europe, coffee is an unknown beverage. You can get what the European hotel-keeper thinks is coffee, but it resembles the real thing as hypocrisy resembles holiness. It is a feeble, characterless, uninspiring sort of stuff, and almost as undrinkable as if it had been made in an American hotel. The milk used for it is what the French call "Christian" milk - milk which has been baptized."

I've long admired Mark Twain as a man of trenchant wit, singular wisdom and sharp commentary; his independent state of mind being of tremendous appeal, to me. He traveled extensively, believed in coincidence, valued imagination, and penned his unadulterated thoughts on a wide variety of topics. I grew up in New England where he was revered as a master of satire and one-liners, and most particularly as someone who was not afraid to cut through the crap and get to the point! He was frequently quoted for his keen observations and descriptions - including his biting comments about our often wild local weather:

"If you don't like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes."

"There is a sumptuous variety about the New England weather that compels the stranger's admiration-and regret."

"The people of New England are by nature patient and forbearing; but there are some things which they will not stand. Every year they kill a lot of poets for writing about ‘Beautiful Spring.' These are generally casual visitors, who bring their notions of Spring from somewhere else, and cannot, of course, know how the natives feel about Spring."

"If we hadn't our bewitching autumn foliage, we should still have to credit the weather with one feature which compensates for all its bullying vagaries -- the ice-storm: when a leafless tree is clothed with ice from the bottom to the top -- ice that is as bright and clear as crystal; when every bough and twig is strung with ice-beads, frozen dew-drops, and the whole tree sparkles cold and white, like the Shah of Persia's diamond plume. Then the wind waves the branches and the sun comes out and turns all those myriads of beads and drops to prisms that glow and burn and flash with all manner of colored fires, which change and change again with inconceivable rapidity from blue to red, from red to green, and green to gold -- the tree becomes a spraying fountain, a very explosion of dazzling jewels; and it stands there the acme, the climax, the supremest possibility in art or nature, of bewildering, intoxicating, intolerable magnificence. One cannot make the words too strong."

Greetings DPR:  Welcome back.  Now that I think about it, the winter holidays must surely be your busy season.  Work hard, but have fun.  I would love to take one of your tours but I don't see NYC in my future travel plans.   "Barring that natural expression of villainy which we all have, the man looked honest enough".    Mr. Twain.

I find it intriguing that Twain "jump-started America's fascination with the emerging Western territories."  And at the same time was "stridently and unpopularly against imperialism".  Did this irony upon the back drop of a "dualistic man" perpetuate his fame"?  Or did his escape into fantasy story telling allow the folks back east  to find comfort in a blind eye to the fate bestowed on the American Indian of the West?  I only ask as not to criticise Twain himself and his so many clever phrases that actually shine the lamp on my questions, but to draw into question what it is we admire and why.

He called himself Mark Twain as a clever reference to his days as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi. The minimum amount of water needed for the steamboat to pass over a shallow area was two fathoms - twelve feet. So when the riverboatman measured two fathoms on the sounding line, he would cry out, "Mark twain," to say that he had marked twain [two] fathoms.

Everyone else picked their pen names somewhat less cleverly: George Eliot took part of her husband's name; O. Henry picked 'Henry' from a newspaper and 'O' because he thought it was the easiest letter. I wonder what sort of a pen name Oscar Wilde would pick.

George Carlin was certainly our Mark Twain, but I believe the mantle has been passed to Denis Leary.  I just finished his book, Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid, and he certainly has the Twainsian gift.

Mea maxima culpa - I haven't read Mark Twain.

My penance for today is not being able to participate in today's subject as well as begining my Twain quest as soon as I can clear the snow from my driveway. He seems so familiar to me because of his wonderful quotes, his homespun wisdom, as well as his seemingly frequent appearances as a character in many of the novels I that I have read.

Why, I almost feel feral for this omission. I shall pray to the snow blower gods that mine will start up so that I won't have to shovel; and will get to a Barnes and Noble post haste.

I've read and enjoyed your contributions about Mr. Twain, the hook has been set, and the book shelves are reeling me in. I sense it's just the type of reading that would benefit me the most right about now.

Paul Murphy,

I have, in my vast pile of books to be read, The Man Who Was Mark Twain by Guy Cardwell. It purports to address some of what you are questioning.

PeterLake,

I appears that we will need an extra large cuppa tea for that!

How much snow did you receive?

"Always acknowledge a fault frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you opportunity to commit more."

I fall off the grid for less than a week, and return to find Mr. Peterman trashing my Melville?

Okay, Peterman, on principal alone, I think I have to ask you step outside. 

Would that, technically speaking, be the travel page?  

Have always enjoyed more of Twains non -fiction over his fiction. One of my Grandmothers favorites he & the "Good 'Ole Charlie Boy" Dickens were the 2 most coveted sets to have when we played the card game authors....(That game is really where I learned about the Great Authors & their writings) 

Also saw about 3 years ago Holbrook protraying Twain. It was quite interesting but Holbrook was just recovering from surgery at this time, so you oculd tell that some of the Gusto wasn't in the performance. It was nice evening though.  

Kindlee,

You quoted "Always acknowledge a fault frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you opportunity to commit more."

I followed that tact through out my career. It was how I was raised and I've never regretted it. It  enabled me to build trust and respect with my management, my employees, and my co-workers. It also enabled me to negotiate in good faith with the unions and jointly solve problems. Most importantly it has helped me to build a strong and sustaining bridge with those closest to me. As far as the "opportunity to commit more", this was only true as long as it wasn't a repeat of the same fault.

Jeez, I guess you shoved some snow down the back of my neck with that one and got me out of a Monday morning toward noonish stupor.

If there were ever a place for "THE perfect" snow storm to develop; it would be my driveway. I share a Y shaped driveway with my neighbor. There could be a half an inch on his leg of the Y and always, no matter which way the wind blows, or with no wind at all; I'll have at least 3x the depth of snow and all of the drifts.

To answer your question, the city had about 2 - 4"s, so my leg of the driveway had at least 6'' with a few drifts up to 18".

The snow blower gods smiled upon me today so it was painless, however you have led me to break my act of contrition by drawing me in to participate again with your quotes and questions! Sigh, I guess an hour of silence should suffice.

Kindlee,

 

Thanx for the tip.  I have addeded to my wish list as well....at least one day it may find my book case and perhaps my reading attention.

 Apparently no one on Amazon has read the book either.  But in the editorial reviews I find an interesting thread as follows (itallics are my additions)

fresh psychoanalysis of a neurotic who was a:

compulsive speculator: Our Wall Street led by George Sorros

sexist, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski

pedophile, our recent court decisions

and, even in Huckleberry Finn (the only work treated in detail), a racist from first to last. As some people made this past election

In all seriousness, (not that I was kidding about the 'stepping outside'), the thing I am most drawn to in Melville's writing, especially in Moby Dick, is his fundamental suspicion of organized religion. I'll concede (begrudgingly, upper-lip curled) that he's a harder read than Twain. But just as 'savagely' dark and satirical, juxtaposing shrunken heads and Presbyterian communion wafers. Good stuff, if you like the dark humor.

If you're a person of Faith who lacks all faith in 'the church,' writers like Melville and Twain are like a balm.

What's not to love about Twain?

Eccentric sense of personal style manifesting itself in an iconic white suit? Check

Sexy, swaggering frontier grit? Check

Brought the perfect blend of cynicism and curiostity to all subjects? Check

Fairly well-read and halfway decent with a pen? Cha-check 

Total hotty? Double check

(Melville still takes the cake on that one, though. Major babe for a dead guy.)

And now that I'm finished bringing Peterman's Eye up to my very high standards of intellect, I must go eat some more trash food. Did not, apparently meet my quota over the weekend.

PeterLake,

I've never read flippin' Faulkner. Feel better.

OMG!  Faulkner too!  Another swing and a miss for the boy from the Lake of the Coheeries.  I'm so not worthy......

but I did read Melville, Miss I've.  If you need any help with the "Eye" Master, I'll be standin' raght behind ye.

DPR, welcome back.

Yes, welcome back DPR!

Speaking of Mark Twain and missing friends, does anyone know where Mark Swaim went? After the weekend, my liver may need a consultation.

PeterLake,

Wanna play the literary version of 'I never?' Can guarantee you I'll win. And thanks for having my back. Very scrappy mouth, very scrawny arms.  

PeterLake,

It' nice to know my snowball throwing arm is still accurate...especially at this distance! It's those sneak attacks from behind the snow drifts that'll get you everytime. I'm so glad to hear the snow blower gods were kind today. 

Paul Murphy,

I bought my copy through alibris.com

I do think it's always good to question everything but I also think it perfectly acceptable to enjoy someone's wit, honesty and humor even if I don't necessarily agree with some of their personal philosophies and/or politics.

Twain also said: "It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive." Which directs my mind to P.T. Barnum: "Without promotion something terrible happens, nothing!" ...dare I say it's all about showmanship...

Kindlee,

You aren't, by any chance, in marketing are you?! Sounds like the daily mantra in my office. 

MissIve,

No, actually, I'm not. I may grasp the concept but it's truly something at which I am supremely unskilled.

Kindlee,

 I would be the first say that nothing happens in society without promtion.  And without  Twain's wit to say it like it is you may struggle to promote it with confidence.

 That may be turning things upside down, and it may be why I struggle with Twain.  In his irony is the truth and who wouldn't buy from an honest man.

 Hope that makes sense

One of the Bookclubs I am in was started because of Mark Twain. My GF wanted to read Huck Finn, but did not want to do it alone. So we started a book club in order to get a bunch of us to read & discuss it.  So we started our little book club ~ we read some other books at the begining to set our meeting pace & such ~ so about the 4th book we picked was Huck Finn. 

We all pretty much HATED IT.. It was SO BORING & the GF who wanted to read it the most & started our little Book Club just to read that book hated it the most. No joke that it is a boring book, its about a Lazy River Voyage for god's sake. But for me on different levels it also was an interesting read & look into a era that has kind of long passed & seems to get more & more misunderstood on a daily basis.  I love Mr. Twains warning in the begining of the book, its SO TRUTHFUL yet today. Last year GF who hated it was in Missouri & visited his home in Hannibal, saw the cave that is model for the one in the Huck & Tom stories & since the trip she really has a greater appreciation for Mark Twain the man rather than the Young Adult Writer.   

All,

Toggle between the Curiosities tab and Travel tab. Look at the two pics, one right after the other. Pretty cool.

Paul Murphy,

You seem to be struggling with something fundamentally Twain. Cannot quite tell what, but best of luck with it.

Your first comment, relating to the fundamental paradox of Twain as both responsible for generating great interest IN the West while being personally, ideologically opposed to imperialism does not seem in conflict to me.

The former addresses a phenomenon in response to his fiction writing—his uncanny skill of making a place come to life and piquing an interest in that place as a result. In order to do that well, one must be truly present themselves, not explicating or theorizing. Do that, and you've got yourself a Pilgrim's Progress. Yuck. 

The latter addresses a different process all together. Reflection. Philosophizing. 

I never hold fiction writers responsible for conflicts between the two sides of their brain. Actually, I never hold people responsible for conflicts within one side of their brain. I love a good debate, wherever it resides. As long as they're aware the disagreement exists. 

Would love to hear your thoughts. 

&g