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. 

>>> 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. <<<

I love all the 16 or so folks living in my brain to have discussions with each other.  The only unnerving thing is when 'real folks' (sitting around me) notice it.... 'Who are you talking to?', I've been asked many times....

The only answer that seems to get me off the hook:  'Oh, I'm talking to myself... If I talk to other people they seem to get bored, BUT I always listen to myself when I'm doing talking!'

And then there's the alternative: typing stuff on Peterman's Eye and launching it off into a world of pixel dust.

Missive,

 I love a great debate.  Drop you hat and I am in the game.  What I struggle with is our reaction to Twain.  How could there be so much interest  in Twain especially then when he swam aginst such a swift current?  If the answer lay in his phrase I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position, I find that a sad parallel when phenomona like to Bill Clinton just saying I'm sorry and society saying  thats right...he's our man.  I'm only using him today because we seem to be blindly accepting his wifes appointment to Secretary of State while he has his fingers into the Dubai pie up to his elbows.  Is it that we find it easy to trust an honest thief...I think not.  Or is it that we are so prepared to forgive an honest thief.  Not that either.  Then is it simply that we recognize that we are equally capable and we tip our hat and call him a good character wher wit prevails over virtue?

Missive,

I thought I'd add that if a fiction writer does not expose an inner conflict, the likelyhood of a moral message has met its wits end.

my humble attempt to emmulate Twain

cheers

I think my view of Mark Twain is more like one of literary pundit...perhaps like a Jon Stewart of his day. To my knowledge he did not shape foreign or domestic policies, did he? What he wrote was his own opinion; the way he viewed life and the questions he saw fit to ask. He could make you think and make you laugh in the same breath. We always have a choice to read or not to read his works...and use his quotes when and if they support our position.

I never rooted for anything man or beast as much as I pulled for that scarred up old whale. Stay under Moby- go deep!

Captain Neptune,

I certainly hope that whichever one of us makes it to NYC or NC respectively will look the other one up.

MissIve nad Peter,

I want in on that literary game of "I never".  This year has been a life-changing one for me in terms of literature.  I woke up one morning, this spring, and said "I'm 34 years old and I've never read a single book by Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Bronte, Austen, or Hardy!"  And I started reading.  I've been having the time of my life.  But there's still a lot of "I never" out there.

DPR ~ You really should carry a paperback dog eared copy of a Fitzgerald Novel with you at all times, especially if you ever ride on a trains,trams, L's or subways....  :) 

Mark Twain was an Aspie.   Read a Banned Book today!  Twain like all others in history were products of their times.

Twain was an Aspie..he was a Right Brain Thinker.

NeuroTypicals will have a major problem understanding Aspies like Mark Twain..> Enjoy his product.. like you enjoy the product of computers and internet from Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Charles Babbage and Lady Lovelace (daughter of Lord Byron)

rings90 - I do, in fact, carry around a paperback edition of This Side of Paradise. But I'm more of a bookmark than a dog-earing man.

There are many Mark Twain sayings that ring true in my life, but none more than this (especially since I may murder someone in the next half an hour if she doesn't stop making weird noises while she pretends to work)...

"Heaven goes by favour.  If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in."

Doc Nolan,

You too?

Stoney,
There isn't a morning that goes by, when I finish my run, spouting blood, that I don't think about Moby and his drive to dive deep, or of Melville and the Moby that lived in him.

And DPR,
Speaking of Moby Dick diving deeply, what would life be like if there wasn't an inevitable amount of 'I never' our there. I love it. Which Austen did you read? If you haven't yet, let's chat.

We need a book club. I love hearing from you all.

I just, with great trepidation, picked up a copy of The Shack this weekend.

Paul Murphy,

A fiction writer must ALWAYS expose inner conflict in his character. True.
He must NEVER do so to contrive his own moral message and graft it onto the people in his story. It's the fastest way to kill the bond between reader and character. In my humble opinion.

This is not to say that I don't believe in moral judgement, or even that you can't take a moral thought away from fiction, I just don't believe it has anything to do with telling a good story—with the crafting of an HONEST story. A truly good voyeur trains herself to turn off her moral antenae when she is in the presence of her characters. She just digs into her hole, and tells the whole truth about what she sees, even if it's morally repugnant in her other world. If she is good at what she is doing, she will cry when her 'people' fail, even the 'bad' ones. But she will be crying for them and with them, not because of them. If she is in judgment of them, then she has not crawled inside of them wholly enough to give them, in entirety, to her reader. That's been my experience. Humbly.

There's hope for me yet...

"When I think of the number of disagreeable people that I know who have gone to a better world, I am sure hell won't be so bad at all."

"Call me Ishmael." Our local bank manager's name is Ishmael and I can't make a deposit or a withdrawal without thinking of Moby Dick.

Paperback = dog eared

Hard copy = book mark - prferably post-it notes since that was the genisis of their invention.

Miss Ive,

If we play "Never Have" then we must also play "Never Should Have" which I know I would win hands down.  I'm just finishing a book of short stories "The Living Dead" and yes, it's all about zombies . . .  . . mea maxima culpa! ....... but the contributing authors are the creme de la creme of horror fiction he saya as he swings and misses for his third strike, thus ending the game while leaving the bases loaded and the potentialtying run od third.

In my defense, there are many social and moral implications when it comes to zombies that I have discovered through reading about them.

Question:

What would be a good first M. Twain read?  or should I read about him first?

PeterLake,

How can Peterman seriously think a book that begins with a sentence like that could be anything but straight forward? Kidding. I'm over it.

As far as what's a good Twain with which to begin? Promise I'm not side stepping, but I think you're going to have to apply my tried and true 'judging a story by its first paragraph' method. I sit down in the author's section in the library/bookstore and peruse first sentences. If they pass, I read the first paragraph. I either fall for it, or I don't. And I don't fall for all books by authors whom I adore. I seriously don't like any of Melville's later novels. Love many of his essays, though. That said, I really like Twain's short stories best. Try _The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County_.

Ya wanna hear something ironic, Peter? Your voice has a very Twain-like characteristic about it. Great story teller, good humor, very honest, subtly but darkly satirical. I think you'll love him. Get comfortable in the book aisle. And bring a big bag.

Kindlee,

 I am not aware of any Twain policy making either.  But the pundit thing skirts the task with opinions.  Poetry, you can make a point of contradiction in a poem and both sides still like you. Pundit is most appropriate technically for Twain but looking back at these words would poet work for you?

poet:

Missive,

Austen is on the calendar for next year (probably in the spring).  I am starting with Northanger Abbey because it is the only book of hers of which I have never seen a movie adaptation.  I'm trying (with some exceptions) to shy away from stories with which I already have some form of familiarity.  The exceptions have been wonderful, though.  For instance, I have seen both movie versions of Lolita and it turned out to be my second favorite book I read this year.  My progress has been as follows, in chornological order of my reading:

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Right now, I'm in the middle of The Catcher in the Rye and I hope to have my copy of On the Road come in at the library by next week.

Here's Twain's take on heaven... Satan's describing his observations of Mankind after having been banished from Heaven for a day (this is before his permanent demotion from angel to devil)

"Meantime, every person is playing on a harp -- those millions and millions! -- whereas not more than twenty in the thousand of them could play an instrument in the earth, or ever wanted to. ---Consider the deafening hurricane of sound -- millions and millions of voices screaming at once and millions and millions of harps gritting their teeth at the same time!"

Sort of makes one wonder if Sartre's 'No Exit' was a preview of Heaven... but I imagine Twain might have had some wry comments regards Simone and Jean-Paul's love life (heaven or hell? :-P )

I would suggest we start the J Peterman book club, though in an informal way.  Start with Twain, throw in some Heroditus, a little Shakespeare and then get going.  I personally love Conrad and Joyce, but just finished "The Widows" by Updike.  Now if I could remember all those books.... 

I am envious of the readers here, it is a wonderful forum.  Yes I contribute little but read often, I get on too late, and then another day is looming.

Too little time, too much to read, and then there is the NY Times.

Doc,

Twain and I shared a favorite vice.  Your mention of Heaven brings to mind that vice, commemorated in a Twain quote:  "If I cannot smoke cigars in Heaven, I will not go."

Missive,

Let me highly recommend the website, www.goodreads.com.

unhinged,

That's why I cancelled my subscription to the NY Times.  I wasn't reading anything else!

First, I did not get the sense that Twain was a racist. For his time, he was remarkably enlightened, but he did use the language. Sometimes PC is just over the top (and I NEVER am...*cough*), wish we knew when to quit...

However, John, I have to admit a strong prejudice against zombies, especially the brain-eating sort. I totally hate them, unreasonably and viscerally. I'm so sorry, but their lifestyle is just insupportable. Their customs? No, just...NO. I told my kids, if they ever bring one of those home, I'm putting my foot down. I mean it. No zombies in my house. It could never work anyway, am I right? Kids. They won't listen. And then there's the peer pressure. "Mom, EVERYBODY'S  hangin' with the Z-people! Just this once?" And you know, we're vegans, too-what is UP with that?

Disgusting. I'm outta here.

Olivia, Clearly you never saw Shawn/ Sean Of The Dead or you would be more enlightened in your opinions of zombies.

As for vegans, throw 'em all to the zombies.

wt

Olivia,
Alas, my family too shared your strong bias against zombies. Even as a child I remember my parents warning me about the dangers of playing with children who were always at room temperature no matter how cold the room.

I did have some problems coping with them smelling of rotting flesh, but since I always won at playing checkers, I managed to control my gag reflex. It think it may have been their diet.

Willie,

Now that was classic cinema.  Great take on an ageless theme.

Did you notice that Shawn had a bit of red on him. 

William, that is just hurtful. Your insensitivity is disappointing. Vegans have their place too-we mustn't condemn those we disagree with. Except zombies. And I HAVE seen SHAUN of the Dead, and I laughed, of course, because those were MOVIE zombies, William. Not real. I meet zombies and pod people almost daily, and I tell you, they're just not like us. They don't belong here. I wish they'd go back where they came from. Definitely separate facilities. I mean, can you imagine DRINKING after one of those? Ewww. And I can hover with the best of them, but still-should I HAVE to? No, of course not. And restaurants-OMG, have you seen them EAT? I don't want to think about it. I can't believe we're having this conversation. I mean, obviously, OBVIOUSLY, something should be done. I'm as open-minded as the next person, but I still have my brain, for god's sake. Those zombie huggers who want to give them equal rights, well, they would be slim pickings for the brain-eaters is all I can say. Next they'll want to pass an amendment so they can get married. I have always believed that the sacred house of marriage may only be inhabited by a living, non-brain-eating, humanoid couple. Yes, I know I'm old-fashioned, but I still think just two. That's enough. I mean, who'd get a word in edgewise if we let everybody get married to each other all the time? Who the heck is IN CHARGE here? I'm, I'm, ACK....

I have memories, as a little boy, of our old neighbor skipping parts of Tom Sawyer as he read it to me ten pages at a time. Well, that is if neither he nor I dozed off. Then it was fewer than ten.

The old fellow was famous for never having a bad word to say about anyone- ever.

One summer, a woman from The County (social worker?) was canvassing every household in the neighborhood seeking information about the one really bad kid on the block/street/side of town.

She wasn't letting on why but it would have been a pretty good guess that it involved the kind of animal abuse he was known to enjoy.

That boy was making himself scarce which was a pleasant thing for everyone even his mom. Caught in the open when he saw the black county car, he jumped into the case hole, a four foot diameter well about sixteen feet deep with an integrated metal ladder.

The thing about the case hole at the time was that it was open to allow some immigrant women to dump the tops and bottoms of a mountain of beets that they had been prepping for canning.

The well always held about three or four feet of water that must have taken on some borschty qualities.

We told a lot of lies to keep him cowering down there for as long as possible.

Eventually, he was able to hear her speaking to someone at enough of a distance that he was able to scramble out and make a run for it.

I really wish that you could all have been there to see what a couple of hours steeping in a strong beet brew had done to a previously pale blond guy. It was a beautiful thing.

One of my brothers and I hid under Simpson's porch to see how the man without a bad word for anyone, handled questions from the county lady about the kid about whom there was nothing good to say.

He was already a legendary old gent in our minds and it didn't hurt his standing when he summed up his thinking: "I know he is well red."

How funny it is, seeing Mark Twain in the company of zombies. He brought us out of the depths of Anglo-Saxon mustiness, I think. Hawthorne was all right, but Miss Ive, I'm afraid I'm going to have to say that Melville is, for me, somewhat thankless, a bit like hacking through a jungle with a fork. I'm a devotee of elevated language, but a preponderance of verbosity is, to quote Winston Churchill "the sort of English up with which I will not put." Anyway, Mark Twain established something new: a rough, bright, sparky platform for future great Americans such as Fitzgerald and Kerouac. And now I shall quietly step off my soap box and scurry off into the convenient fog that is currently shrouding my house.

Twain was NOT a racist..today if you say anything ,you become a racist. Accusing people falsely of racism is racist in of itself.  What is even worse, we do not teach history to the point, that people take comments and expressions from history and call it racist if it is not pc in todays standards. I have seen excellent expressions labled and branded racists which were not... Such as "Tar Baby".  A Tar baby is merely a piece of tar that sticks if you touch it...because Tar is black , today some nere do well racists will accuse people of being a racists if you use the historical expression. Anything can be spinned as racist. Reverse racism is the order of the day,  today. Using "racism" falsely is just as horrific as a true racist statement. Judging people of the past as being racists from innocent remarks IS , in of itself, racist.

We don't allow zombies to join our private club nor do we intermarry with them. Z People are inferior... they seem to lack life.

Stoney,

I do believe that Mr. Twain would enjoy swapping tales with you.  He'd certainly enjoy them as much as we do.

I never understood the problems people had with Twain.  I first read him when I was about 10 years old, and even then understood the context of the words used. 

Oh, for an end to idiots . . .

I never had a problem with Twain or his writings.

Me thinks it time for a George Romero film fest.

Good night to all.  Leave the porch light burning.

Hello YvonneEloise,

We haven't met but I see you have become gloriously prolific here while I was away.  So sorry I missed it and delighted to read your comments today.  I liken your defense of Twain to mine of Kipling.  Same situation, different details.

I do take issue with one phrase you use:  There is no such thing as reverse racism.  This is a patently absurd euphemism that people use in an effort to justify their own bigotry.  To judge others on the basis of ethnic background is simply racism no matter which way you slice it.  People use the term "reverse racism" as a way of suggesting that it's only racism if perpetrated by whites against non-whites.  If the crime is perpetrated by anyone else or if whites are the victims, it somehow becomes something else.  And the term "reverse racism" was born.  I am reminded of similar ways of using language to say what we don't mean and justify atrocities, phrases like "the final solution to the Jewish problem".

Now, as for this zombie business, I realize the cause of the troubles of my youth.  When I was 15, and walking down the street in front of my dream girl's house, singing from Franz Lehar's The Land of Smiles in the original German, I did not succeed in wooing the lady in question.  Instead, her kid brother came out and through rocks at me (true story, I swear).  Now, I realize it's because of all this hatred of zombies.  Clearly, the belief is that, if you have one drop of zombie blood in you, you're a zombie.  I'm alive, I'm human, and I don't eat brains, but that one drop of zombie blood clearly made me off limits to that family.

Have I said too much?

Robert-I am so sorry. However, I do not, and will not, believe that you eat brains, and so, I trust that you can remain among the living. This whole sordid story just makes me sad. If we had known then what we know now, perhaps things wouldn't have come to such a pass. Will the zombie issue ever be resolved? Can we ever just forget, and move on? Not while these creatures, whose culture is so different from ours, attempt to invade every aspect of public life, I say! Until they learn their place, and remain in it, there will be trouble. Words will be said, feelings will be hurt, brains will be eaten. I understand that they can't help who they are, but that is even more reason for a zombie homeland. There, I said it. You know so many think the same. It's the only way. They will be much happier among their own kind. They're too different, they don't even TRY to fit in. Assimilation? Forget it. English? Not gonna happen. They have to go. I'm sure there's a website, I'm just too emotionally drained to find it right now.

Lock your doors.

Tomorrow's guest author is Bram Stoker.  Wear something silver.

Vampires are a curse. They really are. Don't get me started...

If I were without Hemingway and wanted to rectify it fast, I'd go with: The Old Man and The Sea. Seriously, one great bath-maybe a dump, and you have your first step without ever leaving the john.

Olivia,

I surrender.  Let's talk about superstitions tomorrow instead.  Ok?  Your a hoot when your stirring up the pot.

Peace out.

Dread Pirates: Have you said too much?  I don't think so.. I don't think you are clear or accurate for my understanding your reply.  You seem to have misinterpreted my post.    ~all people are eligible for being biggots or racists or sexists . if one believes there is no such thing as reverse racism or sexism, then one does not understand the connection with hate and biggotry which knows NO boundaries or directions.  Racism is not just upon people of colour. Biggotry is a cancer that fills hate in any hate regarding any race, sex, religion , culture or anything that is a difference that can innitiate hate even aspergers.  Men have been victim at times of reverse sexism.   Rerverse Racism is when the concept of biggotry is misused..aka: Tyranny of the weak or perceived weak , no matter what their colour, race, culture, religion, sex, or national origin.  It is absurd to think that racism is only lashed out on a few select characteristics.

 I am not clear on your objection to my statements or concepts. If you remember "To Kill a Mockingbird"  The young woman who was a racist and horrifically accused an impaired man of colour of raping her , was a sexist herself.  She used her sex to punish a good human through racism AND SEXISM because he was male.  

 If you contact Washington D.C. and check with the FEDs.  which I have done because my ethnicity was a collective group of bigotry in our local area ... they will tell you as they told me, any ...repeat ANY group is eligible for being a victim or aggressor , not just your basic list that most cities use in their wording.   Chasidic Jews are a group that is considered victimized in NYC in their particular area.  My ethnicity is also a candidate for protection in our geographic area.  Reverse Racism is when a perceived victim uses their attributes that are often veiwed as eligible for targets of hate, as a weapon of hate itself. I would rephrase a famous quote as "Its the tyrrany of the perceived weak" as a meaing to Reverse Biggotry.

As for being new to the board and writing...I don't ask anyone for permission what to write or how much, as long as it is within the rules of the board.

As for Zombies.. my comment was tongue in cheek. I never embrace hate for behavior.

Yes bigotry is spelled with one g.... I like to use two.

Good grief! I decide to pack it in early to get some sleep and now I've gone and missed the zombie discussion!

I have taken my family to numerous cemeteries looking for gravestones of some of our ancestors - my children fondly refer to this as "corpse hunting." They always prepare themselves for this fun-filled family activity by reviewing the 4-step process to kill zombies, in case we should encounter any undead minions in the graveyard that I am forcing them to walk through...

1. Find a weapon - they tell me firearms work best, followed by a machete

2. Taunt the zombie - this is to boost your confidence and to force the zombie into making the first move

3. Attack - they say the only way to defeat a zombie is to destroy the brain

4. Dismember and burn the corpse - this is the only way to be sure the zombie will not walk again...always remember to pack some matches...

I am quite happy to report, however, that we have never actually encountered any of the undead during our corpse hunting outings.

YvonneEloise,

It is I who have been misunderstood.  Tremendously.  Let me start with the easy part:  Of course the zombie comment was tongue-in-cheek.  So was mine.  Of course you don't ask permission to join a forum.  Why on earth should you?  Because I was away, I didn't have the chance to say hello and welcome before so I took the opportunity to do so here.  I was delighted to see someone so new had become so prolific so quickly.  And I said so.

Now, onto the hard part:  "all people are eligible for being biggots or racists or sexists".  Correct.  Absolutely.  That was my point.

"Racism is not just upon people of colour. Biggotry is a cancer that fills hate in any hate regarding any race, sex, religion , culture or anything that is a difference that can innitiate hate even aspergers."  Correct, that was also my point.

"Reverse Racism is when a perceived victim uses their attributes that are often veiwed as eligible for targets of hate, as a weapon of hate itself."  False.  That is racism, not "reverse racism".  That is where we find ourselves at odds.  If a woman commits a b igoted act against a man, she is practicing sexism, not reverse sexism.  If an African commits a bigoted act against a European, he is practicing racism, not reverse racism.

My complaint with the concept is that people feel there is some fundamental difference between one person's bigotry and another's.  There isn't.  Why create a new word for one person's bigotry just because he (or she) is of a different sex/ethnicity/etc. from those who have a more high-profile history of the same bigotry?

Then we agree...we were basically a cat chasing its own tail.  The word "Reverse" Bigotry basically means how the bigotry is performed, not the bigotry in of itself.  As I stated "Tyranny of the obvious weak or victim"  Its all hate equally, the word "reverse" merely means is how its hidden by the perpertrator. The hate is the same.  hate is cancer which eventually distroys its host's humanity. All bigotry is the same hate.  "Reverse" simply implies the process which it is performed not the hate itself. I am sorry I was not more clear on the subject... I hope this clarifies it.