litnciv8-Mark Twain

     I really enjoyed reading The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain, it was an awesome book! Mark Twain was certainly an interesting and funny character. He wasn’t afraid to comment on social situations or the current issues of the day. He seemed like a wise man, and yet a bit silly at times. His personality and beliefs reflected in his writing. And he made me laugh a lot in this book.

     There are a lot of really awesome quotes throughout this book. One thing that I immediately noticed was his disdain for the human race. I found 2 examples of his disdain. One of his famous quotes goes like this, “The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.” Not only is Mark Twain critiquing humanity, he is critiquing himself as well. His analogy was humorous, because he is actually acknowledging that he is a greater coward than most humans. His humor also made me think about the human condition, and what a sad state it must be in if he feels like he needs to make this statement (Ayres 49). The second quote goes, “Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn’t any. But this wrongs the jackass.” This quote didn’t offend me. On the contrary, I thought it quite hilarious. I laughed, even though I realized that this quote does have a grain of truth. Our society, the human society, has a lot of issues. What’s even sadder is how he says that it is an insult to the jackass if we compare ourselves to it (Ayres 17).

     Mark Twain didn’t just critique human society, he also got specific and made witty and funny quotes about human flaws as well. One such quote goes, “St. Peter’s, Vesuvius, Heaven, Hell, everything that is much described is bound to be a disappointment at first experience.” Now at first, I merely found this quote controversial, because how can Heaven be a disappointment? Heaven is more wonderful than we can ever imagine. But then, I found the critical humor in this as I realized that Mark was criticizing the fact that people often build their expectations to such a high degree that they get disappointed when their expectations fall short. I just found it humorous that he exaggerated these “something’s” as monumental places (Ayres 232).

     I also noticed that Mark Twain was fond of making a lot of nonsensical quotes. One of these quotes goes, “Names are not always what they seem. The common Welsh name Bzjxxlwcp is pronounced Jackson.” I found this quote quite hilarious, and laughed after reading this, because it’s extremely random. I have no idea what Mark Twain was talking about. There is no way that Bzjxxlwcp is pronounced as “Jackson.” So I’m wondering what he was smoking when he wrote this quote (Ayres 161).

     Now one quote that stuck out to me because of its magnificent hilarity was his quote on women and polygamy. He was debating with a Mormon, who challenged him that the Bible did not say anything that forbade polygamy. Mark Twain disagreed and said, “Sure I can; ‘no man can serve two masters.’” This one made me laugh, because he was implying that the woman is the one who really wears the pants in the relationship. So if a man engages in polygamy, he’s serving two masters. I shook my head but then realized that this could be true, because my dad doesn’t tell my mom what to do, she tells him what to do (Ayres 180).

     When it came to the books we had to read over the semester, we definitely saved the best for last. This book managed to grab and maintain my interest. It was a long read, but Mark Twain is certainly an entertaining writer. He used critical humor, and made numerous witty comments. This book was an awesome compilation of his quotes. Now I actually want to go and read some of his works.