Tom Sawyer
Clare Briggs
Clare Briggs is a famous cartoonist who lived from 1875 to 1930. Poems by Wilbur Nesbitt.
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As Long as the World Goes Round
January 19, 2025
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January 15, 2025
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The original Hunger Games.Report
That rings really true to me. I’ve read in various places that Mark Twain was considered bottled lightning in his time. I’d disagree with that in only in that I’ve read a modest amount of Twain myself and I think he’s bottled lightning right fishing now as well!Report
I guess I’ll be the dense guy and say I just don’t get the cartoon. Is the boy reading Tom Sawyer? If so, is it [ETA: I edited a typo here] because he’s interested or because he just doesn’t want to take a bath? Or is the boy another Tom Sawyer? (I read the book, but it was a long time ago and I’ve forgotten any bath scene, if there was one.)
I’m also not sure about the “bottled lightning” analysis. When I was growing up (born early 1970s), the adults in my life generally considered Twain’s oeuvre as a sort of folksy children’s lit, full of adventures young boys could read before they grew up and got a job, or maybe started reading newspapers and watching the nightly news. (It was only when I read Huckleberry Finn in high school that I realized how acerbic Twain’s critique against his society was.)
In 1924, when this cartoon was published, had Twain kept his “lightning” reputation, or had his work started to become associated with the “boys’ adventure lit” pigeonhole? I don’t know the answer, but Tom Sawyer, especially, lends itself to that pigeonhole in a way that others of Twain’s work doesn’t.Report
He’s just hip deep in the book and doesn’t care about anything else in the world. It could say “Harry Potter” down there in the bottom. Sure, he doesn’t want to take a bath, but that’s because he’s reading Tom Sawyer (not the other way around).
That’s how I’m seeing it.Report
1924 is not long after his death in 1910. During his last few years, he’d been a celebrity (arguably the first one in the modern sense), who had something clever to say about every topic of current interest. And his later writings were either very dark and unpublished (e.g. The War Prayer and Letters From the Earth) or humorous trifles. So he was remembered as a very funny man who’d also written some wonderful books for boys: Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Huck Finn, A Connecticut Yankee, etc. (There’s a lot more to the last two of those, but no one was looking for it, so no one saw it.)Report
He did up front threaten violence on those who would do so.Report
He was Antimfa.Report
Thanks for your replies, all.Report