Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET by MARGARET DICKSON I no longer remember what grade I was in when I fi rst read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but I do remember loving every word. Tom making whitewashing the fence the “in” thing to do. Tom outsmarting Aunt Polly at most, if not every, turn. Tom winning the heart of Judge Thatcher’s comely daughter, Becky, by taking the rap for her love of books and by their “engagement” kiss on the lips. Several grades later, there was Mark Twain’s masterpiece, Huckleberry Finn. I confess to struggling with the much meatier and heartier novel, an unquestionable American classic. I worried about Huck and his abusive father, Pap Finn. I wondered about the absence of his mother and his aloneness as a child, while I read about him within the safe circle of my own family. Mostly I struggled to understand how Huck and Jim had found themselves on that raft together, and the hand that fate had dealt each of them. Many of us continue to grapple with these same questions even now. Mark Twain was an American mega-star in his own time, deservedly so, and his work still speaks to students throughout our nation. Lo! And behold! The man is back again! It is not just any writer, dead since April of 1910, who can catapult himself onto the New York Times Bestseller List 100 years later. Twain is one of a stellar few authors to have had bestsellers in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Don’t wait until tomorrow. 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Twain himself agreed to this. Understanding his opinionated self well, he agreed only as long as “all sound and sane expressions of opinion are left out.” Twain likely used good judgment in requiring this, because the American public of a century ago was probably no more in the mood to read our nation’s soldiers sent to the Philippines described as “uniformed assassins” as any of us would be today. Twain is renowned and beloved for his novels, humorous essays and quick wit, though his own life included much sadness. He could not make it as a newspaper reporter and lost his job, a painful episode in his life which ultimately launched his successful writing career. He lost his wife and two of his three daughters. He lost several fortunes, including some of his wife’s inheritance, through failed investments. His words, though, continue to speak truth to us and amuse us across the span of more than a century. There are thousands of his quotations fl oating in cyberspace, and here are a few of my favorites: “A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.” “Always do right. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” “I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” This one never fails to send my sister and me into laughter: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no infl uence on society.” “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” “Total abstinence is so excellent a thing that it cannot be carried to too TRICARE? No referral is needed for dependants! We accept most insurance (Military One Source) BC/BS • Medicaid Ceridian 201 S. McPherson Church Rd. 201 S. McPherson Church Rd. Ste. 202 (Next to Bella Villa) great an extent. In my passion for it I even carry it so far as to totally abstain from abstinence itself.” And, when Twain once addressed the Savage Club in London and was named an honorary member, one of only three men so chosen, including the Prince of Wales, Twain quipped, “Well, it must make the Prince feel mighty fi ne.” Twain dictated his autobiography free form to a stenographer, his experiences, thoughts and opinions fl owing out as they came to him, not in any chronological way. He tells jokes, gets even with old adversaries and shares his increasingly controversial points of view on topics our mothers told us not to talk about in public, including religion. It was James Joyce’s stream of consciousness before there was James Joyce, or maybe the way Mick Jagger might dictate his biography while jumping around on a stage somewhere. Mark Twain’s autobiography now fl ying off bookshelves everywhere is the fi rst of what is planned as a three-volume set. His scholars and editors are busily organizing Twain’s rambling dictations into a form the rest of us can process, enjoy and learn from, and two more bestsellers are likely. It seems reports of Twain’s death are greatly exaggerated indeed. MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 222 or editor@upandcomingweekly.com. NOVEMBER 17-23, 2010 UCW 5 THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET You Gotta Love the Old Guy