Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "mark-twain"
Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, and Alien Eyes in the Sky
I know. Making overt connections between my books and the writings of Mark Twain stretches and strains credulity. This despite the fact that, for a decade of my life, I was completely immersed in the life and works of Samuel Clemens. My master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation were about his religious views. During those years, I was a happy member of the lively and personable Twain scholarly community. To be honest, I miss those days and especially those people.
Still, only once during my writing process did I feel Twain was looking over my shoulder when I crafted the first chapter of A Throne for an Alien. I remembered, or thought I remembered, one chapter from Life on the Mississippi that opens with a descriptive overview of an area on the Mississippi. Then Twain narrowed his focus to a specific town, then narrowed his view to one street, then one house, and finally one sleeping drunk on a porch. Well, as Twain once said, I remember everything whether it happened or not. Actually, the passage read like this:
http://www.bartleby.com/library/prose...
Interestingly, the way I remembered the scene, Twain would have been using a cameratic technique long before any camera could do anything like this. According to some helpful Twain scholars, he’s starting the scene with a "Zoom in" or "establishing shot", also known as a bird's eye or pan(orama) shot. You’ve seen this used in films like Psycho, The Birdcage, and The Dark Knight.
The way I recalled the passage is what I tried to emulate when describing the fleet of exiles in the opening pages of Throne for an Alien. The “bird’s eye” view comes from what the character named Joline imagines what the spirit of her murdered sister Bar might see looking down from the clouds. Later in the chapter, Joline has Bar’s perspective focus on the ship of her former family and then her spirit looks into the ship’s cabin. You can see for yourselves how I used the pan (orama) technique here:
Joline: One day looking over the horizon-deck of our "Barbara Blue," I thought of my lost sister, Bar. For one moment, I wondered what she might think if she looked down from the skies over Tribe Renbourn. From the quiet clouds feeding occasional gentle rains onto the foaming, rocking blue waters of the Philosea, she'd see one of the strangest, most magnificent sights in Betan history. As our fleet, our "rag-tag" fleet as Husband described it, sailed east across the Philosea, 60, 70, 90 ships would sometimes be a swelling entity all together, sometimes be streams of smaller fleets seemingly independent but parallel, and sometimes scattered armadas when boat-Captains decided to linger in ports or at island landings at their will.
That day, I thought, the view from where I stood on our ship was just as dramatic as any overhead eyes. After all, my vision was combined with the smells and feels of ocean winds and waters. Some days, we all saw and smelled smoke rising like gentle ladders to the clouds from ships of burning engines. Sometimes, we heard sky booms and saw vapor trails from fast-moving wingers racing above us, no doubt looking down to see what they could see. Many days, wide-sails with proud Alliance signs were filled with the winds and we looked through our glass scopes to see who was nearby.
Some decorated sails we knew well, many our friends from Biol, Oyne, and Persis. We smiled seeing their new flags bearing the Half-Moon sign Husband had made the emblem of the first peaceful resistance to a government gone mad. We waved at friendly sailors climbing up rigging or waving at us from watch-nests atop sturdy masts, especially the cargo-ship Alnenia's father, Sikas Ricipa, had loaned our tribe to carry many of our support-hands. Other ships in the distance we saw rare. We knew their leaders only by Two-Way or EV-com contacts. We knew every ship in the fleet was filled with fearful refugees, many wondering if Alman submersibles would rise to the surface to demand some ships be turned around.
Others worried the powerful Alman Navy might make attempts to capture individuals the new Alman government might have reason to want. Men especially feared their homeland might insist on reclaiming them. But, in the main, the Alman Navy was conspicuous by its absence.
"Perhaps," Alnenia mused, "they prefer to leave us at the mercy of the elements and possible raiders."
Only as time passed did this unease seem to slowly vanish like the flocks of seabirds winging overhead. Of course, many of these ships were small and designed not for long voyages. Many such had been provisioned in quick time and lacked for food, water, and long-distance navigation equipment. Cargo ships had been hastily converted into passenger vessels. Sometimes we lingered to allow these stragglers to keep close to their protective neighbors. Some days, we all paused as if we were one
body to allow ships heading other directions to cross or cut through our path.
"I would never have imagined," Husband remarked, inhaling the sea air he loved, "that there could be traffic jams in the middle of an ocean."
We had many such. All these disparate exiles cast their fates away from the country that had given us all one choice — bend your mind, your soul, your will to one Lunta, one vision of Olos, one cruel woman with double-powers or leave. So many left. For reasons even the prophets said not, many followed the Duce of Bilan, My Husband, the blind alien of Alpha-Earth to wherever he and his tribe might go. And on this, the third arc of our voyage, we knew not where we went.
To our east, we knew Rhasvin ships were forming a buffer on their coast as if to say, "Sail on, sail on, but sail not here." We knew Arasad ships floated like barracuda to our west as if hoping for at least a few morsels of tribute. But mostly the world watched and wondered.
At the moment I stood on our deck and thought of sister Bar, my womb was too full of the present and the family around me to wonder too much about the doings on other ships or in remote lands. Instead, I allowed my imagined cloud-spirit of Bar to narrow her vision, pointing her fleshless eyes downward at her namesake, our pride, the "Barbara Blue." She'd have seen a very different husband from the tortured animal she'd first met in the Bergarten see-through cell, the abused teacher in the Balnakin School, the haunted husband and father who'd been blamed for the deaths of thousands. Now, if she looked closely, she'd see a man on the deck of his ship playing games with children of nine mothers, including her own daughter, Becky. If she looked close, she might amaze to see a father and his tribe in happy play, a tribe seemingly unconcerned that, once again, our family was homeless.
Once, our tribe would have looked cautious outward, wondering and speculating about the future in new places under new rules with shifting lines of power and need. Once, our Tribal Council would have mourned the loss of a beloved home and the roots we'd sought to plant on Island Bilan. Now, this tribe in transition was led by a father deliberately losing games for laughing offspring between tickling helpless mothers to the decks. Now, the reluctant father of an international exodus seemed to fear nothing.
Still, wise eyes would see Noriah of the Willing Horse and her ten Trustees
spending much time on deck, teaching children and adults alike the ways of alertness and preparation. As she had for years, Sister Doret still taught everyone intricacies of Kin-Po, our exercise that was also our physical defense.
Had the spirit of Bar peered into the window of our ship's parlor, she would have seen the famous corner of Two-Way wavers that once beamed out signals of distress when Tribe Renbourn was at the mercy of Arasad raiders. Now, she'd see maps of all sizes and designs decorating the walls as every Renbourn of every age had been given a vote in the great question. Where was home?
----
Find out what happens next in A Throne for an Alien—The Beta-Earth Chronicles: Book 4
https://www.amazon.com/Throne-Alien-B...
Book 1, The Blind Alien, is still on sale for 99 cents!
https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Alien-Be...
Still, only once during my writing process did I feel Twain was looking over my shoulder when I crafted the first chapter of A Throne for an Alien. I remembered, or thought I remembered, one chapter from Life on the Mississippi that opens with a descriptive overview of an area on the Mississippi. Then Twain narrowed his focus to a specific town, then narrowed his view to one street, then one house, and finally one sleeping drunk on a porch. Well, as Twain once said, I remember everything whether it happened or not. Actually, the passage read like this:
http://www.bartleby.com/library/prose...
Interestingly, the way I remembered the scene, Twain would have been using a cameratic technique long before any camera could do anything like this. According to some helpful Twain scholars, he’s starting the scene with a "Zoom in" or "establishing shot", also known as a bird's eye or pan(orama) shot. You’ve seen this used in films like Psycho, The Birdcage, and The Dark Knight.
The way I recalled the passage is what I tried to emulate when describing the fleet of exiles in the opening pages of Throne for an Alien. The “bird’s eye” view comes from what the character named Joline imagines what the spirit of her murdered sister Bar might see looking down from the clouds. Later in the chapter, Joline has Bar’s perspective focus on the ship of her former family and then her spirit looks into the ship’s cabin. You can see for yourselves how I used the pan (orama) technique here:
Joline: One day looking over the horizon-deck of our "Barbara Blue," I thought of my lost sister, Bar. For one moment, I wondered what she might think if she looked down from the skies over Tribe Renbourn. From the quiet clouds feeding occasional gentle rains onto the foaming, rocking blue waters of the Philosea, she'd see one of the strangest, most magnificent sights in Betan history. As our fleet, our "rag-tag" fleet as Husband described it, sailed east across the Philosea, 60, 70, 90 ships would sometimes be a swelling entity all together, sometimes be streams of smaller fleets seemingly independent but parallel, and sometimes scattered armadas when boat-Captains decided to linger in ports or at island landings at their will.
That day, I thought, the view from where I stood on our ship was just as dramatic as any overhead eyes. After all, my vision was combined with the smells and feels of ocean winds and waters. Some days, we all saw and smelled smoke rising like gentle ladders to the clouds from ships of burning engines. Sometimes, we heard sky booms and saw vapor trails from fast-moving wingers racing above us, no doubt looking down to see what they could see. Many days, wide-sails with proud Alliance signs were filled with the winds and we looked through our glass scopes to see who was nearby.
Some decorated sails we knew well, many our friends from Biol, Oyne, and Persis. We smiled seeing their new flags bearing the Half-Moon sign Husband had made the emblem of the first peaceful resistance to a government gone mad. We waved at friendly sailors climbing up rigging or waving at us from watch-nests atop sturdy masts, especially the cargo-ship Alnenia's father, Sikas Ricipa, had loaned our tribe to carry many of our support-hands. Other ships in the distance we saw rare. We knew their leaders only by Two-Way or EV-com contacts. We knew every ship in the fleet was filled with fearful refugees, many wondering if Alman submersibles would rise to the surface to demand some ships be turned around.
Others worried the powerful Alman Navy might make attempts to capture individuals the new Alman government might have reason to want. Men especially feared their homeland might insist on reclaiming them. But, in the main, the Alman Navy was conspicuous by its absence.
"Perhaps," Alnenia mused, "they prefer to leave us at the mercy of the elements and possible raiders."
Only as time passed did this unease seem to slowly vanish like the flocks of seabirds winging overhead. Of course, many of these ships were small and designed not for long voyages. Many such had been provisioned in quick time and lacked for food, water, and long-distance navigation equipment. Cargo ships had been hastily converted into passenger vessels. Sometimes we lingered to allow these stragglers to keep close to their protective neighbors. Some days, we all paused as if we were one
body to allow ships heading other directions to cross or cut through our path.
"I would never have imagined," Husband remarked, inhaling the sea air he loved, "that there could be traffic jams in the middle of an ocean."
We had many such. All these disparate exiles cast their fates away from the country that had given us all one choice — bend your mind, your soul, your will to one Lunta, one vision of Olos, one cruel woman with double-powers or leave. So many left. For reasons even the prophets said not, many followed the Duce of Bilan, My Husband, the blind alien of Alpha-Earth to wherever he and his tribe might go. And on this, the third arc of our voyage, we knew not where we went.
To our east, we knew Rhasvin ships were forming a buffer on their coast as if to say, "Sail on, sail on, but sail not here." We knew Arasad ships floated like barracuda to our west as if hoping for at least a few morsels of tribute. But mostly the world watched and wondered.
At the moment I stood on our deck and thought of sister Bar, my womb was too full of the present and the family around me to wonder too much about the doings on other ships or in remote lands. Instead, I allowed my imagined cloud-spirit of Bar to narrow her vision, pointing her fleshless eyes downward at her namesake, our pride, the "Barbara Blue." She'd have seen a very different husband from the tortured animal she'd first met in the Bergarten see-through cell, the abused teacher in the Balnakin School, the haunted husband and father who'd been blamed for the deaths of thousands. Now, if she looked closely, she'd see a man on the deck of his ship playing games with children of nine mothers, including her own daughter, Becky. If she looked close, she might amaze to see a father and his tribe in happy play, a tribe seemingly unconcerned that, once again, our family was homeless.
Once, our tribe would have looked cautious outward, wondering and speculating about the future in new places under new rules with shifting lines of power and need. Once, our Tribal Council would have mourned the loss of a beloved home and the roots we'd sought to plant on Island Bilan. Now, this tribe in transition was led by a father deliberately losing games for laughing offspring between tickling helpless mothers to the decks. Now, the reluctant father of an international exodus seemed to fear nothing.
Still, wise eyes would see Noriah of the Willing Horse and her ten Trustees
spending much time on deck, teaching children and adults alike the ways of alertness and preparation. As she had for years, Sister Doret still taught everyone intricacies of Kin-Po, our exercise that was also our physical defense.
Had the spirit of Bar peered into the window of our ship's parlor, she would have seen the famous corner of Two-Way wavers that once beamed out signals of distress when Tribe Renbourn was at the mercy of Arasad raiders. Now, she'd see maps of all sizes and designs decorating the walls as every Renbourn of every age had been given a vote in the great question. Where was home?
----
Find out what happens next in A Throne for an Alien—The Beta-Earth Chronicles: Book 4
https://www.amazon.com/Throne-Alien-B...
Book 1, The Blind Alien, is still on sale for 99 cents!
https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Alien-Be...
Book Review: Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour by Richard Zacks
Without question, Richard Zacks’ richly detailed research will mainly appeal to Mark Twain enthusiasts. That company includes me. But you don’t need to have a background in Mark Twain studies to find this travelogue a fascinating read.
The story begins in the final decade of the 19th century when Mark Twain found himself bankrupt largely due to his investments in a troublesome typesetting machine and the disastrous Charles Webster publishing company Twain owned. Enter millionaire Henry H. Rogers who does his best to dig Twain out of the quagmire. But Twain’s wife Livy insists on all debts getting paid back dollar-for-dollar to uphold her family’s reputation. To meet his obligations, Twain is forced to go on an around the world lecture tour to raise the funds.
While I certainly haven’t read all the previous books on the Clemens’ family journeys in 1895-1896, I always thought that Twain endured the journey as an unrelenting ordeal but Zacks convinced me that impression is an oversimplified response to what happened. True, the family suffers from ailments and unpleasant and sometimes dangerous travel conditions from time to time, but Twain benefited from the experience in many important ways. While he frequently complained about taking to the stage, Twain bathed in the affectionate responses he got from audiences across the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and India although his anti-racist readings didn’t fare well in South Africa. The sight-seeing, including visits with many interesting dignitaries, especially in India, made for a tour anyone would envy, especially as Twain was treated far more like a triumphant prince and not a beleaguered pauper. And the fact he set out to do this at all earned him good press which enhanced his already august reputation considerably.
I admit, much of the day-by-day minutia is not all absorbing reading, although we get to experience what Twain thought and see what he saw. Not all readers need a dollar-by-dollar accounting of just who Twain’s creditors were and what hoops Twain leaped through to accommodate them. On the other hand, Twain’s attraction to India is extremely interesting as we encounter the exotic, colorful carnival that Twain witnesses from regal potentates to fakirs and beggars on the streets. For my money, Zacks provides a valuable service with his historical overviews that provide deep contexts for the places the Clemens went and some of the people they met.
There’s considerable humor, as you might expect, along the way. That includes generous samplings of the stories Twain used in his presentations along with many bits and pieces from his notebooks and letters. The perspectives also include passages from correspondence from Livy Clemens and their daughter, Clara. The result isn’t just a tracing of the tour’s route until the tragic news of daughter Suzy’s death in August 1896, but a very well-done and balanced portrait of the complex author and his family relationships.
If you want cover-to-cover entertainment, start with Twain’s own Following the Equator, his under-appreciated if uneven 1897 account of the tour. But Zacks’ study is also worthy of appreciation for what he has added to studies of the life and literature of the justly lionized Mark Twain. Chasing the Last Laugh isn’t for everyone, but it should be on many a bookshelf of those interested in 19th century American literature and history.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com, Nov. 1, 2016
goo.gl/TgskuR
Purchase Chasing the Last Laugh at—
https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Last-L...
The story begins in the final decade of the 19th century when Mark Twain found himself bankrupt largely due to his investments in a troublesome typesetting machine and the disastrous Charles Webster publishing company Twain owned. Enter millionaire Henry H. Rogers who does his best to dig Twain out of the quagmire. But Twain’s wife Livy insists on all debts getting paid back dollar-for-dollar to uphold her family’s reputation. To meet his obligations, Twain is forced to go on an around the world lecture tour to raise the funds.
While I certainly haven’t read all the previous books on the Clemens’ family journeys in 1895-1896, I always thought that Twain endured the journey as an unrelenting ordeal but Zacks convinced me that impression is an oversimplified response to what happened. True, the family suffers from ailments and unpleasant and sometimes dangerous travel conditions from time to time, but Twain benefited from the experience in many important ways. While he frequently complained about taking to the stage, Twain bathed in the affectionate responses he got from audiences across the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and India although his anti-racist readings didn’t fare well in South Africa. The sight-seeing, including visits with many interesting dignitaries, especially in India, made for a tour anyone would envy, especially as Twain was treated far more like a triumphant prince and not a beleaguered pauper. And the fact he set out to do this at all earned him good press which enhanced his already august reputation considerably.
I admit, much of the day-by-day minutia is not all absorbing reading, although we get to experience what Twain thought and see what he saw. Not all readers need a dollar-by-dollar accounting of just who Twain’s creditors were and what hoops Twain leaped through to accommodate them. On the other hand, Twain’s attraction to India is extremely interesting as we encounter the exotic, colorful carnival that Twain witnesses from regal potentates to fakirs and beggars on the streets. For my money, Zacks provides a valuable service with his historical overviews that provide deep contexts for the places the Clemens went and some of the people they met.
There’s considerable humor, as you might expect, along the way. That includes generous samplings of the stories Twain used in his presentations along with many bits and pieces from his notebooks and letters. The perspectives also include passages from correspondence from Livy Clemens and their daughter, Clara. The result isn’t just a tracing of the tour’s route until the tragic news of daughter Suzy’s death in August 1896, but a very well-done and balanced portrait of the complex author and his family relationships.
If you want cover-to-cover entertainment, start with Twain’s own Following the Equator, his under-appreciated if uneven 1897 account of the tour. But Zacks’ study is also worthy of appreciation for what he has added to studies of the life and literature of the justly lionized Mark Twain. Chasing the Last Laugh isn’t for everyone, but it should be on many a bookshelf of those interested in 19th century American literature and history.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com, Nov. 1, 2016
goo.gl/TgskuR
Purchase Chasing the Last Laugh at—
https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Last-L...
Book Review: The Grandfather Paradox: A Time Travel Story
The Grandfather Paradox: A Time Travel Story
Steven Burgauer
Publisher: Battleground Press
Published: January 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1542454476
ASIN: B01MR40744
https://www.amazon.com/Grandfather-Pa...
Reviewer: Dr. Wesley Britton
In 2016, I had the pleasure of reviewing two of Steven Burgauer’s novels, the World War II set Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou and the story of a Neanderthal family in Night of the Eleventh Sun. Both books were very different in both style and substance. And neither is really comparable to the achievement of The Grandfather Paradox.
For one matter, both of Burgauer’s previous stories were fairly well locked into specific places and times. Not so The Grandfather Paradox. While the book’s subtitle signals a time travel adventure, it takes some time, as it were, for this element of the story to be introduced. In fact, the book is really two books sandwiched together.
The book opens with Andu Nehrengel captaining a spaceship exploring a remote part of the galaxy. Then his crew mutinies and forces him off the ship in a small runabout which crash-lands on an alien planet. There, Andu has to survive attacks by large carnivorous alien bird-beasts before he meets three beautiful female human clones who are also marooned on the planet. Andu learns the clones are the lone survivors of a Mormon ship that had been set out to find a new home for the church. On the clones’ ship, Andu learns much more which leads him and one of the beautiful clones to leap through both space and time to, in part, find the gene that will correct a deadly virus Andu is carrying.
Along the way, readers who like hard science in their science fiction are rewarded with in-depth theoretical discussions that make cloning, time travel, and space exploration understandable and plausible. For some, perhaps the physics lessons might seem to bog down the story. For me, I felt I was being educated while going along with the fantastic and very unpredictable events. After all, the whole thing starts light years from earth before taking us to a steamboat on the Mississippi River where a young Mark Twain becomes a central character. Then Burgauer takes us to the 1862 battle of Shiloh where Andu searches for the ancestor with the untainted genetics he needs.
Part two of the book is very much centered on Henry Morgan’s—the name Andu uses in 1861—friendship with Twain as Burgauer pretty much retells the 19th century author’s early biography, lifting whole passages from Twain’s writings, especially Life on the Mississippi. While the book remains very descriptive and detailed, everything is far different from what came before. But Burgauer weaves everything together in a complex tapestry of actual history along with speculative science fiction.
The book’s title comes from a concept argued as far back as 1931 about any historical inconsistencies that might occur if someone went back in time and killed their own grandparent, ostensibly resulting in the demise of the time traveler. The entire idea of time travel has been debated logically as to what implications might arise from any changes to known chronology, and a good overview of the literature and debates on the “grandparent paradox” can be found at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfa...
Of course, Burgauer’s take isn’t to kill anyone in the past but rather to get uncorrupted DNA from an ancestor to save one of his descendants. The result is a very engaging, often philosophical epic crammed to the gills with twists and turns that span both centuries and light years. Highly recommended.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan. 25, 2016 at:
goo.gl/yFgL92
Steven Burgauer
Publisher: Battleground Press
Published: January 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1542454476
ASIN: B01MR40744
https://www.amazon.com/Grandfather-Pa...
Reviewer: Dr. Wesley Britton
In 2016, I had the pleasure of reviewing two of Steven Burgauer’s novels, the World War II set Nazi Saboteurs on the Bayou and the story of a Neanderthal family in Night of the Eleventh Sun. Both books were very different in both style and substance. And neither is really comparable to the achievement of The Grandfather Paradox.
For one matter, both of Burgauer’s previous stories were fairly well locked into specific places and times. Not so The Grandfather Paradox. While the book’s subtitle signals a time travel adventure, it takes some time, as it were, for this element of the story to be introduced. In fact, the book is really two books sandwiched together.
The book opens with Andu Nehrengel captaining a spaceship exploring a remote part of the galaxy. Then his crew mutinies and forces him off the ship in a small runabout which crash-lands on an alien planet. There, Andu has to survive attacks by large carnivorous alien bird-beasts before he meets three beautiful female human clones who are also marooned on the planet. Andu learns the clones are the lone survivors of a Mormon ship that had been set out to find a new home for the church. On the clones’ ship, Andu learns much more which leads him and one of the beautiful clones to leap through both space and time to, in part, find the gene that will correct a deadly virus Andu is carrying.
Along the way, readers who like hard science in their science fiction are rewarded with in-depth theoretical discussions that make cloning, time travel, and space exploration understandable and plausible. For some, perhaps the physics lessons might seem to bog down the story. For me, I felt I was being educated while going along with the fantastic and very unpredictable events. After all, the whole thing starts light years from earth before taking us to a steamboat on the Mississippi River where a young Mark Twain becomes a central character. Then Burgauer takes us to the 1862 battle of Shiloh where Andu searches for the ancestor with the untainted genetics he needs.
Part two of the book is very much centered on Henry Morgan’s—the name Andu uses in 1861—friendship with Twain as Burgauer pretty much retells the 19th century author’s early biography, lifting whole passages from Twain’s writings, especially Life on the Mississippi. While the book remains very descriptive and detailed, everything is far different from what came before. But Burgauer weaves everything together in a complex tapestry of actual history along with speculative science fiction.
The book’s title comes from a concept argued as far back as 1931 about any historical inconsistencies that might occur if someone went back in time and killed their own grandparent, ostensibly resulting in the demise of the time traveler. The entire idea of time travel has been debated logically as to what implications might arise from any changes to known chronology, and a good overview of the literature and debates on the “grandparent paradox” can be found at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfa...
Of course, Burgauer’s take isn’t to kill anyone in the past but rather to get uncorrupted DNA from an ancestor to save one of his descendants. The result is a very engaging, often philosophical epic crammed to the gills with twists and turns that span both centuries and light years. Highly recommended.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Jan. 25, 2016 at:
goo.gl/yFgL92
Mark Twain and Robots
For robot fans, here’s an article on a “Silver Swan” robot that impressed Mark Twain back in the mid-19th Century:
http://tinyurl.com/zben5pn
http://tinyurl.com/zben5pn
Book Review: Mark Twain & The River of Timeless Temptation by John Kerr
Mark Twain & The River of Timeless Temptation
John Kerr
Publisher: Old Man River Press (March 15, 2017)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B06XF37J6H
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XF37J6H
Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley Britton
As if the life and work of the historical Mark Twain doesn’t provide enough fodder for countless literary and film adaptations, Samuel Clemens has been used by a seemingly endless parade of authors, artists, and filmmakers who send him to more and more fantastic places where he has more than improbable adventures. In comics, Twain was teamed with Nikola Tesla to defeat the evil plans of Thomas Edison, and in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Twain took on the crew of the time-travelling crew of the Enterprise. In the stop-action claymation Adventures of Mark Twain (1985), along with a number of his characters, Twain, split into two parts, captained a fantastic airship to travel to Halley’s Comet. In 1971, Philip Jose Farmer transported Twain to Riverworld in The Fabulous Riverboat where Twain battled, among other formerly dead souls, England’s King John. There are many novels in which Twain lives in alternate realities as when Sesh Heri sent Twain, Harry Houdini, and Nikola Tesla on a journey to Mars in 1893. And that’s just a short list of Twain’s appearances in sci fi projects. Just last month, he figured prominently in The Grandfather Paradox: A Time Travel Story by Steven Burgauer.
Now, John Kerr joins this Twain/sci fi/fantasy mash-up procession by having Twain in the watchful gaze of young Satan, the nephew of Lucifer. The devil’s nephew, calling himself Mr. Brown, is the narrator of the story as he takes “Sammy” around space in time in the quest to get Clemens to sign on the dotted line and give the demonic family his soul. Brown claims to be the one giving Clemens inspirations and story ideas, beginning with the author’s breakthrough short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. The demon has few compliments for Clemens, noting the writer’s many annoying personal complaints and shifting perspectives on moral issues and philosophical ideas. It’s interesting Brown would be so focused on Twain as Lucifer’s minions are constantly busy manipulating the world, especially geopolitical concerns.
In the opening chapters, for example, Twain has been transported to Central America before the Civil War where several actual historic figures, William Walker and Cornelius Vanderbilt, vie for power in Nicaragua. While still on the San Juan river in that country, Brown takes Twain further back in time where they are captured by a young Captain Horatio Nelson, then pirate Henry Morgan, and then Christopher Columbus. Along the way, Brown is constantly worried about violating his uncle’s Prime Directive, that of not altering the existing timeline. It’s often Twain who complicates this matter because of his confusing comments and anachronistic observations uttered in front of figures from the past, unintentionally suggesting actions that Brown knows these personages must not take.
Then, the book abruptly shifts gears and presents Twain’s original account of his actual Nicaragua trip which he described in a series of letters to the Alta California newspaper in 1867. These letters came out in book form in 1940 titled Travels with Mr. Brown, the inspiration for Kerr’s fantasy. The original Mr. Brown is largely considered an imaginary character who Twain described as a boring, irritating travel companion. Beside the time travel passages, much of Kerr’s material is lifted directly from Twain, merely given a different narrative slant. Notably, Kerr’s Mr. Brown is obviously speaking from a contemporary point-of-view, mentioning the internet, K-Marts, Walmart, and Woodstock. Still, while Kerr admits “any plagiarism is entirely intentional,” one wonders if he has the permission to publish so much of Twain’s original work.
The first half of Timeless Temptation is clever and quirky, even if readers are left hanging in terms of what Mark Twain’s future with Mr. Brown and Satan will be. For Twainians and those interested in forgotten chapters of American literature, the book might prompt curiosity about a part of the Twain canon that’s rarely discussed or read. In short, this odd book is for a niche market willing to accept some unorthodox spins on the biography of Mark Twain.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on March 8, 2017 at:
goo.gl/kvMxGm
John Kerr
Publisher: Old Man River Press (March 15, 2017)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
ASIN: B06XF37J6H
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XF37J6H
Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley Britton
As if the life and work of the historical Mark Twain doesn’t provide enough fodder for countless literary and film adaptations, Samuel Clemens has been used by a seemingly endless parade of authors, artists, and filmmakers who send him to more and more fantastic places where he has more than improbable adventures. In comics, Twain was teamed with Nikola Tesla to defeat the evil plans of Thomas Edison, and in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Twain took on the crew of the time-travelling crew of the Enterprise. In the stop-action claymation Adventures of Mark Twain (1985), along with a number of his characters, Twain, split into two parts, captained a fantastic airship to travel to Halley’s Comet. In 1971, Philip Jose Farmer transported Twain to Riverworld in The Fabulous Riverboat where Twain battled, among other formerly dead souls, England’s King John. There are many novels in which Twain lives in alternate realities as when Sesh Heri sent Twain, Harry Houdini, and Nikola Tesla on a journey to Mars in 1893. And that’s just a short list of Twain’s appearances in sci fi projects. Just last month, he figured prominently in The Grandfather Paradox: A Time Travel Story by Steven Burgauer.
Now, John Kerr joins this Twain/sci fi/fantasy mash-up procession by having Twain in the watchful gaze of young Satan, the nephew of Lucifer. The devil’s nephew, calling himself Mr. Brown, is the narrator of the story as he takes “Sammy” around space in time in the quest to get Clemens to sign on the dotted line and give the demonic family his soul. Brown claims to be the one giving Clemens inspirations and story ideas, beginning with the author’s breakthrough short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. The demon has few compliments for Clemens, noting the writer’s many annoying personal complaints and shifting perspectives on moral issues and philosophical ideas. It’s interesting Brown would be so focused on Twain as Lucifer’s minions are constantly busy manipulating the world, especially geopolitical concerns.
In the opening chapters, for example, Twain has been transported to Central America before the Civil War where several actual historic figures, William Walker and Cornelius Vanderbilt, vie for power in Nicaragua. While still on the San Juan river in that country, Brown takes Twain further back in time where they are captured by a young Captain Horatio Nelson, then pirate Henry Morgan, and then Christopher Columbus. Along the way, Brown is constantly worried about violating his uncle’s Prime Directive, that of not altering the existing timeline. It’s often Twain who complicates this matter because of his confusing comments and anachronistic observations uttered in front of figures from the past, unintentionally suggesting actions that Brown knows these personages must not take.
Then, the book abruptly shifts gears and presents Twain’s original account of his actual Nicaragua trip which he described in a series of letters to the Alta California newspaper in 1867. These letters came out in book form in 1940 titled Travels with Mr. Brown, the inspiration for Kerr’s fantasy. The original Mr. Brown is largely considered an imaginary character who Twain described as a boring, irritating travel companion. Beside the time travel passages, much of Kerr’s material is lifted directly from Twain, merely given a different narrative slant. Notably, Kerr’s Mr. Brown is obviously speaking from a contemporary point-of-view, mentioning the internet, K-Marts, Walmart, and Woodstock. Still, while Kerr admits “any plagiarism is entirely intentional,” one wonders if he has the permission to publish so much of Twain’s original work.
The first half of Timeless Temptation is clever and quirky, even if readers are left hanging in terms of what Mark Twain’s future with Mr. Brown and Satan will be. For Twainians and those interested in forgotten chapters of American literature, the book might prompt curiosity about a part of the Twain canon that’s rarely discussed or read. In short, this odd book is for a niche market willing to accept some unorthodox spins on the biography of Mark Twain.
This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on March 8, 2017 at:
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This just came in. My favorite two sentences of all time!
“The Blind Alien is a story with a highly original concept, fascinating characters, and not-too-subtle but truthful allegories. Don’t let the ...more
“The Blind Alien is a story with a highly original concept, fascinating characters, and not-too-subtle but truthful allegories. Don’t let the ...more
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