Report Blog Entry
So i've been reading mysterious stranger by Mark Twain after i recently picked it up (really good book but im genuinely only like on chapter 6 so pls no spoiling) but i really enjoy this book so far and the story behind it. So as far as i understand it twain was dying and he wrote these manuscripts prior to his death and then he died and his assistant like compiled them together and said he had a full novel from twain that was his last and tried to sell that im guessing. And i think that ties really well to the message of the book imo. Like the whole book talks about how humans create these systems and beliefs that harm and profit off of others. We see this through the slaves and their comparison to the prisoners who are living better than the innocent slaves that have done nothing wrong but will slave their whole life and die. We even see this through how the village proliferates their own suffering through these witch-hunts that isn't actually real and is all a hoax to just murder hundreds of people through this fear of the witch. Twain writes Satan as this figure of like juxtaposition between Bliss and Carefreeness and like Benevolence and violent and in many of his scenes he's described as this like sweet talker but committing terrible actions and i think that really serves as this mirror or figure head for all of humanity. We proliferate this suffering and continue this cycle of evil for our own self interest and it's a really interesting take on human condition and like nihilism. imo this book has quickly become my fav of the twain books, you can really feel even like almost a hundred years later how angry and sad this man is at humanity on his like literal deathbed . many times he is like chastising humanity and their deeds through these characters and it feels like twain was really hammering in on this push for change of the human "moral sense".
This incessant need to create and proliferate suffering
3 Kudos
Comments
Displaying 2 of 2 comments ( View all | Add Comment )
samcat125
What Mark Twain book is it?
No.44, The Mysterious Stranger
(SORRY FOR YHE LATE REPLY)
by atticpenguin; ; Report
Fouldiva
Any other books like this that you recommend?
so for like that sort of like kind of take on humanity and human condition i would say Albert Camus' "The Stranger" i really like it and its a really short read imo i think a little over 100 pages. I haven't read it in awhile but im pretty sure it was good from my memory. I would Also kind of say "Blood Meridian" it's kind of similar in that very good take of the violence of human nature. I would also like to say "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc"(this one is longer i fear around 200ish pages) also by Twain it kind has that same sort of like tone and feeling of like sort of dread and playfulness. I don't know i rarely ever give recs on books lol
by atticpenguin; ; Report
tysm! will add these to my list :)
by Fouldiva; ; Report
you guys might also enjoy A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Conner, provided you can get past some weird racial stuff in it.
by JVNEBVG; ; Report
definitely going to check this one out when i have the time, thank you for the recommendation and the heads up<3
by atticpenguin; ; Report