Pudd'nhead Wilson
At the beginning of Pudd'nhead Wilsona young slave woman, fearing for her infant's son's life, exchanges her light-skinned child with her master's. From this rather simple premise Mark Twain fashioned one of his most entertaining, funny, yet biting novels. On its surface, Pudd'nhead Wilsonpossesses all the elements of an engrossing nineteenth-century mystery: reversed identities, a horrible crime, an eccentric detective, a suspenseful courtroom drama, and a surprising, unusual solution. Yet it is not a mystery novel. Seething with the undercurrents of antebellum southern culture, the book is a savage indictment in which the real criminal is society, and racial prejudice and slavery are the crimes. Written in 1894, Pudd'nhead Wilsonglistens with characteristic Twain humor, with suspense, and with pointed irony: a gem among the author's later works.
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What Hacker News says
- I'm curious, does Medium have a reputation for algorithmic banning with no review process?
If it's a person who's reviewing keywords I'd have to think the context would be obvious, and could be specifically crafted to be so if needed.
But if I had reason to be worried about that I'd go set up an inexpensive server at DigitalOcean (etc) and just reference stuff from a medium post if that's where I had an audience I wanted to share it with.
Aside from that, "showing Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson as anti-racist works" is probably a worthwhile and necessary thing right now, and easy to do. Anyone who's read Twain knows he deliberately exposed the ignorance of racism and cruelty of slavery but apparently he's not read as much these days. If all you're looking for are "offensive words" by today's standards you'll find them there.
His "Joan of Arc" does the same for women's rights. She's tougher, smarter, and more courageous and moral than all the men in that story. I really cannot see how focusing on those attributes of Twain's works could get you booted off Medium, but I could be surprised to learn it can in these "interesting times" we're living in.
- This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.
-- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"
- According to Mark Twain in Pudd'nhead Wilson the 1850s was a time when 'The people took more pride in the duel than in all the other events put together, perhaps.'
- I have a publication on Medium https://medium.com/luminasticity where I publish some critical works, some poetry, some science fiction, humour etc.
I have been pushing around writing a piece that might end up being quite long on Mark Twain and Racism, as it pertains to Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, and Pudd'nhead Wilson.
And of course in writing this there are some well known racial slurs (and some antiquated, unfamiliar ones) that will have to be quoted and referred to, which I expect would probably end up getting my account automatically banned.
The article will be showing Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson as anti-racist works, so don't suggest any actually pro-racism sites.
I suppose this is an argument for hosting one's own blog, but I do have a lot on my plate already.
So just is there a platform for this kind of thing where one won't run into algorithmic banning - or moderation by people not overly familiar with American English literature who might misinterpret what they read?
- "Tom went aboard one of the big transient boats that night with his heavy satchel of miscellaneous plunder, and slept the sleep of the unjust, which is serener and sounder than the other kind, as we know by the hanging-eve history of a million rascals."
Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson, end of Chapter XV.
- “Put all your eggs in the one basket and — WATCH THAT BASKET.”
- Mark Twain, from Pudd’nhead Wilson
