tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869075072931465663.post81820489306339992..comments2023-09-15T13:34:10.017+01:00Comments on Cognitive Blindspot: Huck, Jim and The RiverUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869075072931465663.post-87771717841855171062007-07-02T11:58:00.000+01:002007-07-02T11:58:00.000+01:00On reflection I find that I am actually quite take...On reflection I find that I am actually quite taken with <I>Huckleberry Finn</I>, I think that that was a good recommendation.<BR/><BR/>And I would also agree that <I>The Great Gatsby</I> is a better novel; I might try to slot that into my summer at some point.<BR/><BR/>I'm slightly puzzled, noisms, why you've given me <I>Moby Dick</I> to read considering that you've said you don't like it... Ah well, I'll get to it as soon as I've finished <I>Altered Carbon</I>.NathanRyderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17963023116440525852noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869075072931465663.post-28307614073032317022007-06-28T18:28:00.000+01:002007-06-28T18:28:00.000+01:00I would agree with you on The Great Gatsby.I've ac...I would agree with you on <I>The Great Gatsby</I>.<BR/><BR/><BR/>I've actually not read <I>The Sun Also Rises</I>. The only Hemingway I've read is <I>For Whom the Bell Tolls</I>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869075072931465663.post-51691498694630342572007-06-28T17:20:00.000+01:002007-06-28T17:20:00.000+01:00I would agree with Hemingway in that Huck Finn bas...<I>I would agree with Hemingway in that Huck Finn basically revolutionized the American fiction novel, but I'm reluctant to say it's necessarily the best. Being revolutionary does not entail being the flat-out best of your kind.</I><BR/><BR/>Definitely. I think works like <I>The Great Gatsby</I> and <I>The Sun Also Rises</I> have much better claims than <I>Huck Finn</I>. Funnily enough, revolutionary books are almost by definition less entertaining - <I>Manhattan Transfer</I> is a good example of that.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869075072931465663.post-25254702967029785562007-06-28T17:18:00.000+01:002007-06-28T17:18:00.000+01:00I don't think Huck Finn is the best American novel...I don't think <I>Huck Finn</I> is the best American novel, but some of the scenes between Jim and Huck are absolute comic gold; the confusion about the story of King Solomon especially. There's also a wonderful poignancy to how the slave system has screwed everybody's sense of morality so much that they can only understand the King's decision in terms of money and ownership.<BR/><BR/>The fact that Huck thinks he might be going to hell for helping Jim is one of the great moments in American literature, I think, and what's more, it's a really uplifting one - Huck might think he's damned for eternity, but there's <I>fundamentally</I> enough good in him to do what's right. It's a very positive message about human nature, and a passionate indictment of a whole way of life, all at the same time.<BR/><BR/>I didn't much like <I>Moby Dick</I> either, especially the interminable lectures on the ins and outs of whaling ships. But the last portion, where Ahab takes on the whale, is very good.noismshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933436762608669966noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3869075072931465663.post-53933561942876558592007-06-28T16:45:00.000+01:002007-06-28T16:45:00.000+01:00Moby Dick is awful. I hated it.I think it's probab...<I>Moby Dick</I> is awful. I hated it.<BR/><BR/><BR/>I think it's probably very different reading <I>Huck Finn</I> in America and in the UK. The US has, of course, had a very bad history in terms of social equality, and our educational system teaches us about our history of slavery and genocide (Amerindians) starting from an early age. I'm not sure how these sorts of things are taught in the UK, but after years and years of looking at the US's past while in America, you begin to understand how and why people were so accepting, how and why it changed, etc. And of course they wish to instill the idea that social inequality is a <I>bad</I> thing, but many children have parents whose social/racial efficacy is just too strong. Suffice it to say it's a tricky matter.<BR/><BR/>I would agree with Hemingway in that <I>Huck Finn</I> basically revolutionized the American fiction novel, but I'm reluctant to say it's necessarily the best. Being revolutionary does not entail being the flat-out <I>best</I> of your kind.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com