This is MJ. I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work
at MJMunoz.com. Welcome to Fortress Fiction Episode 6 where I'll be talking
about the adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. According to my synopsis that
I got from my AI assistant, it says it's the classic story of a mischievous Tom
or yeah the classic story of a mischievous Tom growing up in a
Mississippi River town and the book is published or was published in 1876. So I
want to start with a brief word on the adventures of Tom Sawyer. Basically I'm
going to be asking the question does Tom Sawyer or the adventures of Tom Sawyer
belong in? Does it have a place in a place of glory in the Fortress Fiction?
And I'm going to say, despite the fact that I like the book, not really. It's a
little bit too bad boy like Tom Sawyer is definitely the bad boy or a bad boy of
literature and it has its pluses and minuses. It's very entertaining, it's very
interesting but is it you know is it you know wonderful, good, heroic? No not really.
It's a little, it's very real so it's an honest book and that does it credit but
it may encourage more vice than it encourages virtue even though there is
some virtue within Tom and Huck and some of the other characters featured here.
It's just a kind of interesting combination of things I'm not sure I
would say definitely should be reading this kids. Actually I wouldn't say it so
even though it was an entertaining book but entertainment isn't always the best
thing. It's at least not the most important and that's all I have to say on
that matter for now. So I'm gonna go ahead and give some information from the
wiki about the book and maybe about Twain I don't remember. So here it goes and
then I'll launch into my own independent free thoughts on the book itself. So the
Adventures of Tom Sawyer also simply known as Tom Sawyer is an 1876 novel by
Mark Twain about a boy Tom Sawyer growing up along the Mississippi River.
It is set in the 1840s I wasn't sure about that in the town of St. Petersburg
which is based on Hannibal Missouri where Twain lived as a boy. In the novel
Sawyer has several adventures often with his friend Huckleberry Finn but there
are other is at least one other boy who's with them a lot as well. Originally a
commercial failure the book ended up being the best selling of Twain's works
during his lifetime. That's nice though overshadowed by its sequel 18 from 1884
which was 1876 to 1884 so that's like eight years later Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn the book is considered by many to be a masterpiece of American
literature. It is alleged by Mark Twain to be one of the first novels to be
written on a typewriter which that's kind of a cool detail. So that's
about it and now I'm just gonna go ahead and share with you my thoughts on the
book because I have some. So like I said it is a good book it is very entertaining
it feels very honest it feels very much feels very much like well it feels a
little bit autobiographical which I can understand as it you know is said to be
based on Mark Twain's life and the fact that he's such a witty guy and you know
makes so many observations about the world and society that are kind of
contrarian and would maybe would make people comfortable it makes sense that
Tom Sawyer definitely could have been based on him because that kind of kid
and I don't know it just he's a you know he's like a he's a trickster he's a
lovable scamp I thought about Bugs Bunny I thought about Ferris Bueller from
Ferris Bueller's day off and there's even a line in the book where yeah
there's a line that where it was observed by people in the town that Tom
Sawyer might just be president if you escaped being hanged and I think that's
funny and I think they can apply to a lot of different characters and I think
it's it's kind of interesting because it poses the qualities of a great criminal
and a great politician has been fairly similar to each other and fairly
analogous and there is something to be said of great men there is an ability
for them to do great evil and is an ability for them to do great good but
the point is that what they're doing them the magnitude of what they're doing
is great and that's what makes them great men not so much the quality of the
men which is I guess a little bit of my problem with the book which is that I
guess that it doesn't really instill virtue it doesn't really teach virtue
Tom and Huck do some virtuous things and there's a lot of sweetness and
gentleness in the book and in the character and he's obviously a very
flawed character especially being based on train himself and that has its good
qualities and its bad qualities here there's negative effects of that that I
don't like and that I guess I would have liked to be cleaned up in the book as
far as you know representing the character or I mean let me put it this
way I don't mind the book being the way it is however I find it insufficient for
being something that is both quality entertainment which it is or I should
say it's very entertaining in and of itself but independently of how
entertaining the book is anyway my point is that the quality of something and the
virtue of it can be independent of each other and mutually exclusive so you can
have something that is very high quality that is very well done that is very
entertaining but is not good morally and you can have something that's very moral
and that it is not entertaining at all which is a large fault and it's something
that I think people should not encourage and I think it's something people should
not basically a lot of paths because it's important that our stories are high
quality and it's important that they really matter both of those things are
important and my preference and the reason I'm doing this fortune
fortress fiction project is so that I can highlight the books that have both
the virtue and the quality that are both very entertaining and also elucidating
and edifying I guess you could say and if I spotty more appropriate words to use
in this case so yeah while I had a lot of fun with the book I as an adult
married man had a lot of fun with the book and it reminded me of some things
and childhood other stories that I heard kids telling or well whether they were
true things or not or whether they were things I witnessed or they were just
hearsay from other kids it felt very true like there's all these like arcane
incantations that Huck and Tom and the other boys make and like if you want to
you know get rid of a like a war you got to you know go to a you know graveyard
at midnight and take a potato and you get you you know hold the potato on
there and you say such and then you bury it and like a devil comes out and he
takes away half of the war it's just like ridiculous stuff that like you know
definitely kid lore that kids make up and I found that very interesting and
fascinating and I also find it fun because I remember hearing so many
things from when I was a kid that just weren't true and there's some stuff
going on in there where like the kids are playing and it's not 100% clear to me
where the line is between we're just imagining this and we really believe
this which is something magical about childhood and I see it with my kids and
I remember those sorts of circumstances those sorts of instances happening where
we're playing but the play is very real but then again it's fake and it's just
interesting how humans can do that and it's especially interesting how
children are so adept at doing that and I think the way I understand things hold
on son is that that's a very important thing for people to be able to do and
especially children helps them to grow and thrive and prosper in the world and
it's a good thing and yeah so I might be a little too serious by saying this
doesn't really deserve a place in the fortress fiction because it's a little
too raw too real and too inappropriate or edgy I don't think so but that's my
decision and if you disagree with that I'm happy to hear your comments about
that why you disagree why you think it's okay and I don't think there's anything wrong
with me again as an adult enjoying it and enjoying it in spite of the or you
know in part because of the you know the young immorality or the young like the
youthful ignorant I don't know badness or scampishness like those things are
okay to me in this fictional character or even with a you know a real kid to
some extent although you would want those things to be corrected but you know
Tom's living with his aunt he's got no mom and no dad and it makes him a little
bit of a different person thank you and Huck's also in a bad situation where his
dad's like an alcoholic and I think his mom's gone and gosh I don't know it's
interesting it really is interesting as far as the the controversial stuff in
the book I thought I was the audible the free version of it that I had an audible
was censored it wasn't they went ahead they used you know they talked about
slaves they used Negro and they also used the larger N word which anyway
Mildred D Taylor talked about the fact that she won't censor her books and she
won't remove the word from her books and I commend her stance on that and I don't
think Twain's book should be censored to have those things removed because it's
of the times and it's an it's a encapsulation and evidence of how things
were at the time and where it's used in the book the boys it's interesting Huck
is is slightly you gotta understand the context of these people Huck is like he
uses it in more of a derogatory way and Joe definitely uses it in a derogatory way
because he was treated as if he was a you know and that led to him causing that
led him doing something in the book that caused a lot of the or that was kind of
like the inciting incident or the trigger for the story which is pretty
interesting and definitely we had a you know you've got a Native American who's
racist against black you know slaves and I don't know necessarily why the white
man who he was so angry at and wanted vengeance against why he was harsh on
him maybe that was racism at play too but it's just interesting because it
like it shows the ugliness of racism and it shows the broadness of racism and how
even you know an Indian man or can be racist against black people and a white
guy can be racist against Indians and just like it's a whole circle of you know
hate and stupidity that we don't need and I believe Huck Berry Finn features
Huck befriending a growing away slave which is interesting because then that's
taking something that was touched on in this book and contextualizing and I'd be
curious to see what that relationship was like between Huck and the slave
because he used the N word in a more derogatory fashion although again I'm
saying for the people of that time that wouldn't have been a problem really it's
just that's just how things were but I think it's important that we have
multiple books that we read and we don't take them away because they all have
important parts of the conversation to add and yeah I think it's a good thing
I think it's a good thing I don't think the books should be controversial I don't
think they should be banned or censored or anything like that because I like the
free flow of information ideas anyway that's all I have to say so I like the
book for myself I'm not gonna suggest it to my kids because there's some stuff I
don't like like there's like weird you know child romance stuff but I mean I
proposed to a girl in kindergarten but I wasn't kissing anybody in kindergarten
and that kind of thing happens in this book so I know again I'm definitely
open to have a conversation on this so if you have something you want to say
about the book and its virtues or my you know problem with his lack of virtues
or virtue in it I guess you could say because I think the book can definitely
have virtues without having virtue or having a failed personal virtue for the
characters so anyway that's about all I want to say about it other notable works
from Mark Twain include but are not limited to the Gilded Age a tale of today
the Prince and the Popper I'd really eat a Connecticut Yankee I didn't know
about that the American claimant pudding head of Wilson personal recollections of
art a horses tail from 1907 and then the mysterious stranger which was published
in 1916 posthumously so that's pretty interesting the next fortress fiction
will cover the Westing game by Alan Raskin from 1978 it's a quirky mystery
in which 16 heirs compete to uncover secrets behind tycoon Sam Westing's
death that is an audible and it should be free we available on cloud library
and I'll link to other places where it's freely available as well that's all I
have to say until next time farewell and remember to go ahead and drop your
comments on your thoughts about this book or any of the others that I've
talked about in fortress fiction so far and until next time keep readings I hope
you enjoyed that subscribe to keep up with me like and share to help me reach
more people like you and go to MJMunoz.com to find your next favorite thing
and don't forget to let your voice be heard stories are always better when
you're part of the conversation until next time be well this is MJ signing out
this has been a story over everything production