BeTwixt and BeTwain

 “The Jester and the Sages – Mark Twain in Conversation with Nietzsche, Freud & Marx” by F. Robinson, G. Brahm Jr., C Carlstroem, 2011

This is a 'fun' book that discusses how Twain's ideas and those of these European intellectuals agree – or don't. The section on Nietzsche dwells on their shared atheism and 'libertarian' ideas, though not their politics; the bit about Freud explains how they were both interested in dreams and unconscious emotions in humans and literary characters. Of most interest is the confluence – or difference – regarding Marx. Twain is one of the great classic writers of U.S. letters - a traveler, humorist and raconteur; inventor, newspaper man and novelist. Now he would probably be hated for his leftist positions opposing religion, colorism and imperialism. Let's see how Marx and he get along.

The main difference is that Marx had no truck with getting rich or those who already were. Twain did. It was said of Twain that he was “a theoretical socialist and a practical aristocrat.” He relished his giant, unique house in Hartford; his wild-eyed speculation and schemes to make money; his cock-eyed attempt at inventing a printing press; his publishing of Grant's memoirs; his social associations with the wealthy. His book The Gilded Age reflects his obsession with money. The author concludes that there was always an edge of class guilt with Twain due to this. But he didn't let it stop him from insulting the monied.

CONFLUENCES

Marx and Twain did agree on a number of issues, even though Twain never read Marx except perhaps a few journalistic articles in the New York papers. Twain damned capitalism, but didn't want to see it removed. They both opposed slavery, though Twain spent a smidgen of time with a rag-tag Confederate unit in Missouri before he “lit out for the territories.” Yeah, he deserted. Both were 'grounded' – Marx a materialist; Twain a writer of the American vernacular of ordinary folks. A commodity was a mysterious thing to Marx; Twain found slavery to be mysterious too – mysterious in the sense of crazy. On the other hand, Marx had a systemic understanding of problems; Twain a personalist one. Marx was direct; Twain sometimes ambiguous. Yet as a writer Twain embodied in his stories many aspects of the social thought of Marx. Marx understood the value of fiction in this regard, but there is no record he read Twain that I know of.

Their personal family histories were somewhat similar – both from modest beginnings, both having lawyer fathers who died prematurely. They shared a certain youthful anger at idiocy and social cruelty, especially shown in Twain's books A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and The Prince and the Pauper. Twain made his views on class clear in a Connecticut Yankee: “...a privileged class, an aristocracy, is but a band of slave-owners by another name.”  

In 1886, Twain addressed the Hartford Monday Evening Club:  “Who are the oppressors? “They are the few,” he replied, “the king, the capitalist and a handful of other overseers and superintendents. Who the oppressed? The many: The nations of the earth; the valuable personages; the workers; they that MAKE the bread that the soft-handed and the idle eat. Why is it right that there is not a fairer division of the spoil(s) all around? Because laws and Constitutions have ordered otherwise.” Marx and Twain both agreed on internationalism; the role of the state; the oppression of the worker, the responsibility of the capitalist. Marx thought revolution was the answer; Twain wanted a fairer share of the spoils, and thought it possible.

PHILOSOPHY

Philosophically, Marx understood that ideas – consciousness - comes from social being, not the other way around. Twain thought the same, but in a more vernacular way: “You tell me whar a man gits his corn-pone, en I'll tell you what his 'pinions is” he wrote in 1901. On religion, they saw similarly. Marx said “Man makes religion; religion does not make man.” Twain dismissed religion as “pure and puerile insanities, the silly creation of an imagination that is not conscious of its freaks – in a word, they are a dream.” Yet both understood that religion provided comfort for the most put upon– an opium, a false drug for sufferers in a cruel world. But they also knew that religion was a comfort to the comfortable and the ruling elite. Both writers opposed social delusions and the pretense of individual freedom. Both envisioned a world prior to class and labor exploitation – for Marx, primitive communism; for Twain, an Edenic and primitive world of children and nature outside the constrictions of 'polite' society.

On colonialism, they took similar tacks. Marx denounced the British rape of India and Ireland and the exploitation of Latin America and Africa. Twain criticized the U.S. colonial war in the Philippines as part of his membership in the Anti-Imperialist League. His travel book Following the Equator makes his awareness of the negative effects of colonialism clear. Christianity and 'civilization' combined to murder the people of South Africa, Australia and the Pacific islands. In his essay To the Person Sitting in Darkness Twain opposed the U.S. annexation of the Philippines and the European control of China. His essays late in his life in the early 1900s against lynching, war and God were not published, as he had fallen out of fashion.

Both opposed labor exploitation. In Roughing It Twain points out that mining labor is done by a large group, but the profits accrue to the few who get hold of the most land, sell the shovels and buy the raw gold. Even the white-washing fence scene in Tom Sawyer typifies this ... a hostility to Aunt Polly's forced labor. The raft in Huckleberry Finn is a tiny world of free and slave, one with money, one without, a reflection of the Missouri class structure, but attempting to break free.  (By the way, the plan was to go down the Mississippi, then turn up the Ohio to go upriver.  Why not go across the river to Illinois or up the Mississippi?  Ah, fiction...)

EVIL?

Marx and Twain part ways on the source of exploitation – Twain blamed determinate and greedy 'human nature' and Marx blamed class society. Twain damned humanity, believing it was permanently evil and stupid. Marx's understanding led him to think that the working population would eventually overcome. Twain watched southern Reconstruction get destroyed by violent racist forces, which didn't help his optimism. This is why Huck Finn knows he will 'go to hell' for helping free Jim. According to the author Pudd'nhead Wilson, Huckleberry and Connecticut Yankee Hank Morgan all shy away from the personal cost of these serious fights. Yet Twain's cynicism and belief in 'original sin' never stopped him from pushing against oppression.

Twain might be considered a left-populist libertarian. If you are a fan of Twain, this little book contains more excellent points on his thoughts, life and writing. Worth checking out.

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 16 year archive, using these terms: “American Vandal – Mark Twain Abroad,” “A Traveler's Tale,” “The Good Lord Bird” or “Marx,” “slavery,” “Christianity” or “imperialism.” (Those latter will give you many, many hits.)

And I got it at May Days Used / Cutout Section!

The Cultural Marxist

February 27, 2023