Benedict Cumberbatch was on Top Gear (BBC America) tonight at 8:00 p.m.
Apparently, when he jumped off the building, Mycroft was waiting in a helicopter dressed as a woman with an inflatable skirt...
Chapter
16
p.
85 "Then I thought a minute, and
says to myself, hold on,-s'pose you'd a done right and give Jim up; would you
felt better than what you do now? No, says I, I'd feel bad-I'd feel just the
same way I do now. Well, then, says I, what's the use you learning to do right
and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was stuck.
I couldn't answer that. So I reckoned I wouldn't bother no more about it, but
after this always do whichever come handiest at the time.
Comments
and Questions
Huckleberry
Finn and Jim are floating down the river on a raft when slave-hunters show up,
wanting to search the boat. Huck then decides to lie about Jim's identity to
avoid Jim's capture, conning forty dollars out of the men. This incident is remarkable
in that Huck has already expressed his low opinion of liars, and still breaks
his own self-imposed moral code to protect Jim. The interesting thing is that
there was a cultural aversion to lying at the time, but Huck has been isolated
from society for a good part of his life, not long enough for those values to
be properly instilled in him. Huck's dislike of lies stems solely from his own
sense of right and wrong and prior experience. His time with the widow probably
cemented those values. However, out on the river, Jim and Huck are cut off from
the rest of society for the most part, and Huck is starting to let go of those
values. In any Southern town, his actions-lying, interacting with a slave as
almost-equals, aiding a runaway slave, stealing-would be condemned. But on the
river, Huck is able to act based upon his own ideals and values. Now that Huck
has taken the first step towards deceit, how far will he continue to go to
further his own agenda?
Chapter
18
p.
107 "We said there warn't no home like
a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft
don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft."
Comments
and Questions
After
escaping the Shakespearean feud between the Grangerford and Shepardson families,
Huck reunites with Jim and their raft to set off again down the river. Huck is
still reeling from the aftermath of the families' fatal gunfight, details of
which are never fully explained. His initial admiration of the wealthy
Grangerfords has been replaced by disgust at their actions. While being
"civilized", the families continue to engage in increasingly
irrational and violent interactions with one another. The wording of Huck’s
words reveals a continuing pattern of understatement in Huck's narrative. He
uses what would be seen as euphemisms, but are really indicators of Huck's
acceptance of the brutality of reality. As he downplayed his own abuse at the
hands of his father, he downplays the horror of the feud, refusing to examine
his own emotional state and sticking with the facts. Perhaps this is how Huck
deals with the events he is narrating; rather than trying to garner sympathy
for himself, he allows the reader to draw their own conclusions. I kind of want
to give Huck a hug right now. Poor kid.
Chapter
19
p.
115 "...I never said nothing, never
let on; kept it to myself; it's the best way; then you don't have no quarrels,
and don't get into no trouble. If they wanted us to call them kings and dukes,
I hadn't no objections, 'long as it would keep the peace in the family; and it
warn't no use to tell Jim, so I didn't tell him. If I never learnt nothing else
out of pap, I learnt that the best way to get along with his kind of people is
to let them have their own way."
Comments
and Questions
Huck's
just a poor, abused child. He knows that these con men have the power to turn
Jim in, and Huck is willing to let go of his own pride and keep quiet for Jim's
sake. In addition, his father probably beat that concept into him-Mr. Finn
seemed to feed off of Huck's submission to him. Huck sees this group as his
family, with Jim as a father-figure. And due to Huck's memories of his own home
life and abusive father, he seems to seek to avoid conflict, a view probably
aided by his observance of the Grangerford-Sheparson feud. He doesn't have the
ability to talk himself out of sticky situations, and so avoids them at any
cost.
The
passage is arranged like a long run-on sentence, creating a feeling of haste,
or panic. Huck sounds defensive, as if he feels like he needs to justify his
actions to other people. He seems to accept judgment, and bares his soul to the
reader; Huck seems to be waiting for someone to tell him he's wrong. Obviously,
his father's oppression of his ideas and opinions has resulted in some deep-seated
insecurity that manifests itself in Huck's constant experimentation: what he
can get away with and what he can't. I'll look for more concrete evidence on
this subject.
Chapter
22
p.
134 "'The pitifulest thing out there
is a mob; that's what an army is-a mob; they don't fight with courage
that's born in them, but with the courage that's borrowed from their mass, and
from their officers. But a mob without any man at the head of it, is beneath
pitifulness...If any real lynching's going to be done, it will be done in the
dark, Southern fashion; and when they come they'll bring their masks, and fetch
a man along. Now leave-and take your half-a-man with you.'"
Comments
and Questions
After
murdering a old drunk in broad daylight in front of the drunk's young daughter,
Colonel Sherburn returns to his house, followed by a lynch mob made up of the
enraged townspeople. Upon their arrival, Sherburn comes out of his house to
berate the crowd for their herd mentality in joining the rudderless lynch mob.
He criticizes their apparent cowardice in attempting to intimidate him with
sheer numbers in a lengthy and eloquent discourse. The irony in being lectured
about courage by a man who just killed a defenseless old man just for insulting
him is completely lost on the crowd, which dissipates quickly, in shame. As
with the Grangerford-Shepardson feud and the cons of the king and duke, this
incidence is yet another demonstration of the cruelty of
"civilization". Although the townspeople are dressed in nice clothing
and are literate and cultured, their animalistic desire for conflict manifests
itself in other ways, much like the gossip and backstabbing seen in modern
society's social relations. Sherburn's oratorical skill is contrasted with his
unprecedented murder of the drunk. Will there be any more incidents to cement
this idea?
Chapter
23
p.
142 "He was thinking about his wife
and children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn't
ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as
much for his people as white folks does for their'n. It doesn't seem natural,
but I reckon it's so. He was often moaning and mourning that way, nights, when
he judged I was asleep..."
Comments
and Questions
At
night, when there is nothing else to distract him, Jim remembers his family,
who he left being to avoid being sold off to another owner. He only does this
when he thinks Huck and the con men are asleep, and Huck is astounded to find
that Jim is capable of the emotions Huck himself can feel. The Southern
perception of slaves was that the slaves were lower in social status than even
animals, almost objects. This event serves to highlight that although Huck is
more open-minded than other "white folks", it is still hard to move past
the perception of slaves that infiltrated every aspect of life in the American
South. Huck's thought that Jim being homesick wasn't quite natural also
contributes to the idea that slaves were naturally inferior, unable to feel.
However, Huck ultimately decides that he must have been mistaken before and
applies this new knowledge to his interactions with Jim.
Huck
uses the word "mourning" to describe Jim's lamentations, calling to
mind death. The only family Huck ever really lost was his father, not having
known his mother. However, Huck's father's disappearance before the novel's
events begin did not seem to have much of a psychological effect on Huck, due
to the history of abuse. Therefore, in his mind, Huck equates missing family
members to mourning them, as he has had more experiences with death than
homesickness, and is more familiar with the appearance of mourning. Grief is a
purely human emotion, and the word "mourning" is used after Huck
recognizes Jim's ability to feel emotion. Interesting.
Chapter
25
p.
150 "...I never see two men leak the
way they done. And mind you, everybody was doing the same; and the place was
that damp I never see anything like it...and so everybody broke down and went
to sobbing right out loud-the poor girls, too; and every woman, nearly, went up
to the girls, without saying a word, and kissed them, solemn, on the forehead,
and then put their hand on their head, and looked up towards the sky, with the
tears running down, and then busted out and ran sobbing and swabbing, and give
the next woman a show. I never see anything so disgusting."
Comments
and Questions
Huck
does not understand this display at all. He's confused, and more than a little
terrified of all these crying people, and is too overwhelmed to properly
empathize. He has never encountered anything like this before, given his
estrangement from society in general. He has not had the opportunity to grieve,
as his mother, although never mentioned, is implied to not have had contact
with her son. Huck respects grief; what he cannot stand is the display of the
two con men. Their blatant manipulation of obviously grieving people is
malicious and Huck is torn between his moral sense and his desire to keep Jim
safe.
Huck
replaces the word "sobbing" with "swabbing" upon its
repeat-is he trying to indicate another dialect of English used by the
townspeople? Is the alternate spelling being used for emphasis, or to indicate
Huck drawing out the syllables of the word in spoken vernacular? Is Twain
trying to indicate the tone and inflections of how Huck views the word? A
long-suffering tone might be being used here, but I'm not sure. There is
something fishy here. I shall get to the bottom of this!
Chapter
28
p.
169 "'Miss Mary Jane, you can't
abear to see people in trouble, and I can't-most
always. Tell me about it.' So she done it. And it was the niggers-I just
expected it. She said the beautiful trip to England was most about spoiled for
her; she didn't know how she was ever
going to be happy there, knowing the mothers and the children warn't ever going
to see each other no more..."
Comments
and Questions:
It's
kind of interesting how Huck gets Mary Jane to open up to him. He starts out
with her name, to get her attention and create a sense of familiarity. Using a
person's name while talking to them creates a feeling of mutual trust, and Huck
is attempting to make Mary Jane more comfortable. He then notes her compassion
before relating it to his own feelings, forming a common foundation. He then
asks her to trust him with her own thoughts. The choice that he offers her
allows Mary Jane some control over the situation. When people feel out of
control, they tend to control what they can. Huck appears to trust Mary Jane,
allowing her to feel comfortable enough to tell him what is bothering her, even
though Huck was already pretty sure he knew. Huck's summary of her response is
narrated in a way to draw the reader's compassion for Mary Jane despite her
previously demonstrated gullibility. She also details the unfairness of her own
relative happiness in contrast to the separation of mother and children, a
subject that resonates with any audience. The crude phrasing calls to mind the
innocence of children, adding to the thought of innocent children being forever
separated from their mother. Mark Twain is a genius.
Chapter
29
p. 181 "Well, then they sailed in on the general investigation, and there
we had it, up and down, hour in, hour out, and nobody never said a word about
supper, nor ever seemed to think about it-and so they kept it up, and kept it
up: and it was the worst mixed-up
thing you ever see. They made the king tell his yarn, and they made the old
gentleman tell his'n; and anybody but a lot of prejudiced chuckleheads would a seen that the old gentleman was spinning truth
and t'other lies."
Comments and Questions
Huck has never experienced the suspense
of a public inquisition, and the wait and supper beforehand probably felt like
a rigged game. In informal conflicts, responses and judgements come faster due
to the lack of pressure. However, the wait and preparation before the
questioning period is designed to increase pressure on the victim, in an attempt
to make the victim crack. All Huck sees is a bunch of people, pretending to
have a civil dinner, and he doesn't understand why they don't just start
interrogating him, instead of letting him stew in his own thoughts. The
interrogation afterwards is just as tense, with Huck waiting while his side's
mastermind spins a crazy lie that he knows everyone will dismiss as false. The
sentence is another run-on, with the tone becoming more frantic with every
clause. There is a pattern of seeing Huck's fear and panic manifested in run-on
sentences. I think it's safe to say that it is officially a pattern. I wonder
if there are any more sentence patterns that I missed.
