14 ms·

I remember being stunned in high school that people would get degrees and an entire semester would be devoted to finding hidden symbolic meanings that authors i

I remember being stunned in high school that people would get degrees and an entire semester would be devoted to finding hidden symbolic meanings that authors in many cases obviously didn't intend. This was back when you could read Huck Finn. The teacher droned on and for over a week about how it was a symbolic journey of a boys growth towards manhood, how Huck was on the metaphorical river journey of overcoming racism. I said no, I didn't think that was what the story was about. It was just a story, in a certain time, in a certain place, meant to entertain, not to enlighten. She got really mad. So I opened up the intro to Huck Finn where Twain writes the following: * “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR per G.G., CHIEF OF ORDNANCE”` * I read it out loud in the class and said I didn't believe he was joking. He had foreseen the possibility of people like her arising and attempted to preempt it! I'll never forget her standing there with her mouth open and no answer. There is deeply symbolic literature, no argument. But all of it clearly is not. And interpretation of symbolism in many cases is summoned directly from thin air. Turns out it's an entire profession!

stephenhuey 5y ago
While some may analyze beautiful literature into oblivion and I feel your pain, I can’t agree with you on Huck Finn. My interpretation of the intro you quoted is very different from yours. Mark Twain went out of his way to highlight barbaric racism on rubber plantations in the Congo by writing a satirical pamphlet to try to get the word out: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62739 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62739 Even though he masterfully wove his beliefs into the underlying fabric of Huck Finn, I am sure he wished to subtly communicate important truths while spinning a really delightful tale.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- mythrwy 5y ago
  My take is he was sort of the Mike Judge of his time. Less a moralist, more a cynical and very amusing observer of human frailty.
FranzFerdiNaN 5y ago
This reads like something you would find on the ThatHappened subreddit. I bet your classmates also clapped after you so brutally took down that dumbass teacher with facts and logic, right? You had to take that class to learn not to take everything you read at face value. As sometimes happen people decide to go the other way around and declare that texts never have any deeper meaning and that it is all just nonsense and gosh darn how can those liberal arts even exist?????? It’s a shame because it prevents you from enjoying literature at a deeper level, instead of saying that Anna Karenina is the exact same as some silly airport novel.
vkou 5y ago
> * “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR per G.G., CHIEF OF ORDNANCE”` * Have you considered that Mark Twain, a master of satire, may have intended that passage to be just that? I think the 'will be shot' gives it away. I don't know much about metaphoric journeys on rivers from boyhood to manhood, but there was more of a point to that story than you seem to think.
xorcist 5y ago
While satire clearly can go above a young boy's head, it is important to keep an open mind about literature. Symbolism doesn't necessarily need to have a purpose. We can also learn a lot about the environment in which a writer operated, just by learning from which symbols was used to convey a message. This is one of the central points, but also perhaps the most misunderstood, of modern (and post modern) literary criticism. Your teacher may not have been the best, but that does not mean all literary criticism is bad.
- mythrwy 5y ago
  Symbolism doesn't also necessarily need to exist. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. My complaint was (and still is 30 years later) is that an entire cottage industry seems to have arisen around finding hidden meanings. Would we do that to television today? Does the cartoon "King of the Hill" contain hidden significance and deep moral lessons? Maybe. Or maybe it's just wit mostly designed to entertain.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    > Does the cartoon "King of the Hill" contain hidden significance and deep moral lessons? Maybe. Or maybe it's just wit mostly designed to entertain. As the kids apparently say nowadays, por que no los dos?

stephenhuey 5y ago

While some may analyze beautiful literature into oblivion and I feel your pain, I can’t agree with you on Huck Finn. My interpretation of the intro you quoted is very different from yours. Mark Twain went out of his way to highlight barbaric racism on rubber plantations in the Congo by writing a satirical pamphlet to try to get the word out: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62739 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62739 Even though he masterfully wove his beliefs into the underlying fabric of Huck Finn, I am sure he wished to subtly communicate important truths while spinning a really delightful tale.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
mythrwy 5y ago
My take is he was sort of the Mike Judge of his time. Less a moralist, more a cynical and very amusing observer of human frailty.

FranzFerdiNaN 5y ago

This reads like something you would find on the ThatHappened subreddit. I bet your classmates also clapped after you so brutally took down that dumbass teacher with facts and logic, right? You had to take that class to learn not to take everything you read at face value. As sometimes happen people decide to go the other way around and declare that texts never have any deeper meaning and that it is all just nonsense and gosh darn how can those liberal arts even exist?????? It’s a shame because it prevents you from enjoying literature at a deeper level, instead of saying that Anna Karenina is the exact same as some silly airport novel.

vkou 5y ago

> * “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR per G.G., CHIEF OF ORDNANCE”` * Have you considered that Mark Twain, a master of satire, may have intended that passage to be just that? I think the 'will be shot' gives it away. I don't know much about metaphoric journeys on rivers from boyhood to manhood, but there was more of a point to that story than you seem to think.

xorcist 5y ago

While satire clearly can go above a young boy's head, it is important to keep an open mind about literature. Symbolism doesn't necessarily need to have a purpose. We can also learn a lot about the environment in which a writer operated, just by learning from which symbols was used to convey a message. This is one of the central points, but also perhaps the most misunderstood, of modern (and post modern) literary criticism. Your teacher may not have been the best, but that does not mean all literary criticism is bad.

mythrwy 5y ago
Symbolism doesn't also necessarily need to exist. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. My complaint was (and still is 30 years later) is that an entire cottage industry seems to have arisen around finding hidden meanings. Would we do that to television today? Does the cartoon "King of the Hill" contain hidden significance and deep moral lessons? Maybe. Or maybe it's just wit mostly designed to entertain.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  > Does the cartoon "King of the Hill" contain hidden significance and deep moral lessons? Maybe. Or maybe it's just wit mostly designed to entertain. As the kids apparently say nowadays, por que no los dos?