Bila Lee
English 48B
February 26, 2009
Journal #15 Mark Twain
Quote
“If Cooper had been an observer, his inventive faculty would have worked better, not more interestingly, but more rationally, more plausibly. Cooper’s proudest creations in the way of ‘situations’ suffer noticeably from the absence of the observer’s protecting gift. Cooper’s eye was splendidly inaccurate. Cooper seldom saw anything correctly. He saw nearly all things as through a glass eye” (Twain 297).
Summary
As its title, “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences,” has already suggested, its writer Mark Twain relentlessly criticizes James Fenimore Cooper and denies his contribution in Literature. Twain picks “The Pathfinder” and “The Deerslayer,” in which both literary works are regarded as Cooper’s famous masterpiece, to illustrate how Cooper violates eighteen literary rules and “has scored 114 offences against literary art out of a possible 115” (Twain 295). With an eye to the given statistics, as well as the comments and examples provided by the legendary Mark Twain, it has every strong reason to believe Fenimore Cooper is the most horrible writer ever. Yet, is it the truth?
Responses
Wow. I always suppose we should show our greatest respect to others, even though we think either that person is bizarre or his work is ridiculous, or both. Wow, I could never imagine a literary writer criticizes another writer in such a relentless manner. It does really broaden my horizons to a very large extent. Yet, it is subjective to judge and evaluate others’ work, like some think Fenimore Cooper is brilliant whereas Mark Twain thinks in an opposite way; similarly, some may agree Twain’s criticism and think his analysis helps the contemporary Literature world; while some may disagree with Twain’s perspectives.
I conducted a research via answers.com, and I found an extremely accurate point to the issue:
“Hilarious though Twain's essay is, it is valid only within its own narrow and sometimes misapplied criteria. Whether Twain is attacking Cooper's diction or Hawkeye's tracking feats, his strategy is to charge Cooper with one small inaccuracy, reconstruct the surrounding narrative or sentence around it, and then produce the whole as evidence that Cooper's kind of English would prevent anyone from seeing reality” (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Indians/critic.html)
Diction is perhaps the soul of all literary work. However, the preference of using one particular vocabulary over another may reflect an embedded
meaning that only the author knows. In our text page 302, Mark Twain proposes a list of “approximate word” (Twain 302) and how they should be replaced by Twain’s perfect words. Honestly, I did not read those words one by one because it would not help unless comparing to the original text (and I was too lazy to google the Deerslayer…) I assume Mark Twain’s revision is better, but I think some modern English majors may also be able to challenge his dictions. In addition, his another evident to demonstrate Cooper’s literary offence goes, “as nobody had missed it yet, the ‘also’ was not necessary” (Twain 300). In his own work, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Ch. XXXI,” I can easily find he commits some careless mistake as well. But, of course, those mechanical mistakes like “says I” (Twain 245) are intended to match the content; yet, I think “also” in Cooper’s work is also not a big deal.
Recently, I am having a cold war with my best friend because I made a negative comment on her essay (well, actually not that negative, I just said “it seems the last one is better and I see room of improvement for this one.”) She gets mad at me, of course plus some personal reasons, and both of us are upset about it. The incident gives me a valuable lesson that we should respect others and their effort made in each work, and hence I think Mark Twain is over-reacted in this particular case.
English 48B
February 26, 2009
Journal #15 Mark Twain
Quote
“If Cooper had been an observer, his inventive faculty would have worked better, not more interestingly, but more rationally, more plausibly. Cooper’s proudest creations in the way of ‘situations’ suffer noticeably from the absence of the observer’s protecting gift. Cooper’s eye was splendidly inaccurate. Cooper seldom saw anything correctly. He saw nearly all things as through a glass eye” (Twain 297).
Summary
As its title, “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences,” has already suggested, its writer Mark Twain relentlessly criticizes James Fenimore Cooper and denies his contribution in Literature. Twain picks “The Pathfinder” and “The Deerslayer,” in which both literary works are regarded as Cooper’s famous masterpiece, to illustrate how Cooper violates eighteen literary rules and “has scored 114 offences against literary art out of a possible 115” (Twain 295). With an eye to the given statistics, as well as the comments and examples provided by the legendary Mark Twain, it has every strong reason to believe Fenimore Cooper is the most horrible writer ever. Yet, is it the truth?
Responses
Wow. I always suppose we should show our greatest respect to others, even though we think either that person is bizarre or his work is ridiculous, or both. Wow, I could never imagine a literary writer criticizes another writer in such a relentless manner. It does really broaden my horizons to a very large extent. Yet, it is subjective to judge and evaluate others’ work, like some think Fenimore Cooper is brilliant whereas Mark Twain thinks in an opposite way; similarly, some may agree Twain’s criticism and think his analysis helps the contemporary Literature world; while some may disagree with Twain’s perspectives.I conducted a research via answers.com, and I found an extremely accurate point to the issue:
“Hilarious though Twain's essay is, it is valid only within its own narrow and sometimes misapplied criteria. Whether Twain is attacking Cooper's diction or Hawkeye's tracking feats, his strategy is to charge Cooper with one small inaccuracy, reconstruct the surrounding narrative or sentence around it, and then produce the whole as evidence that Cooper's kind of English would prevent anyone from seeing reality” (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/HNS/Indians/critic.html)
Diction is perhaps the soul of all literary work. However, the preference of using one particular vocabulary over another may reflect an embedded
meaning that only the author knows. In our text page 302, Mark Twain proposes a list of “approximate word” (Twain 302) and how they should be replaced by Twain’s perfect words. Honestly, I did not read those words one by one because it would not help unless comparing to the original text (and I was too lazy to google the Deerslayer…) I assume Mark Twain’s revision is better, but I think some modern English majors may also be able to challenge his dictions. In addition, his another evident to demonstrate Cooper’s literary offence goes, “as nobody had missed it yet, the ‘also’ was not necessary” (Twain 300). In his own work, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Ch. XXXI,” I can easily find he commits some careless mistake as well. But, of course, those mechanical mistakes like “says I” (Twain 245) are intended to match the content; yet, I think “also” in Cooper’s work is also not a big deal.Recently, I am having a cold war with my best friend because I made a negative comment on her essay (well, actually not that negative, I just said “it seems the last one is better and I see room of improvement for this one.”) She gets mad at me, of course plus some personal reasons, and both of us are upset about it. The incident gives me a valuable lesson that we should respect others and their effort made in each work, and hence I think Mark Twain is over-reacted in this particular case.
20/20 Fortuanately Cooper was dead by the time Twain wrote this -- unlike your roommate.
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