Dear Internet,
It is
somewhat comical about the juxtaposition of the random cards I pick. Ignoring the middle man of "Genocyber,"
which is rather recommendable even outside the context of this entry, I pulled
"Stranger in a Strange Land" and then "A Connecticut Yankee in
King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain.
The two books do very similar things but take two completely different
roads about it and end in completely different paths, or at least I think they
will since I only got half way through "Yankee" today. But I am getting ahead of myself again.
"A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" follows the self narrative tale
of a man that claims to have traveled to the days of knights and tables
round. Twain starts off with the story
being not from his own hand but a manuscript from another person. The man who narrates the tale is a factory engineer
and foreman who, after receiving a blow to the head from one of his workers, was
thrown back some 1300 years into the past.
There, he is captured rather passively by Sir Kay and is brought to the
court of Camelot. Sir Kay tells an
elaborate story of how he had to fight off numerous wizards for hours on end
and that the narrator was the last one whom Sir Kay decided to spare. That is to say he lies. The narrator is marked as a spell weaver and
thrown into the dungeon to be burned at the stake. He thankfully remembers one tiny bit of information
concerning a total eclipse that just so happens right when he is going to be
burned. He uses this information to make
the populace fear him as a powerful wizard just when the sun becomes obstructed
by the moon the next day. Afterwards, he
receives a place of power next to King Arthur and is thence referred to by the
title "The Boss."
The
novel is filled with satire and humor, which is expected of Mark Twain. The characters that populate the story are
some of the simplest minded individuals that you will meet. They are like children with their level of
reasoning. They lie to one another with
reckless abandon and believe another's lie just as quickly. The tall tales that the knights brag to one
another make the knights boarder somewhere between habitual liars and
pathological liars. The fact that the
narrator almost was burned at the stake for one of these bragging lies shows
how dangerous these lies can be. However,
the narrator comes to sympathize with them for having being ignorant rather
than being stupid. He thinks that with a
little education, the lot could be made civilized to the point of the then
modern America. The joke here is that
The Boss is neither more civilized than those that are around him, only more knowledgeable
in the field of science. It is even more
comical when The Boss sympathizes with Morgan le Fay's choice to hang a group
of poorly playing musicians.
The
book, and by proxy the narrator, knows how to make a theatrical scene. Numerous times already, The Boss has had to
go toe to toe against the book's Merlin.
The Merlin in "Yankee" is one far removed from the traditional
one that we hear in our bedtime stories.
He is simply made as a charlatan witch doctor with all the trappings of
a superstitious old coot. His magic can
do nothing other than make a few puff of smoke and chant some nonsense words
that he believes will fix the world's problems.
The narrator is pretty much the same with the exception that what he
does for the audience that views his works he does not believe to be magic
because he knows it is not. The narrator
will create billowing plumes of smoke of various colors that are followed by rockets
and water pumps made to illicit the fears and imaginations of the
populace. His first display of
"magic" was a solar eclipse, so it is easy to see why the people are
ready to believe him. Whether or not
this stems from their ignorance or because of their gullibility does not change
the fact that The Boss is constantly pulling the wool over people's eyes.
But what
does all this have to do with "Stranger in a Strange Land" you ask? It boils down to the fact that they both are a
story with some outsider entering into a society with the intent of improving
the society the meet.
"Stranger" had Smith, the superman with psychic powers and a penchant
for half bakes philosophies that require a new breed of man to partially work. "Yankee" has The Boss, a scientific
conman that has yet to fall for his own con.
The second half of the book might prove me wrong, but the natures of the
books could not be father apart.
"Stranger" plays the story straight with all seriousness under
the mask of being lighthearted so that it can capture the reader
unprepared. "Yankee" is a
silly science fiction tale (remember that it is a time travel story so far)
that does everything tongue in cheek with a serious narrator who thinks of
himself as important. Both books want to
poke holes in society through the use of a proxy society, by really talking
about the society that the author is coming from. Both books even try to tackle the topic of religion. "Yankee" does a far better job than
"Stranger" in this aspect for the standalone fact that is actually
marks the Catholic Church as its target.
"Stranger" does things half heartedly with its fingers crossed
behind its back when it says it is not attacking any one religion in particular
when it clearly does so if one reads between the lines. Both works have a main character that
believes he is going to improve the people of those around him through the use
of science. "Yankee" admits to
the futility of such an endeavor. "Stranger"
actually thinks this is possible. This
is the difference between satire and serious intent that I mentioned in my first
post of "Stranger." The
difference is laughter, a laughter that "Stranger" wants to make the
reader feel guilty to laugh with.
"Yankee knows that it is not only healthy to laugh but that it is
right to laugh.
And I
suspect that I will laugh for some time tomorrow.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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