alt Hacker NewsMark Twain is America's Homer
One aspect of Huckleberry Finn (the novel) that I think is relevant today is the spectacularly stupid zero-sum conflict between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. It seems relevant to the US's politics and many international conflicts
Replies
marcus_holmes • yesterday at 5:26 AM
Came here to say this and I'm not even American. It's definitely Twain.
Though other American countries (even just North American countries) might have different opinions, so maybe he's just the USA's Homer.
jimbob45 • yesterday at 4:22 AM
Would anyone go out of their way to read any of Twain if it wasn’t required high school reading?
Also the American Homer is/was Garrison Keillor. Homer’s delivery was oral and radio is surely closer to oratory than books.
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Definitely Twain and it's not even close. Huckleberry Finn even has the episodic flavor of The Odyssey.
For books you have "The Innocents Abroad", "Roughing It", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "A Tramp Abroad", "The Prince and the Pauper", "Life on the Mississippi", "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", and "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court".
That's a hell of a lineup and includes a LOT of the flavor of the US as a young country.