Freedom
In some strange turn of events, I recently decided to shun my usual non-fiction and French textbooks and read a novel. I chose The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – a book I have been thinking about reading for ooh, 15 years.
Now Huckleberry Finn is ‘the first of the Great American Novels’ and people have undoubtedly been deconstructing Mark Twain’s tale of a runaway boy and an escaped slave ever since it was published in 1884. Indeed, the debates you could have about racism and slavery are endless – but apart from that what most struck me about the book was its sense of freedom.
By freedom, I don’t mean the obvious type of freedom that inevitably results from escaping slavery or an abusive father for a life of hi-jinks on a raft floating down the Mississippi. I mean the freedom that Huckleberry Finn, a young teenage boy, could actually approach complete and utter strangers, have a chat with them and perhaps stay around for a bit. i.e. freedom from the thought that they might look at him weirdly and tell him to piss off; freedom from the idea that all strangers are potential murderers, rapists, thieves, con-artists and psychos; freedom to believe that people are, by and large, quite nice.
Obviously this is a made-up book in a different place and time, and I’m sure that late 1800s Illinois had its fair share of untrustworthy tossers, but I wish I had it in me to be like Huck Finn and less suspicious of strangers.
November 26th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I remember watching the TV versions back in the 70s, but never read the originals. One to add to the list I think, cheers!
November 27th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Oh, definitely do Simon – it is very enjoyable, very readable and not in the slightest sense a ‘worthy’ classic. It is interesting (to me, anyway) because it is so obviously another world, but also one that you can instantly relate to.
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Speaking as a pedant with an American Studies degree (2.1 University of Nottingham) I’d dispute that Huck is the first great American novel. The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick were both written a few decades before.
For a vaguely related musical treat I heartily recommend The Duke & The King.
December 3rd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
OK Nigel, I take your point, but in my defence I just lifted the ‘concept’ for that quote from Ernest Hemmingway – something like ‘all modern American literature comes from Huck Finn’. Actually that is no defence whatsoever, its just plain laziness on my part!
I will definitely check out The Duke and The King – how could one not be interested in glam-soul-folk?