A Book Report

I never saw the usefulness in writing book reports.  I don't remember writing too many of them.  I do remember a movie review we were supposed to write in high school.  I got a note from the teacher who said that I should look at John's for the proper way to do this.  As it turned out, John had copied his from the Chicago Sun Times.  So I guess I did learn something with that assignment.  John got an A; mine was somewhat less.

The book I'm going to report on is Life on the Mississippi, by one Mark Twain.  I was under the impression when I started to read this, that I had never read it.  But I think ,that I've read portions of it.

The book is autobiographical.  Twain is returning to the river after 20-some years away.  He's become famous and is recognized a number of times by others that he runs into while taking his return trip.

There is a lot of interesting history that is related as to the white man's interaction with the river and the towns up and down.  Second longest river in the world, he tells us.

Twain did study (got learned) the river starting when he was 20.  It's not clear how long he was a cub, then pilot.

He has some adventures and there is a lot to know about being a pilot and the river.

But I want to touch on a couple of things that impressed me.  I've been pretty neutral in re Twain.  Not sure I ever enjoyed his works.  I did play Tom Sawyer in a modest production: "I'm sorry Aunt Polly.  I didn't mean to do it."  Or something like that.  It's been a long time.   And was she named Polly?  Doesn't matter - not one of the discussion items.

There are a couple of paragraphs where Twain pokes fun at scientists.  They were claiming that the river was shrinking at some rate, and "if this continues, by xxxx, the river will be gone!"  Twain begs the question and suggests if this had always been true than the river was 1.4 million miles long not too long ago.  Sadly we see this all the time today.  The climate alarmist uses this on a daily basis.  The earth will melt by 2100 if we don't act now!  The polar caps will be gone by 2013!  (Seems they missed that deadline, and a lot of folks were predicting it -- I'm looking at you Al Gore.)

What I find fascinating is that Twain was well aware of this kind of thing 150 years ago.  It must have been fairly common knowledge, yet we still must correct and cajole on this very point today.

Maybe it wasn't common knowledge and Twain was thinker and got there in spite of his times.  I don't know and it is what makes we tempted to read some of his other books and see what else he dropped here and there.

The next point is made by his relating a story spoken by another pilot.  It is now after the steam boat era has  ended.  It didn't last that long!  The railroads pretty much killed it.  Start to finish it was about 60 years.  (As a small aside, this is not much different that the cattle drives.  They lasted all of 20 years, then the railroads came out to meet them and the cowboys were out of a job.  It's amusing that the cattle drive has lasted a lot longer in film, TV and various media than it did in real life.)

The pilot talks of the Army Corp of Engineers, who are going to come out from West Point and "fix" the river.  Twain mentions that when the water is high that the river can be 70 miles wide -- a lot of energy and water there...

The pilot does not come out and say that the engineers are total idiots, but it's pretty plain that is what he thinks.  He is amused by those who are so removed from the river, know enough about it to fix it.

As far as I know the ACE is still on the job.

Reagan was correct, there is nothing longer lived than a government project.  I also mention that it wasn't too many springs ago the river reclaimed a lot of territory thought safe.  This is a recurring theme in the book that the river is in charge.  Man's buildings, towns, and farms are not obstacles to river.  Loops are cut through, cutting off  towns.  Towns are simply washed away.  All good stuff!

But the theme that the folks/politicians/environmentalists/Washington bureaucrats know enough about anything to drive reasonable, much less correct, policy is fantasy.  And, again, we see this every day today.  Here's the latest law from Washington or Sacramento that will "fix" something.

There are other little bits and pieces that make the book worth reading.  Sadly my ebook did not contain the appendices, I think they would have been worth reading.  But the above items struck me as worthy of note.

Ah, I remember one more curious bit of lore.  The book is written after the Civil war.  Twain has things to say about it and how it touched the south much more than the north.  Then, striking to the heart of the matter, Twain blames Sir Walter Scott for the whole thing.  There would not be a south were it not for SWS!  His flowery language and other trappings led to its creation and thus on to the war.

Twain remarks a number of times about writing that he runs across and provides an expert's critique thereon.  Quite interesting to me.  Perhaps language arts should be taught like engineering, it might have made it more interesting.  But Twain was adamant that SWS was the villain in all this.

An interesting theory that I'd not heard before.  I don't think of writers having that kind of power.

Ok, so that is my take on the book.  Worth the read from my point of view and I was glad I took it up.  I suppose I should read Moby Dick at some point, I know I've never read that one.