No Matter Where You Go,There You Are
“All publishers are Columbuses. The successful author is their America. The reflection that they—like Columbus—didn’t discover when they expected to discover, and didn’t discover what they started out to discover, doesn’t trouble them. All they remember is that they discovered America; they forget that they started out to discover some patch or corner of India.”
—Mark Twain, (1835-1910), author and curmudgeon, 1906
Mark Twain is now a "curmudgeon"?
ReplyDeleteThere was a time when he would have been, "author and humorist", or just plain "author". But then someone was offended by something he wrote, and called him a bigot, and it was no longer politically correct to quote him. And now, it seems, we reform him by making him a curmudgeon. People are such cowards. Twain would have no use for any of them.
We expect better of a prof. of interesting stuff.
John
Pease responds:
My grandfather was a curmudgeon. In my lexicon, that's a compliment.
Yrs in cowardice,
TP
Let's not forget that the natives that met Columbus didn't want to be "discovered," any more than they wanted to be infected with European diseases.
ReplyDeleteIs there a parallel between what writers discover? I hope not....
PEASE!
ReplyDeleteYou definitely are a curmudgeon. In a good way! This John guy is a cranky old poop. In a bad way.
Jen
LOVE TWAIN! He is one of those men who was more then willing to speak his mind about how society went about it's daily activities.
ReplyDeleteJust because you feel that you have accomplished something "great" at someone's expense, doesn't always make it great.
So here is my thought on that...
When is a great act...well, great?
Who decides what is and what is not great!
Is it the job of those of us who write?
It reminds me of the saying that history is not the truth but what someone wants you to think is the truth, for they have written it that way. (Courtesy of my history professor from many