Mark Twain's Autobiography finally to be published

[VCURamFan]

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/05/23...=Google+Reader

The creator of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and some of the most frequently misquoted catchphrases in the English language left behind 5,000 unedited pages of memoirs when he died in 1910, together with handwritten notes saying that he did not want them to hit bookshops for at least a century.

That milestone has now been reached, and in November the University of California, Berkeley, where the manuscript is in a vault, will release the first volume of Mark Twain's autobiography. The eventual trilogy will run to half a million words, and shed new light on the quintessentially American novelist...

"He had doubts about God, and in the autobiography, he questions the imperial mission of the US in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. He's also critical of [Theodore] Roosevelt, and takes the view that patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel. Twain also disliked sending Christian missionaries to Africa. He said they had enough business to be getting on with at home: with lynching going on in the South, he thought they should try to convert the heathens down there."

In other sections of the autobiography, Twain makes cruel observations about his supposed friends, acquaintances and one of his landladies

[Neezar]

So he was a liberal....

[VCURamFan]

Originally Posted by Neezar

So he was a liberal....

Are you surprised by that?

[adamt]

Originally Posted by Neezar

So he was a liberal....

don't take this the wrong way, as i am very serious, and i know you were just kidding, but i am extremely conservative, and i am agreeing with twain on what he is saying, i think he might have been more conservative than the conservatives of today

[Neezar]

Originally Posted by adamt

don't take this the wrong way, as i am very serious, and i know you were just kidding, but i am extremely conservative, and i am agreeing with twain on what he is saying, i think he might have been more conservative than the conservatives of today

You have doubts about God?

Are you a patriot?

[adamt]

Originally Posted by Neezar

You have doubts about God?

Are you a patriot?

if i said i had doubts about tyburn---- what does that mean? Do i doubt that he exists? no it would imply more of a certainty of his existence. It doesn't say what is in doubt. I have doubts about God, as in how things work. I think 99.9999 percent of people aren't remotely close to praying how God intended. Things such as that.

and instead of spelling out the patriot remark, i will just ask poignant questions.

was bin laden a patriot? was hussein a patriot? was hitler? kim jong il? castro?

Originally Posted by adamt

was bin laden a patriot? was hussein a patriot? was hitler? kim jong il? castro?

Wow, that’s embarrassing.

[adamt]

Originally Posted by Dethbob

Wow, that’s embarrassing.

could you elaborate?

Patriotism is a virtue, a good and healthy attitude for a citizen to have toward their own nation. It binds a nation together, contributes to a sense of common purpose, and permits the kind of stability in which individual rights can flourish. Unfortunately stability also tends to encourage the proliferation of spoiled brats who believe that virtue is for the stupid, and wickedness is a sign of maturity.

[adamt]

Originally Posted by Dethbob

Patriotism is a virtue, a good and healthy attitude for a citizen to have toward their own nation. It binds a nation together, contributes to a sense of common purpose, and permits the kind of stability in which individual rights can flourish. Unfortunately stability also tends to encourage the proliferation of spoiled brats who believe that virtue is for the stupid, and wickedness is a sign of maturity.

so you are agreeing with me right?

what the saying means is that no matter how rotten a person is he can always hide behind patriotism. because people respect someone who loves their country.

hitler was a patriot to germany. it doesn't make him good. or bad. what he did made him bad. everyone is a patriot to somewhere or something. If you aren't then you're hated more than those that are. Thus " patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel"

say what you want, obama loves his country...... or so he says. now who is going to criticize him for claiming to love his country??? noone, because everyone thinks it is a virtue to be a patriot.

are the canadians on here patriots? sure, but patriots to canada not usa.

love him or hate him, bin laden is more of a patriot to islam than we are to america