Thursday, July 14, 2016

Crash Course just posted a video essay on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which made me remember my own review of that book from last year.

I found Crash Course's take on the book very interesting.  My only two points of disagreement are:

1)The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is better than John Green is giving it credit for.  Sure, Tom Sawyer might not be Literature with a capital "L"--it might not be so heavy with the themes and symbolism that literary types like to gush over.  But it's funny, and it makes you laugh, and so it's all right with me.

2). Also...the race issue in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is more problematic than John Green is acknowledging.   It goes beyond simply using the "N-word".  Jim is frequently portrayed as a buffoon and a simpleton in the book.
That doesn't necessarily mean the book is racist (and I ran through a couple of different interpretations in my original review) but it is a problem that needs to be addressed.

With those caveats out of the way, I thoroughly enjoyed this little video essay:



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