The Ken Burns' biography of Samuel Langhorne Clemens started last Sunday here in Sydney, Australia. This site (& this article) shows some of why I admire & enjoy his work.


www.twainquotes.com

The New York Times, April 24, 1910


MARK TWAIN --- PHILOSOPHER OF DEMOCRACY

The Serious Side of the Famous Humorist Whose Dominant Note Was Love of Liberty and Hate of Shams.

"I am through with work for this life and this world." - Mark Twain to the reporters on his return from Bermuda, Dec. 1909.

Call a philosopher a humorist, and for the rest of his life, though he live to be more than 70, people will grin expectantly whenever he heaves a sigh...

Down at Circular Quay there is a "Writers' Walk" with inlaid plaques commemorating both Australian writers' work about Sydney & foreign writers' visits or their writing about us. Think he's there commenting on his travels in Australia.

I am re-posting URLs for a short Mark Twain story (THE WAR PRAYER) I mentioned back on the 10th of October (just before the Bali Bombing). It might be useful to bring its message back into mind in the times we are going through.

www.classicalfencing.com/sorrow/warprayer.html

Checking out some things about TV series Babylon 5 (parts of which reflect current subjects of interest). One of my reasons for reading science fiction (as opposed to sword & sorcery style fantasy or space-located varieties of westerns, &c) is that it can deal with all sorts of ideas & speculations about humanity, society, reality, &c.

[In-depth analysis of Babylon 5:

www.midwinter.com/lurk/toc.html;
www-theory.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~aaa/B5.Ref.html;
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5],
I was intrigued to find episode title "The War Prayer" (Synopsis at www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/007.html Background at www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/007.html came from a short Mark Twain (Samuel Longhorn Clemens) story. Pertinent whenever & wherever someone is whipping up bellicose feeling, e.g. India v Pakistan, etc, etc, etc. He also is an interesting writer in several ways. Here we are rather fond of his comments about Australia when he visited. Will have to look them up for you.


This is a short biography, with links to several stories:

www.underthesun.cc/Classics/Twain

and a more 'literary' discussion of him, especially his skepticism:
www.yorku.ca/twainweb/filelist/skeptic.html


The War Prayer links (It's been used recently too, about current subjects:):

www.boondocksnet.com/ai/twain/war_prayer.html
www.libertystory.net/LSDOCTWAINWARPRAYER.htm
www.classicalfencing.com/sorrow/sorrow.html
www.spcworks.org/msg7-3-00.html

www.westbynorthwest.org/winter01/warprayer.shtml
www.fcpj.org/warperspectives.asp

Check the October archives for an extract if you have problems linking to these.
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 3/25/2003 10:57:00 pm