Maddenation
Tom and Huck don’t live here anymore
[I wrote this in September of 2002 and shared it with Patrick, but I’m not sure if I sent it to the rest of you. I found it while looking through my files for unfinished writings, of which there are many. I think it’s worthy of Maddenation.]
Today, I finished listening to the tape of Tom and Huck Don’t Live Here Anymore by Ron Powers. I think I told you about it. I originally heard about the book on CSPAN’s “book TV” (channel 56 or so), where Ron Powers was a panelist along with Tom Hayden (who wrote a book, “Irish on the inside”) who were discussing (I think) problems with youth in America. Maybe I’ll read Hayden’s book too. [I did get Hayden’s book, but was unable to finish it. It’s on my “finish” list.]
Powers’ book is a good one, and I’m glad I got the tape by mistake when I tried to reserve the book at Morris County library. They don’t even have a copy of the book in any of the Morris libraries, so the tape came up as the only entry. The tape is read by the author, and he does a great job interpreting the voices. Guess he would know. The premise for the book is Powers’ own feelings of shock and disbelief after hearing about two murders in his home town of Hannibal, Missouri. Yes, that’s Mark Twain’s home town too. Ron, I found out later, also wrote a book about Twain’s boyhood and weaved Twain’s view of the world into his account. It becomes a story about many things, including the murders themselves, the history of Hannibal and nearby towns, an autobiographical account of Ron Powers’s life and family, and a historical view of the Hannibal of Samuel Clemens. Powers also provides social commentary on what it is about our modern society that is causing kids to kill. It’s a well written, well thought out work. He doesn’t provide any ultimate answers, but gives us much food for thought, along with some insights about what life is all about.
Like all good books, Tom&Huck caused me to think along many lines. The “mall” culture of youth in our country, the industrial revolution that caused the migration of rural populations to the cities, the mindless work of the assembly lines (now replaced by the phone solicitors), the massive consumption of the USA as opposed to the exploitation of the rest of the world, the complexity and interdependence of our economy that insulates virtually all of us from the sources of our sustenance. No wonder our children get nihilistic. They have trouble understanding the purposes of life and maybe they can’t maintain all those contradictory ideas in their brains. A Christian society based on greed. A God-fearing society committed to revenge. A free society dedicated to efficiency and consumption over empathy and compassion.
I thought immediately of you (Patrick), beginning to write your book/dissertation on Uruguay. I can understand why you didn’t want it to be a “history” book, but I think it has to be more than a “travelogue”. If it has aspects similar to Powers’ book, I think it will be successful. You have to tell us why we should care, for one thing. Start writing and see how far you get before the first “history” question comes to mind. Maybe, like your essay on Monte Video, it will be the origin of a name, or the background of someone’s family, or an explanation for something unusual existing in that country. Somewhere, you will need to tell us why you love the people of Uruguay in such a way that we will love them too. You will need to tell us about them so that we can see how much they are like us; and then how they are different. As far as the Tupemaros (who need to be in there) I think maybe their story will tell us much about the country. How many of them were killed? How many survived? It seems to me significant that some of them now represent their countrymen in the new democratic government. (how democratic is it?) How is it they weren’t killed? Was the dictatorship of the past a more “benevolent” one than those of other S. American countries? If so, why? What is it in the character of Uruguayans that make them less bloodthirsty than their neighbors?
In Powers’ book, the story begins with the recent murders, proceeds to his own boyhood, draws analogies to Mark Twain and his times, and along the way, provides social commentary on why things are as they are. Powers brings Huckleberry Finn and his dad, Hap, into the story and makes comparisons between Huck’s dad and his own dad and the dad/stepdad of the murdering teenagers. He even brings in an odd theory about the railroad being the real problem, and how Mark Twain hated the railroad’s intrusion into his society, and how Mark Twain’s father, possibly unknown to his son, was the man who brought the railroad to Hannibal. In the end, he compares/likens one of the killers to Huck Finn, who faked his own death and lied to protect Jim. Zachary, the killer, said he confessed to the murder to protect his girlfriend, and that the man he killed “just needed killing”, and he may have been right.
I don’t know if you can find or manufacture all those subplots for your story. Writing is hard, after all, and your time is limited. But the difference between good writing and great writing is truth. Great writing shows us something about the truth about ourselves. Great writing can’t help but be autobiographical, in that it is written from the authors point of view, and he tells the truth; not the whole truth, necessarily, or nothing but the truth, but the sometime, now and then truth that we all encounter in our everyday lives.
When I think of the Tupemaros, with the little knowledge I have from talking to you, I see a group that may owe much to their countrymen. How is it that they could orchestrate the world’s biggest jail break if that jail wasn’t guarded by people who weren’t that interested in maximum security? Maybe the guards were their “friends” and realized that the cause of the dictatorship was not so just. Maybe the people of Uruguay weren’t as susceptible to having their lives controlled as the people of other countries. I think it is also very interesting that former rebels are now legislators (who wrote their new constitution? What is it based on?). Lots to write about. The geography, the politics, the sociology, the demographics. Is it too much to bite off? Probably, but be cautious about making small plans.
Dad • Reviews • 05/26/03 • 0 comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
Please capitalize your name properly and use the same information each time you comment. We will not send you spam, and your email address will not be posted.