7 replies to this topic

[Wonko the Sane]

I just stumbled upon this page, written in 1898:





http://www.archive.o...kTwainsNotebook
http://ia311511.us.a...ML/00000354.htm

It is easier for a cannibal to enter the Kingdom of Heaven through the eye of a rich man's needle than it is for any other foreigner to read the terrible German script.

I presume that 2 members out of 35,000 may appreciate the foresight involved in such a statement.

I would also like to point out how, irony of the sort, the Board software changes commas to "at", i.e.:
[ quote=Mark Twain, Notebook ]
to:
QUOTE (Mark Twain @ Notebook)




Wonko

[Brito]

You have time to read text on books?

Thanks for sharing, never had actually seen a book page from a Mark Twain's book before.

[Wonko the Sane]

You have time to read text on books?

Yes , there is NO other way to read literature.

BUT, in this particular case, it wasn't a "real book".

Thanks for sharing, never had actually seen a book page from a Mark Twain's book before.

You seem unaware of the way this thingy works:
http://www.archive.org/details/texts

As an example for this:
http://www.archive.o...kTwainsNotebook

See what we have available:
http://ia311510.us.a...TwainsNotebook/

What I posted was the relevant page extracted from the Djvu file (which is an actual scan of the printed book) .


Wonko

[Brito]

BUT, in this particular case, it wasn't a "real book".

Sure, I understand what you mean. I read a lot of technical books but rarely find time for literature. Some vacations would help.

Good link that you provided. Might snoop around and see if I find something interesting for me.

[breaker]

I love Mark Twain. Once I took an entire college course about him and his works. Check out The War Prayer http://en.wikisource.../The_War_Prayer

...O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it...

Also a relevant pacifist statement today, considering recent events...

[Wonko the Sane]

I find that very few writers, and expecially modern ones, have the right kind of "common sense" that Mark Twain, as well as G.K.Chesterton:

"My country, right or wrong," is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober."

show.

Too bad that one is mostly known for "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". or for "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" , and the other for "Father Brown" tales, all "labeled" as "children's literature".

Due to his great humour and sarcasm I also love Ambrose Bierce:

MALEFACTOR, n. The chief factor in the progress of the human race.

Wonko

[steve6375]

The title of this post is clearly untrue - Mark Twain died in 1910 and I am sure Notebooks hadn't been invented then because ENIAC was the first general purpose computer and that was first booted up around 1946.

[Wonko the Sane]

The title of this post is clearly untrue - Mark Twain died in 1910 and I am sure Notebooks hadn't been invented then because ENIAC was the first general purpose computer and that was first booted up around 1946.

Remember that the theme of this topic is the foresight capabilities Mark Twain showed in his writings , however, dictionaries were invented at the time (and they still exist today):
http://www.thefreedi...ry.com/notebook

Also, desktops were invented LONG before desktop PC's :
http://www.thefreedi...ary.com/desktop


whilst I presume that desktops were invented roughly at the same time as desks were :
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/desk



Wonkoo