Big River

     This past week, I was reacquainted with an old friend, a denizen of one of the worlds with which I came in contact as a youth.

     There is nothing remarkable about my friend.  Like so many boys at that age, he rebelled against authority, broke the rules and got into many difficult scrapes.  He is an adventurer on both land and in his own mind.  He is both child-like and world weary; likewise, his simplicity belies his ability to see the contradictions and hypocrisies of modern life.  He is known world over, yet has remained as down-to-earth and amiable as any celebrity.

     His name is Huckleberry Finn.  Years ago, I read Mark Twain's other works, most notably Tom Sawyer, yet for some reason I never read H.F.  I am well aware of the plot, having seen screen versions of the book.  The worst was probaby Hanna Barbera's semi-animated THE NEW ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, a late 1960's show that featured, Huck, Tom and Becky Thatcher as live actors superimposed against television-grade animation.  This show was horrible and I loved every minute of it.

     Still, I'm not supposed to like anything about the book.  After all, every other paragraph contains the word "nigger".  According to the educated African-American, Afro-American, Black, Coloured or Negro talking heads (take your pick), that makes the book unsuitable for reading.  (Side note:  I don't support censorship, period.  But I wish these same people would apply the same standard toward singers and rappers who use the "N Word" indescriminately today.)

     The "not supposed to" -ses continue.  I'm not supposed to enjoy it because I am a Northerner; because I am from a Big City; because I didn't grow up under Jim Crow (although I did know Jim Crow's first cousin, Mr. James Crowe, esq.); because I identify myself as a Christian; because my education revolved around Expressionism and Surrealism; because I am supposed to sit around listening to my co-workers griping about the government, instead of quiety reading.

     ...Or - to steal a phrase from Dorothy / Judy Garland in the musical film THE WIZARD OF OZ - "Because, because because because, BECAUSE!..."

     I think I - and perhaps we - spend too much time carrying other people's baggage.   In a world in which foundations are shaken, truths are turned into lies and once impervious bulwarks are destroyed, perhaps it is easier to criticize an old book than to tackle the problems of today.

     Perhaps I am making more of this than I should.

     All I know is that I am enjoying my trip with Huck and Jim, as we find adventure on a raft drifting down the Big River.

     Always B Positive