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  1. twain.lib.virginia.edu23 min
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    twain.lib.virginia.edu
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    • bill
      Top reader of all time
      3 years ago

      What a surprise delight!! High satire from the olden days, written by the original king of word-comedy in the USA, Mark Twain. I giggled from beginning to end of this one.

      Basically, Mark Twain takes a huge dump on James Fenimore Cooper. It’s so damn funny because it’s thoughtful and meticulously written. (You don’t need to know anything about Twain or Cooper to enjoy this.)

      Three cheers. These days, we frown on “harsh burns” - for good reason - but it’s nice to imagine Cooper responding with ink/parchment, something like: ”Twain my dude, what an EPIC roast. Miss you bud. Kisses -Coop”

      1. Update (7/17/2020):

        Apparently Cooper characters are always stepping on dry twigs lol:

        “It is a restful chapter in any book of his when somebody doesn't step on a dry twig and alarm all the reds and whites for two hundred yards around. Every time a Cooper person is in peril, and absolute silence is worth four dollars a minute, he is sure to step on a dry twig. There may be a hundred other handier things to step on, but that wouldn't satisfy Cooper. Cooper requires him to turn out and find a dry twig; and if he can't do it, go and borrow one.”

      • jlcipriani3 years ago

        “... turning four-foot pigs of thought into thirty-foot bars of conversational railroad iron...”

        Gold.