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- catalog abstract "Covering the entire body of Mark Twain's fiction, Clark Griffith in Achilles and the Tortoise answers two questions: How did Mark Twain write? and Why is he funny? Griffith defines and demonstrates Mark Twain's poetics and, in doing so, reveals Twain's ability to create and sustain human laughter. More thoroughly and authoritatively than any other critic, Griffith shows that the underlying effect of Twain's humor is negativistic, pessimistic, and nihilistic. Through a close reading of the fictions - short and long, early and late - Griffith contends that Mark Twain's strength lay not in comedy or in satire or (as the 19th century understood the term) even in the practice of humor. Rather his genius lay in the joke, specifically the "sick joke." For all his finesse and seeming variety, Twain tells the same joke, with its single cast of doomed and damned characters, its single dead-end conclusion, over and over endlessly. As he attempted to attain the comic resolution and comically transfigured characters he yearned for, Twain forever played the role of the Achilles of Zeno's Paradox. Like the tortoise that Achilles cannot overtake in Zeno's tale, the richness of comic life forever remained outside Twain's grasp.".
- catalog contributor b10770607.
- catalog created "c1998.".
- catalog date "1998".
- catalog date "c1998.".
- catalog dateCopyrighted "c1998.".
- catalog description "Covering the entire body of Mark Twain's fiction, Clark Griffith in Achilles and the Tortoise answers two questions: How did Mark Twain write? and Why is he funny? Griffith defines and demonstrates Mark Twain's poetics and, in doing so, reveals Twain's ability to create and sustain human laughter. More thoroughly and authoritatively than any other critic, Griffith shows that the underlying effect of Twain's humor is negativistic, pessimistic, and nihilistic. Through a close reading of the fictions - short and long, early and late - Griffith contends that Mark Twain's strength lay not in comedy or in satire or (as the 19th century understood the term) even in the practice of humor. Rather his genius lay in the joke, specifically the "sick joke." For all his finesse and seeming variety, Twain tells the same joke, with its single cast of doomed and damned characters, its single dead-end conclusion, over and over endlessly. As he attempted to attain the comic resolution and comically transfigured characters he yearned for, Twain forever played the role of the Achilles of Zeno's Paradox. Like the tortoise that Achilles cannot overtake in Zeno's tale, the richness of comic life forever remained outside Twain's grasp.".
- catalog description "Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-278) and index.".
- catalog description "Introduction: The Essays: Form and Content -- Mark Twain and the "Infernal Twoness": An Essay on the Comic -- Mark Twain and the Sick Joke: An Essay on Laughter -- Sam Clemens and G.S. Weaver; Hank Morgan and Mark Twain: An Essay on Books and Reality -- Tom Sawyer: An Essay on Romantic Folly -- Huckleberry Finn: An Essay on the Dilemmas of Realism -- Pudd'nhead Wilson: An Essay on Triumphant Reality -- Mark Twain and Melville: An Essay on the Metaphysics of Twinship -- Melville and Mark Twain -- A Theory of Twinning -- The Practices of Twinning -- Conclusion: April Fools!".
- catalog extent "x, 284 p. ;".
- catalog hasFormat "Achilles and the tortoise.".
- catalog identifier "0817309039 (alk. paper)".
- catalog isFormatOf "Achilles and the tortoise.".
- catalog issued "1998".
- catalog issued "c1998.".
- catalog language "eng".
- catalog publisher "Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press,".
- catalog relation "Achilles and the tortoise.".
- catalog subject "818/.409 21".
- catalog subject "Humorous stories, American History and criticism.".
- catalog subject "PS1338 .G75 1998".
- catalog subject "Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 Criticism and interpretation.".
- catalog tableOfContents "Introduction: The Essays: Form and Content -- Mark Twain and the "Infernal Twoness": An Essay on the Comic -- Mark Twain and the Sick Joke: An Essay on Laughter -- Sam Clemens and G.S. Weaver; Hank Morgan and Mark Twain: An Essay on Books and Reality -- Tom Sawyer: An Essay on Romantic Folly -- Huckleberry Finn: An Essay on the Dilemmas of Realism -- Pudd'nhead Wilson: An Essay on Triumphant Reality -- Mark Twain and Melville: An Essay on the Metaphysics of Twinship -- Melville and Mark Twain -- A Theory of Twinning -- The Practices of Twinning -- Conclusion: April Fools!".
- catalog title "Achilles and the tortoise : Mark Twain's fictions / Clark Griffith.".
- catalog type "Criticism, interpretation, etc. fast".
- catalog type "text".