[Over the last
few months, I’ve had the chance to take part in a number of interesting
AmericanStudies conversations, each hosted by a unique and significant
organization or space. So this week I wanted to follow up those events with
some further thoughts and reflections, leading up to a weekend post looking
ahead to the NeMLA
Convention later this month!]
On three inspiring
layers to one of my favorite talks of my career to date.
First, rather
than repeat everything I wrote in it, I’ll direct you to check out if you would
this
Facebook post I shared the morning after my March
2nd talk. To quote the beautiful Counting Crows song “A Long
December,” “I can't remember all the times I’ve tried to tell myself/To
hold on to these moments as they pass.” Well, last Thursday, from its beginning
in my
son’s classroom to its ending at the Twain House, is one of the moments I
am absolutely going to hold onto.
Second, I need
to say a bit more about the Mark Twain
House & Museum itself. I had the chance to work with the Twain House at
length for last spring’s NeMLA conference, as we featured a wonderful
day of public scholarly sessions (culminating in Jelani Cobb’s keynote
address, an amazing moment I tried very hard not to think too much about as I spoke from the same stage on Thursday) at the
house. Both then and now, I was struck by the incredible dedication, passion,
and talent of the museum’s staff, most especially in my experiences with the
wonderful Director
of Education Dr. James Golden but really in every staff member I’ve had the
chance to meet. You might think that a site consistently named one of the top
ten historic houses in the world would be amply supported and funded, but in
truth the non-profit Twain House gets more than 50% of its operating budget
from ticket sales, meaning that this unique and vital American space (and a
true model for how a historic site and museum should feel and work) very much
needs our
continued investment. Before writing this post I donated to the house, and
I very much encourage you to do the same—and of course to visit if you’re ever
in Hartford! Again, the chance to give a talk in the Mark Twain House and
Museum was and I’m sure will remain a career highlight for me.
Third, one
particular takeaway I’d highlight from my attempt to trace a thread of public
intellectual engagement across a few stages (local color sketches and humor,
autobiographical pieces, and humorous and satirical novels) of Twain’s long and multi-part
career (culminating in his most overtly public intellectual pieces, the published
“To the Person Sitting
in Darkness” and unpublished “United States
of Lyncherdom,” both from 1901). Too often in America, it seems to me, we
think of public intellectual activity as something separate from creative
writing, or popular culture, or mainstream society; as the province of an elite
community commenting on those and other aspects of America from a sort of
distance and remove. That might be one strain of public intellectual work, but
I don’t believe it’s the only nor the main version: instead, I’d say that our best
and most inspiring public intellectuals have consistently been in the trenches
of society and culture, wedding their civic engagement to popular art and
culture in complex and at times contradictory but also accessible and important
ways. That’s the case for Jack London as public intellectual that Cecelia
Tichi made in her recent book, and it’s the case for Twain as public
intellectual I tried to make last week. Reframing Twain in this way doesn’t
just mean adding a new layer to our memories of a legendary icon, then—it would
mean changing our ideas of public intellectual activity, in I hope both democratic
and still very relevant ways.
Next reflection
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Thoughts on
this conversation? Conversations or events you’d share?
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