Reply #13: good grief

[iverglas]

I don't know how much more obvious it could be that this piece is satire. Back in the day when Twain wrote it, people actually had a sense of humour.

"... don’t you meddle with old unloaded firearms; they are the most deadly and unerring <things> that have ever been created by man."

That isn't a straight line. It's sarcastic. It is meant to point out the ridiculousness of the mindset he is poking fun at. He is POKING FUN. That's what he did.

"... you don’t have to have a rest, you don’t have to have any sights on the gun, you don’t have to take aim, even. No, you just pick out a relative and bang away, and you are sure to get him."

Get it? No, you AREN'T sure to get him, and people who say so are silly. THAT is what Twain is saying.

Whether one agrees with what he is saying or not. That is what he is saying.

"A youth who can’t hit a cathedral at thirty yards with a Gatling gun in three quarters of an hour, can take up an old empty musket and bag his grandmother every time, at a hundred."

To which we would say today: NOT.

Bush was a good president. NOT.

Anybody can pick up an old unloaded musket and kill his grandmother. NOT.


Is anybody at all getting it??

What a solemn, or at least pseudo-solemn crowd, we are here.



Note: aikoaiko POSTED it as satire: "thought it was interesting satire".

Yeesh.