Letters from Earth by Mark Twain...

... a slamming indictment of God and the human race.

OK - that was a bit dramatic, but I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on this book.

It is a collection of short stories - and as a whole, it is one of my favorites by Twain. It is certainly a tremendous work of effective logic and philosophy - and as always, filled with humor and pathos. I would recommend it to any literature enthusiast. Though I will say, followers of the Christian Bible will probably not like it

I think some of the stores in it were not intended to ever see print by Twain, and you can see why. There are some pretty strong (and pretty effective) critiques of the Christian God in it, and also of the human race (like in the story The Lowest Animal).

But I don't want to give the wrong impression. It is a philosophical and thoughtful book. Twain does not approach these subject clumsily, but rather provides thoughtful and strong logic to the topics. I think the biggest impression that I took from reading Letters from Earth is how Twain really got down to the raw truth about some pretty important themes about life and humanity

If anyone has read it, I'd enjoying hearing about it

One of the funniest things ever written.

I agree - the stuff about Noah carrying every disease known to man in him on the arc, the whole section called "The Damned Human Race", the stuff about Fennimore Cooper's prose style, on and on

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Originally Posted by keilj

I agree - the stuff about Noah carrying every disease known to man in him on the arc, the whole section called "The Damned Human Race", the stuff about Fennimore Cooper's prose style, on and on

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"Fennimore-Cooper's Literary Offences" sets forth more clearly than any other single artilce how to write good fiction.

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Originally Posted by PeterL

"Fennimore-Cooper's Literary Offences" sets forth more clearly than any other single artilce how to write good fiction.

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Hilarious how he said Cooper scored 114 out of a possible 115 offenses in just one paragraph.

But I digress..

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Originally Posted by keilj

Hilarious how he said Cooper scored 114 out of a possible 115 offenses in just one paragraph.

But I digress..

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When I am critiquing a really poorly written story, I often refer the writer to that for some instructions. What Twain pointed out is true; Cooper was that bad a writer.

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Originally Posted by PeterL

When I am critiquing a really poorly written story, I often refer the writer to that for some instructions. What Twain pointed out is true; Cooper was that bad a writer.

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You're absolutely right. Like the stuff about getting "struck" with an arrow. When a club or a bat would be something you would get struck with.

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Originally Posted by keilj

You're absolutely right. Like the stuff about getting "struck" with an arrow. When a club or a bat would be something you would get struck with.

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Oddly enough, people still read Cooper, even after they have read of his literary offences. I'll have to try it again, but the first time a saw anything that Cooper had written after I read that piece, I could read Cooper; it was beyond bad.