Month: February 2025

How fair was Twain’s critique of Cooper’s literary style? Mark Twain wrote a critique on James Fenimore Cooper’s writing technique. Twain’s critiques were usually known as a legendary attack. This one was different. It was slightly comical. Twain listed eighteen rules of romantic fiction that Cooper violate. His strong point was rule eighteen, “Employ a simple and straightforward style”. Twain ridiculed Coopers writing style and technique. Twain was fair in his critique. The books were that bad. Here’s a quick overview of one called Deerslayer.

The book begins with two lost men walking through the woods, Deerslayer and Hurry Harry. Deerslayer is a great hunter and Hurry Harry is not. Harry is very hard to understand, because he speaks in two different dialects at the same time. Soon Deerslayer finds the place that they’re hiking to, but Harry doesn’t recognize it even though he picked that spot out. After a while, they talk about a man named Tom Hutter who lives on the land they’re hunting in, but doesn’t own it. Why is he living there?! Later there is a long discussion about Indians that can shoot a target of a fly from five hundred yards away. That’s not possible. No one’s eye can see something like that from such a distance, much less shoot it. Tom lives on a floating house called the Ark. The Ark is huge, basically a fortress. It was even bullet proof! Deerslayer doesn’t recognize the lake that the boats on. Tom says that no pale-face has named it yet, but Deerslayer’s tribe calls the lake Glimmerglass. If he didn’t know the name, then why did he call it Glimmerglass? Later in the book, Deerslayer and Harry are looking for Tom downstream in their canoe. there are many places in the river that the canoe could barely get through. Soon they find tom on the shore without his Ark. He says it is hidden in the brush. It is. How did the Ark get there if the canoe could barely fit in parts of the river? How was such a big boat hidden in the brush? there is more to the book, but I have said enough for you to agree with me the Twain’s critique was fair. 

Is it counterfeiting when government-licensed banks create money out of nothing? Counterfeiting is when someone illegally prints money. The government does this everyday. By doing this they rob us. There is this place called the federal reserve. There the money is printed. Money used to have some value, but due to inflation the dollar dill has lose much of its value. We used to have something called the gold standard. It was a law for the federal reserve saying that they couldn’t print more money than the amount of gold America had. Everyone’s dollar bills represented the same amount of money they had in gold. Gold was hare to carry and trade, so the government put us on the gold standard. Then our money had value. Now it does not, because the government took us off the gold standard. Now they just print as much as they want nonstop. 

Is it counterfeiting when government-licensed banks create money out of nothing? Yes it is. Our dollar bill should be represented by something. Since it is not, when the government prints money there is no value in it. Just like counterfeit. We are still getting robbed of the value of our money the more the government prints. Even if it is government approved.