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- Nov 10, 2006
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Twain is fun to read because he’s a curmudgeon. He’s a precursor of Menken. Iconoclasts are driven to destroy the monuments of heroes, and as successful as Twain was, he couldn’t create a character as heroic as Hawkeye. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn while popular literary characters, never exerted the cultural influence of Hawkeye. Twain resented the fame of Cooper because he felt that author’s recognition was undeserved, without ever understanding what people found so compelling about the Leatherstocking Tales. Twain’s criticism of Cooper would be like Tony Knight criticizing Jacob Dickert. Just as a modern muzzleloader will assert the superiority of an inline over a traditional muzzleloader and shrug off the architecture, balance, and decoration of a longrifle as immaterial to ballistic performance so does Twain’s criticism of Cooper overlook the importance, on balance, of the Leatherstocking Tales.
Cooper’s dated literary style is analogous to traditional muzzleloading. It’s heavy, outdated, cumbersome, and slow. Critics complain performance is anemic and can’t fathom the continuing interest in a pursuit that has long since been superseded by technological or literary improvement. Just as many people will prefer a modern semi-automatic to an antique or antiquated muzzleloader, many people will prefer a 20th century movie to a 19th century book about fictional 18th century characters.
I like both Cooper’s Last of the Mohican’s and the 1992 film adaptation of it. Modern audiences prefer to see the “good guy” get the girl, rather than have her marry the English officer as Cooper wrote. However changed by Hollywood, the characters invented by Cooper are still central to the movie presentation, thus any criticism of Cooper’s literary style are immaterial to the enduring interest in the characters he created.
The Iliad and Odyssey contain many repetitive descriptions that don’t diminish either the originality of the storytelling, or abiding fascination the public has with these great tales. Homer refers to “rosy fingered dawn”, “black prowed ships” “deathless gods”, “swift footed Achilles” “wine dark seas” “strong greaved Achaeans” with far greater monotony than Cooper refers to dry twigs snapping. This does not however, detract from the enduring beauty, originality or importance of Homer. To criticize Homer for repetitiveness would be to overlook the significance of these foundational epics.
To criticize Cooper for his cliché’ d descriptions likewise overlooks that authors contribution to American literature by the creation of its most enduring hero. Whether you enjoy Cooper’s prose, or prefer Hollywood’s portrayal, or even a comic book depiction, Hawkeye is the quintessential American hero, and thus his creator is arguably America’s Homer.
Cooper’s dated literary style is analogous to traditional muzzleloading. It’s heavy, outdated, cumbersome, and slow. Critics complain performance is anemic and can’t fathom the continuing interest in a pursuit that has long since been superseded by technological or literary improvement. Just as many people will prefer a modern semi-automatic to an antique or antiquated muzzleloader, many people will prefer a 20th century movie to a 19th century book about fictional 18th century characters.
I like both Cooper’s Last of the Mohican’s and the 1992 film adaptation of it. Modern audiences prefer to see the “good guy” get the girl, rather than have her marry the English officer as Cooper wrote. However changed by Hollywood, the characters invented by Cooper are still central to the movie presentation, thus any criticism of Cooper’s literary style are immaterial to the enduring interest in the characters he created.
The Iliad and Odyssey contain many repetitive descriptions that don’t diminish either the originality of the storytelling, or abiding fascination the public has with these great tales. Homer refers to “rosy fingered dawn”, “black prowed ships” “deathless gods”, “swift footed Achilles” “wine dark seas” “strong greaved Achaeans” with far greater monotony than Cooper refers to dry twigs snapping. This does not however, detract from the enduring beauty, originality or importance of Homer. To criticize Homer for repetitiveness would be to overlook the significance of these foundational epics.
To criticize Cooper for his cliché’ d descriptions likewise overlooks that authors contribution to American literature by the creation of its most enduring hero. Whether you enjoy Cooper’s prose, or prefer Hollywood’s portrayal, or even a comic book depiction, Hawkeye is the quintessential American hero, and thus his creator is arguably America’s Homer.