Letters From the Earth (1904-1909)

Here’s another of those Mark Twain pieces, like The Mysterious Stranger (which I am calling his last), cobbled together after his death from fragments of his writing and notes. The cobbler in this case is the historian and man of letters Bernard DeVoto, who published this in 1962 after one of Twain’s daughters finally relented and gave permission. It’s much like The Mysterious Stranger in many ways—jagged and inconsistent and focused with keen interest on the character of Satan, with whom Twain has obvious sympathies. Not for Satan’s love of evil but for his rejection by such a flawed God. At approximately this stage in Twain's career—call it the 20th century, or date it from the death of his wife in 1904—Twain is consumed and cannot really mask his contempt for God. These fragments boil with rage. This is a side of Twain I only dimly knew even existed, though of course his general mockery of Christianity often surfaced elsewhere. I generally took it as irreverence for effect, but I’m starting to think these issues were more important to him than I knew. He is scathing about the foolishness and contradictions of both Christianity and theism at large. He argues for the capriciousness and petty jealous character of the biblical God, mocking his omniscience and omnipotence as proof he hates us and does us all evil. The letters—barely connected fragments—are from the fallen Satan (lounging on Earth) to his former archangel companions Gabriel and Michael. Obviously Satan has some beef with God, but that doesn’t mean he’s not making good points. He focuses mainly on Adam and Eve and the Fall, and also on Noah and the flood, and a little on the contrasts and conflicts between the Old Testament and New, either one working to undermine the other, and adding up to nothing in Satan’s or Twain’s estimation. I’ve had discussions or arguments with Christians that resemble Twain’s here (like what was the big problem with Cain anyway?). They seem to tend to cite isolated passages in the Bible elsewhere. Twain gives us long passages of extreme violence he dredged from the Bible—I didn’t double-check him but I assume DeVoto did—as examples of God’s hypocrisy and low moral values. My sympathies are all with Twain here, on a cerebral level. But the intensity of his hatred is bracing and can be hard to take. He’s right and he's wrong too, just like those he criticizes. What a world, what a world!

In case the library is closed due to pandemic, which is over. (Library of America)