CW 6 Reading Journal

Brian Spenser

Reading Journal Mark Twain

Italian Central Government - Overly and stupidly lavish on certain spending projects, such as railway system, undisciplined, broke, impetuous, young

Catholic Church - An economic endeavor, a corporation, little concern for salvation or the poor and starving masses in its lavish decoration and excess

The Medici - Cruel tyrants, trivial, forgotten, impious, decadent

“Old Masters” - Whoring themselves out to make a buck, lacking integrity

Dominicans - Simple, in error, kind of like trustworthy and likeable dogs

Civitavecchia Inhabitants - Stinky, indolent, dirty, uncivilized,

Romans - Slothful, superstitious, ignorant, illiterate,

St. Peter’s Cathedral - Ridiculously grandiose, a repository of silly and antiquated ideas

Inquisition - No more enlightened than the pagans who persecuted the Christians of antiquity

Coliseum - High theater, killing as socially acceptable, not that different from modern theater

Literary Critics - Know-it-alls who assume to criticize Shakespeare, or in the Twain example critics who seem to know how a broadsword should be handled better than a gladiator.

Tour Guides - Parrotish, dim, lacking a real purpose in life, humorless

Rev. Neligan - unquestioning, undoubting, simple, religious

“When they are done washing, they sit in the alleys and nurse their cubs” (194). The word “cubs” sticks out because it creates humor by dehumanizing the inhabitants of the city.

“In that country, the preachers are not like our mendicant orders of friars—they have two or three suits of clothing, and they wash sometimes (199). The humor comes from the contrast between what Americans and Italians of Twain’s day found normal.

“She put them in this pleasant inquisition” (203). The inquisition is not pleasant, but in this context it was humorous to say so.

“The whole will conclude with a chaste and elegant general slaughter” (208). The last thing that should be called chaste and elegant is a general slaughter, but in Twain’s likening of gladiatorial combats to theater, it was a well place humorous analogy.

“This makes the roof and the front of the mansion” (214). The mansion to which Twain refers was actually a ramshackle hut.

“The Christians sometimes burrowed to escape persecution” (220). To say that they “burrowed” seems to suggest a feral state, as if these early Christian were in some way pre-human. The humor arises from highlighting the differences between the cultural norms of the different groups.