The War Prayer by Mark Twain

[serai]

Having been most enlightened and impressed by the work that my friends elanorgardner and catkcrl have been doing, posting links and essays about the election and the ongoing war, I felt I'd like to join in and contribute. But since they're doing such a good job already, I thought I'd post something of a different sort, but fully as relevant, I believe. So I present to all of you an extraordinary piece of work from one of the great American writers. No further commentary is needed, I think...

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Comments

[elanorgardner.livejournal.com]

Love Mark Twain. Love him. Love him!! Thanks for posting this. I too had never seen the illustrated version before.

"Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."

Sounds familiar huh? Current columnist? Present day politico? Nope -- Mark Twain.

Gotta love him.

EG

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed. He was a great man. I was particularly inspired to post this because last night I sat down to watch "Mark Twain Tonight", the one-man show performed by Hal Hobrook. The 1969 telecast has finally been released on DVD, and it's a real jewel. You should definitely rent it. Hal's performance is amazing, and there are some fantastic pieces of text in it.