Mark Twains Views on Technology - Assignment Example

Mark Twain’s Views on Technology: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court Roll No: Teacher: 10th November 2008 University Mark Twain’s Views on Technology Mark Twain, an American writer, who was also known as a humorist writer of his time, showed intimacy with technology. According to Mark Twain, man is a mechanistic individual and this opinion of Mark Twain informs about Twain’s consideration of technology (Fishkin 1985). Twain thought of science and technology as very significant in people’s life and he took help of various technological developments of his time in his writings. Steam engines, telephone, typewriter and many other technological developments are mentioned in his writings. His novel, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” takes into consideration the technological developments of nineteenth century. Although, Mark Twain gave enough importance to technology but he did not regard technology as a master of humankind. According to Twain, technology is an instrument that is employed by people in order to make their lives better but also highlighted some negative aspects of technology. The novel, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, shows technology in a negative sense. Initially, the protagonist is facilitated because of technology to get reputation but with the passage of time and with advancement in technology, he fails to achieve his set objectives (Fishkin 1985). Hank Morgan is the main character of the novel, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” and takes support of technological development for regarding others as inferior to him (De Voto 1942). Hank Morgan was benefitted early on because of the lack of knowledge of common people. The common people are shown in the novel as overly superstitious, as they knew nothing about technology. The common people are shown believing on Hank Morgan as a sorcerer. Mark Twain indicates that technology, productivity and growth, all are linked to the input that is utilized for development (Callow and Reilly 1977). With more input, there will be less benefit. Hank Morgan was able to get more advantages with less input but when he tried to make the technology better, the benefits started decreasing. The ambitions that Morgan associates with technology development are not fulfilled at the end as Mitchell explains, “Hank Morgan wants to dominate the past with sure-fire knowledge from the future, but all he achieves is a record of events that have no historical consequence” (Mitchell 231). Shelley Fisher Fishkin informs that Twain was introduced to newspaper work at the age of twelve (Fishkin 1985). In the novel, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, Twain makes his protagonist Hank to introduce a newspaper in the king’s court. The introduction of information technology in form of newspaper is well-known to Twain because he had a prominent status as being a journalist. Previously newspapers were not present and people facilitated each other with news by informing each other about anything new or about important events. In addition, there were messengers that were asked to take the news from one place to another or from one person to another. Messaging was not that common and only a restricted number of people were to deal with messengers. Hank because of the introduction of newspaper technology in King Arthur’s court facilitated a number of people to get important news in form of a newspaper. Newspaper was the first technological development that Twain described in “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”. With the introduction of newspaper technology in the court, Hank Morgan solved a number of problems associated with the deliverance of messages and news. This was the important aspect of information technology that Hank felt he was bringing to King Arthur’s court: “A newspaper has its faults, and plenty of them, but no matter, it’s hark from the tomb the tomb for a dead nation without it, and don’ you forget it” (78). When considered on its own merits, the newspaper is an effective tool to communicate information to a large number of people. Twain seems to take issue with other aspects of the way that the information is communicated. Beyond merely teaching the medieval society about using the printed word as a means of mass communication, he also taught them how to use a journalistic tone in their writing: “That is a good piece of war correspondence, Clarence; you are a first-rate newspaper man” (Twain 458). The journalistic tone is meant to be a succinct form of communication that includes the maximum amount of information while being as objective as possible. Twain seems to be critical of Hank in regards to his reaction to hearing Clarence’s report on the war. While the report is about the horrors of the war and the vicious battles that were taking place, all Hank is able to do is to admire the professional journalistic tone of the article. He is even more surprised to hear of Arthur’s death: ““I was utterly stunned; it had not seemed to me that any wound could be mortal to him” (Twain 459). While the article communicated objective information, it did not touch on the personal aspects of the war. Twain seems to want to say that while the journalistic tone might communicate a lot of objective information in the shortest space possible, it also loses part of the humanity involved with the reality of what happened. Though Hank views the use of the journalistic tone as an advancement in communications technologies compared to the means of communication that the medieval society used, it seems as though it is merely a different way to communicate as opposed to being a better way in which people are able to communicate. For describing various aspects of technology related to newspaper in the novel, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, Twain incorporates his knowledge as a journalist (Fishkin 1985). In the nineteenth century, the press’s technology was improving day by day and Twain being associated to press and journalism has eye-witness for all the progress. He was at advantage when he involved the theme of technology in his writing because he saw everything with his own eyes (Callow and Reilly 1977). While Hank is not prone to the superstitions and beliefs in magic that the medieval citizens are, Hank is not without his own prejudices. His problem is that he has a rather hegemonic attitude towards the medieval society: “More serious are the several instances where Hank sounds close to megalomania in his desire to reform the medieval world” (Carter 421). While there are aspects of the society that might not be positive, it is not without its positive contributions as well. Hank is unable to see this, and he desires to re-shape the medieval society to match what he was familiar with. This sort of attitude is indicative of the belief that there is some sort of linear progression to history and that progress always marches forward. In other words, he thinks his society is better than the medieval society because he thinks that society has improved itself through the centuries. While it might in fact be more technologically advanced, it is difficult to place some sort of actual value upon either society when considering that both societies had their own sets of problems. It could perhaps be seen as the main point of the book that technological and material progress are not essentially the final purpose and the entire point of all history: “Critics have read it as either ambivalent or as an attack on technology and the American faith in material progress” (Mitchell 231). Hank has no respect for the medieval viewpoint and he thinks he can solve all of their problems by forcing his own viewpoints on everybody. What he is not taking into consideration is that his own time period had all of its own problems to deal with. As his time period had its own problems to deal, he is not able to think outside of the mindset of his period even though he is in another time period. As he is from right around the beginning of a period of technological advances that would affect the quality of life for those living during that time, this has instilled within him the idea that his society is better because of the advances that we’re just starting to be made that made a difference in people’s lives. Without the ability to view another society as having its own unique positive aspects, Hank is doomed to fail in his attempts to change the society because he is completely incapable of understanding the society, and there is no way to affect any sort of change in a society if one is not able to in any way relate to it. Hank takes the benefit of his knowledge related to a solar eclipse to prove that he is much more powerful as compared to Merlin before King Arthur. Because of his knowledge and because of winning the trust of King Arthur, Hank Morgan is fully capable to exercise what he himself wishes to do with the people and Camelot. Hank also makes industrial development in Camelot by making soap, match sticks, books, ink, garments and many other products. He set a mission to improve the land of Camelot with industrial and technological revolution but he is fully unsuccessful in his aspiration (Callow and Reilly 1977). In place of making the land of Camelot in a well-established land, he destructs the land. Hank changed Camelot from its fairy-tale appearance to an industrialized state where there are many schools and learning institutions. Hank makes many scientific inventions in the medieval society such as telephone, telegraph, railroads, steam ships and much more inventions that change the medieval society fully. In place of horses, the knights make use of bicycles. Hank also murders Sagramour and for further safeguarding himself from the knights’ attacks towards him make use of the revolvers to kill many men within a small time. After King Arthur’s death, Hank usurps the throne and starts to rule the land. When the church and the priests condemn him and attack on his castle, they endure a heavy loss on the basis of advanced weaponry technology that Hank has. Afterwards, Hank is poisoned by the masqueraded Merlin. In the end, the strongest point that technology does not make that much of a difference in people’s lives is the fact that nothing really changes at all in the society by the end. One could say that the difference between Hank’s society and the medieval society is just that they are different; there is no inherent value difference in regards to if one is better than the other. This is evidenced by the wide-spread abandonment of Hank’s values by the end of the book: “When those knights come, those establishments will empty and go over to the enemy. Did you think you had educated the superstition out of those people?” (Twain 459). The medieval people had their own set of beliefs, and Hank disregarding this fact led to what could be viewed as a wasted effort. Hank tries to change the people and society, but he is not successful because he does not deal with the real problems of the society: “But it is unable to conquer what Twain considered the true problem: a society in which people do not think for themselves” (Beard, 1). Hank could be accused of having the same problem that effectively keeps him from changing the society; he is not able to think outside of the ways in which his society considered to be the proper way to approach living and society. As King Arthur is a legendary figure, it is easy to understand the idea of Hank not being able to fully grasp the idea of him being mortal like everyone else. When considering this example that was mentioned earlier, it is easy to see how Hank not only couldn’t change the medieval society because he had his own issues stemming from his own society, but he picked up some of the less than positive aspects of medieval society as well. While Hank initially was negative of people who believed in magic and superstitions, Hank seems to have picked up his own unreasonable beliefs such as King Arthur being in any way any less of a flesh and blood mortal man than anybody else. In this way, Hank can be seen as hypocritical because he is in fact so critical of all of the people in the medieval society that would have had this sort of belief that a person could not be killed in battle after having received the kind of wounds that Arthur received. It would seem as though the medieval society had more of an influence on Hank than it did on him by the end of the novel. It is important to take into consideration that technology obviously isn’t a negative thing in and of itself; it completely depends upon the ways in which it is used. Though Twain wasn’t aware of the horrible inventions that technology would bring which would be used in World War I and World War II at the time of the writing of this novel, such as the atom bomb, he was able to envision how technology was able to be used for such a terrible purpose. Of course, technology did bring about antibiotics, which is something that would have vastly improved the quality of life for people in the medieval ages. Of course, as Twain as able to envision, most technological advances also brought about their own problems, such as the overuse of antibiotics leading to even more dangerous bacteria that are immune to such measures. Though not an issue in Twain’s society at the time, Twain was still able to have a firm understanding how solution to one problem merely leads to the creation of another. This is the entire point behind a person coming from a more advanced society not being able to make the sort of changes to a more primitive society. Though Hank did bring many technologically advanced innovations to the society, he ended up creating the same sort of problems that his society was struggling to deal with and at the same time was not able to completely wipe-out the problems that he was attempting to solve by the end. Though it might seem to be an underwhelming end that Hank left the society without making any positive changes, it is the entire point of the book that he was in fact unable to do so. Hank fully fails in transforming the society in his needful. The medieval society has changed because of the innovations and technological developments brought by Hank Morgan but the society has not developed into a better society. There are many faults in that society too. Previously in the medieval society portrayed by Twain in the novel, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, people have to face small problems such as unavailability of certain facilities but with improvement of technology, the same society indicated towards many other problems that were more destructive and intolerable. Hank’s thought design of a technologically rich society did not come up with his thought ideology. Although there were many facilities too but the number of problems were much more than the solutions. Technology in the novel, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” is not shown as a helper of people but as a devastating agent that has spoiled the social life of a simple society. Because of technological developments, the medieval society of Camelot moved towards adversity and destruction. Technology that was introduced by Hank did not help the medieval society, as Hank was not able to end the superstition of people but added to it by making himself acknowledged as a sorcerer and more powerful than the magician Merlin. He invented various commodities and facilities for living for indicating his superiority over other people of medieval society. He improved the lifestyle of people but the problems of people were not addressed in technological developments. People in Camelot and under the rule of King Arthur were living in a simple and unsophisticated society. If there were fights between knights, the weapons that were employed were less damaging. With the advent of technology in Camelot, the simple and unsophisticated lifestyle of people was spoiled. There were inventions of such weapons that were by far more destructive and injurious as compared to the weapons of early medieval society. Therefore, it is quite clear that the social and technological developments introduced by Hank appeared to be problematic for the people of Camelot. Twain indicates towards the disadvantageousness of a technologically rich society in the novel, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”. Works Cited Callow, James T. and Reilly, Robert J. Guide to American Literature from Emily Dickinson to the Present. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1977. Carter, Everett, “The Meaning of A Connecticut Yankee.” American Literature 50 (3) (1978): 418-440. De Voto, Bernard. Mark Twain’s America and Mark Twain at work. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1942. Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. From Fact to Fiction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. Lerer, Seth. “Hello, Dude: Philology, Performance, and Technology in Mark Twains ‘Connecticut Yankee.’" American Literary History 15 (3) (2003): 471-503. Mitchell, Lee Clark. “Lines, Circles, Time Loops, and Mark Twains A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 54 (2) (1999): 230-248. Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Mahwah, New Jersey: Watermill Press, 1980. Zlatic, Thomas D., “Language Technologies in A Connecticut Yankee.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 45 (4) (1991): 453-477. Read More