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Romance

Nostalgic

and

Power,

Competence,

the

of

inMark Twain's

Piloting

Life on theMississippi by Brian McCammack

Twain's fascination with competence and power is evi in his largely autobiographi of his characters, particularly cal works that explore his formative experiences in the western frontier? on the Roughing It and Life Mississippi. While Twain admires aspects of both powerful characters and competent characters, in the final analy Mark

inmany

dent

sis

often

while

ambivalence

expresses

characters

competent

cussions

more

commands

competence

He

of power

and

of

his

toward are

revered.

always are

sheer

does

in his

characters

powerful

almost

competence

than

respect

texts, in dis

Embedded romantic

conflicting

power.

visions

of

a

character. One vision derives radically individualistic western American from the myth of aWild West violent individuality, the other from a more scientific and professional Yet the relation individualism. rugged cannot

be

so

easily

reduced

to a sort

of

there

binary;

are

many

complexi

prevalent in Twain's writing on this subject. Sev eral critics have explored aspects of these issues as they appear in Rough on the but the interrelations between Twain's ing It and Life Mississippi, attitude toward issues of competence and power and his romantic nos ties and ambivalences

the Mississippi have not been adequately explored. talgia for piloting This essay will first explore the issues of competence and power as they to more to on It and theMississippi. It apply extensively Roughing Life Southern ?

2005

Chapel

Literary

Journal,

by the Southern Hill

Department I

volume Literary

xxxvin, Journaland

of English.

All

number

2, spring

the University rights

reserved.

2006 of North

Carolina

at

2 will

Southern

LiteraryJournal

connect

then

issues

the

of power

and

to Twain's

competence

roman

tic nostalgia depicted in Life on theMississippi. Before the reasons for Twain's differing attitudes toward competence and power can be examined, however, a working of what it definition to be

means

a

tween

or

character

competent

fered. One way

to articulate

respective

and

is to

competence

power

must

character

powerful

definitions

examine

of

be

and differentiate

characters

that

be

transpar

ently exemplify each quality. Both types of characters appear in Twain's powerful character of Roughing It is the Roughing It. The quintessential outlaw Slade, who "was supreme judge in his district, and he was jury and executioner likewise" {Roughing It 63). Enlisted to clean up the des a portion of the overland stage route, Slade, and outlaws peradoes along becomes ironically, perhaps the most storied and feared outlaw of the West. gun, is

All

of Slade's power

and

or

morals

a

what

essentially

mous

reason

is derived

from pure force. He

do

usually

not

enter

rules with

his

the

This equation. someone autono

is for Twain:

character

powerful

into

in the solving of problems and construction of right not every in fiction character Twain's and wrong. Although powerful meets all of these criteria, aman like Slade represents an unquestionably and violent

man.

powerful ment, In

powerful it to his needs

shaping contrast

that

to

stark

acter of Roughing his

fellow upon

man

The

the

outlaw

It is Captain

travelers entering

on an

a

takes

or desires

portion inn where

complete by

Slade,

John Nye, of

their "there

control

any means the

necessary.

exemplary

accompanies

western

travels.1

no welcome

char

competent

who was

environ

of his

Twain Twain for

us

and

writes on

any

com of past acquaintances, along with his helpful diverse in nature as stopping a runaway horse and a child's toy, so ingratiates Twain's group to the people at the mending inn that when they leave, they are "lamented by all" {Roughing It 228 try 229). Twain implies that a competent character does not necessarily to overcome or control his environment like the powerful character. In face," Nye's memory petence in instances

he is given. Nye does not and people he encounters. Rather, he adjusts to them with good judgment and precision to meet that itwould win him good favor at the inn, Nye his needs. Knowing seen for a week and sat him produces "a later paper than anybody had self down to read the news to a deeply interested audience" {Roughing It 229). It is this judgment, knowing exactly what he needs to do and when he needs to do it, that makes Nye a competent character. So Slade it by working with what stead, he negotiates use to control the situations to force attempt

Twain and Nye with

trum,

represent

essentially Twain's

ends

opposite

characters

of

a

anywhere

residing

and Piloting

3 spec

power-competence on that spectrum.

Having encountered figures such as Nye and Slade in the experiences is exposed at a formative age to images of compe of his youth, Twain tence and power that end up recurring throughout his writing, particu larly in Life on theMississippi. of

a

competent

character

Twain

explicitly

he writes

when

that

outlines "A

pilot

key characteristics must

a mem

have

ory; but there are two higher qualities which he must also have. He must have good and quick judgment and decision, and a cool, calm cour also fits Nye in age that no peril can shake" {Life 118).2This definition whom Twain "a had "a It, says good memory," singular 'handi Roughing ness' about doing anything and everything," and "a spirit of accommo that prompted him to take the needs, difficulties and perplexities of anybody and everybody upon his own shoulders at any and all times"

dation

to Nye, Horace Bixby, under whom Twain {Roughing It 228). Analogous apprentices for the bulk of his time as a cub, is the consummate pilot and competent and exhibiting constantly each of character, possessing the important pilot qualities Twain outlines. Bixby's memory is essen tial to his successful navigation "There's only one way to be a

of the river because, as he says to Twain, pilot, and that is to get this entire river by heart. You have to know it just like A B C" {Life j6). Without such ame constant thodical memorization of landmarks and their changes, Bixby would not be able to steer his boat safely or effectively. In a broader sense, an

excellent

memory

allows

competent

to

characters

their

negotiate

sur

at they have awealth of useful knowledge roundings effectively their disposal. For instance, rather early on in Twain's apprenticeship, Bixby attempts to find a plantation landing in the middle of a pitch black because

night,

when

to Twain's

as

yet

untrained

eye,

"all

plantations

were

exactly

alike and all the same color" {Life 75). Bixby is able to not only find the plantation by way of landmarks, but also to remember that at the upper end of the plantation, "the stumps there are out of water at this stage [of the river]" {Life 75), and therefore land the steamboat at the lower end of a the plantation. Without this knowledge, pilot could have risked run on the steamboat the stumps. Twain takes pains, however, ning aground to make it clear that not all so rest pilots high in his esteem and possess same as the the competent Bixby. qualities The pilot who receives the brunt of Twain's ire and serves as a sort of antithesis to Bixby is Brown, whom Twain calls, among other pejoratives, an

"ignorant,

stingy,

malicious,

snarling,

fault-hunting,

mote-magnifying

Southern

4

{Life 152). In contrast

tyrant" tinent

LiteraryJournal

Brown's

information,

its grasp was universal" ory

as

that

is a

to Bixby's memory,

great

"was

memory

To

brims with

which a

simply

occurrences

it, all

per

memory;

pilot's

goes on to write:

{Life 118).Twain

misfortune.

not

"Such amem are

of

same

the

size" {Life 118).Not only must a pilot be able to remember a great deal of information, he must be able to differentiate between useful and use in the same way he differentiates between skill less information much and mere

power.

For

Brown,

the memory

of

stumps

dangerous

protrud

a ing from the water at certain place and stage in the river would carry as much weight as the memory of what he had for breakfast that morning. The inability to perceive the significance of important memories could a for be destructive easily pilot. an effective Twain claims that, in addition to a finely tuned memory, use must to to be able make quick and competent pilot good judgment as the basis for decisions. After all, if a pilot cannot employ his memory on the river, then that memory iswithout purpose. intelligent decisions In a more

sense,

general

the

must

character

competent

act

competently

as well

as think For instance, it is essential that "a tongue competently. as it in the middle" just hung {Roughing It 228) of Nye 's good memory, is essential for Bixby to demonstrate the link between memory and ef on the fective decision making through speech when he lectures Twain changing

shapes

of

the

river.

"Take

this

place

where

we

are

now,

for

in

stance," Bixby says. "As long as that hill over yonder is only one hill, I moment can boom it splits at the right along the way I'm going; but the a to to a in I starboard know I've scratch for and V, got top hurry, or I'll out against a rock" {Life 89). To navigate the river brains this boat's bang safely,

it becomes

apparent

that

Bixby

not

only

needs

an

accurate

mem

ory of its different features, but that he must also act quickly, act appro so save the boat from danger. priately, and in his poor decision making Brown, on the other hand, demonstrates to run a cut-off where the current is particularly fast and dif attempting ficult to negotiate. Twain writes that "all our preparations were useless. The instant the current hit us it spun us around like a top" {Life 147). It seems reasonable to suggest that if Bixby had been piloting the steam the cut-off boat at the time, he would have either successfully negotiated or would have been wise enough to respect the river's power and refrain from the attempt. Rather than negotiate and harmonize with the river, a battle so obvi Brown attempts to overrun and control the Mississippi, as to make Twain's ously doomed scale) the sharper.

critique of dominance

(on the human

and Piloting

Twain

5

is the last quality of a competent pilot that Bixby teaches Courage Twain, telling him that in "a dangerous place, don't turn coward. That he first takes control of isn't going to help matters any" {Life 121).When the boat, Twain steers it far away from the shore and from other boats, a move

that

the

slows

steamer

down

retakes

Bixby

significantly.

control

the inexperienced cub, and Twain writes that Bixby "was going into danger again and flaying me alive with abuse of my cowardice. Iwas stung, but Iwas obliged to admire the easy confidence with which my chief loafed from side to side of his wheel, and trimmed the ships so closely that disaster seemed ceaselessly imminent" {Life 73). the help of the boat's crew Bixby drives this lesson home by employing shallow in deceiving Twain that he has steered the boat into dangerously water. In fact, as Twain should know by now, the water is perfectly deep of the boat from

loses his composure and is derided by the crew for his and cowardice when the ruse is revealed. Bixby then coun sels Twain, advising him that the experience should serve as a lesson to in the face of apparent danger, trust his own judgment and remain cool Bixby's ac effectively completing Twain's training toward competence.

and safe. Twain foolishness

tions seem to be the very embodiment to

In contrast

ger.

Bixby's

courage,

of cool courage Brown's

in the face of dan seems

courage

to have

gone

into the realm of arrogance. Brown doubtless shows courage in his attempt to run the cut-off, but Twain speculates that "perhaps we were foolish to try the cut-off" {Life 147), because the current was flow overboard

ing a good deal faster than the top speed the boat could possibly attain. In this case, it seems that courage not backed with sound judgment be mere

comes

The the

foolishness.

culmination

of Bixby's display

man?memory,

competent

of the defining

judgment,

and

characteristics

courage?is

his

of

daring

of "the intricate and dangerous Hat Island crossing" {Life navigation 81).3 Risky enough in the daylight, Bixby attempts to make the cross as he di ing in the dark, remaining completely expressionless and calm rects the steamboat into water that steadily loses depth. Nearly running to order his aground, Bixby knows from past experience exactly when cross it successfully boat to go full steam ahead to make through the accurate of Hat and Without Island, the Bixby's pertinent memory ing. the the of water, and actually navigating quick judgment ship through the

courage

to

keep

one's

composure

while

almost

running

aground,

the

crossing would have been impossible. In other words, this sort of daring maneuver could only be executed by a pilot with awealth of professional in "exact observation, deliberate learn experience with its foundations

6

Southern

LiteraryJournal

ing, and careful memorizing" Twain in order to mold him

(Branch 32), all of which Bixby stresses to into an exemplary and competent pilot. An important distinction to make when to understand attempting a is it that derives almost solely from experience and pilot's competence

dedication

to

the

profession,

not

from

some

innate

or

natural

"sense"

of the river. Eventually, pilots like Bixby know the river so well that can tell the difference between a wind reef and a bluff reef, even they are a harm virtually indistinguishable. though they Upon encountering less wind reef that Twain has mistaken for a dangerous bluff reef, he asks Bixby how he will ever be able to tell the two apart. Bixby responds, "f can't tell you. It is an instinct. By and by you will just naturally know one from the other, but you never will be able to explain why or how you know them apart" {Life 94). Although Bixby describes his keen eye as "an instinct," he more than it this because, as he says, he called likely could not find accurate words to describe what he meant. He was proba to "muscle the ability to per bly experiencing something akin memory," form a task effectively without any real conscious to the thought devoted task,

only

the

unconscious

responses

that

are

the

result

of

repetition.

to the river can the from years of experience and exposure Only that "become Bixby possesses knowledge ingrained to the point where it seems almost like intuition" (Mills 285). James Cox writes that a riv erboat pilot "must have instinct?a deeply implicit and discriminating to the of the face water" (in), and while this certainly reso sensitivity nates with Bixby's inability to describe how he can tell the difference reef and a bluff reef, Cox's statement seems to leave the on some mysterious innate skill possessed by the pilot emphasis instead of experience and careful observation.4 It is certainly a possibil meant to that Twain the that convey ity impression pilots needed some to at in be the order top of their profes thing beyond pure experience seems run to counter to but this the keen sion, eye and professionalism

between

a wind more

that Bixby has been drilling Twain in. Just as it is difficult for Bixby to express the source of his knowledge, it is difficult to delineate a clear meaning for "instinct." Edgar Branch makes it clear that he believes Bixby s "instinct" is a product of experience, writing that "Bixby s 'instinct' can be learned and it is so represented by Mark Twain. It designates nothing inborn or innate. It is neither amysti cal nor an intuitive capability" (34). The painstaking precision with which Bixby requires Twain to study the river implies that the type of compe tence Bixby possesses was attained same process. through the According to Twain, the memory of a competent a co is pilot developed "into very

Twain

and Piloting

7

lossus of capability. But only in the matters it is daily drilled in" {Life 116). courage, Twain writes that its growth is "steady all the time" {Life 119), but is only truly attained after the sort of training that he received from Bixby. The only quality of a competent pilot that could possibly be in amatter of brains, and nate is judgment; Twain writes that "judgment is

On

aman must

start with a good stock ofthat article or he will never succeed as a or not Twain actually pilot" {Life 119). Itmight be debatable whether meant that judgment was innate or possibly cultivated before a cub comes to at least two out of the piloting, but in any case, the fact remains that three characteristics of a competent pilot are a result of training. In other words, complete competence requires hard work and repetition, not an intuition

of

some

sort.

is the training that Twain receives from Bixby the same sort of comes under fire in much of Twain's later work, training that perhaps most notably in Connecticut Yankee, Puddnhead Wilson, and "The Man In each of these works, training is respon that Corrupted Hadleyburg." sible for the prejudices and immoral behavior of characters, creating a sort of detrimental social hegemony?a that paralyzes indi group-think viduals' abilities to apply empirical knowledge and think for themselves. Not so in the case of Bixby's careful training of Twain. The main differ ence between the training Twain receives toward competence in Life on theMississippi and the training he expresses ambivalence toward in later works is that the former is a dynamic training that falls back on indi vidual judgment at its core. The type of training that Twain is ambiva lent toward, and largely disdains, is the type of training that is passive or that is ingrained in an individual who is not even necessarily conscious that the training has taken place. In his essay on "The Man that Cor Nor

Clinton Burhans, Jr. claims that "one of [Twain's] rupted Hadleyburg," to aims is show that such training in moral values must be em major not pirical, merely prescriptive" (376). Burhans goes on to point out that "Hadleyburg's fall is determined by the abstract training which the peo ple had counted on to keep them forever incorruptible" (378). The train neither prescriptive ing that Twain receives from Bixby is emphatically nor abstract. Instead, to be able to make Twain the tools Bixby gives his own navigational based the upon judgments objective facts of the river. Once Twain has become an accomplished competent pilot in his own never falls prey to the sort of he right, group-think training that he blasts in his later work.5 Twain comes to admire competence, first through his association with steamboat pilots, especially Bixby in Life on the and Mississippi,

8

Southern

later in men

LiteraryJournal

he meets

on his travels in the American West, especially In It. both these situations, competence could mean Nye the difference between a high social standing and a low one, riches and rags, and even life and death. For these reasons, and as evidenced by the treatment competence receives in both Life on theMississippi and Rough to is it Twain values the that It, apparent ing ability highly accomplish of the compe tasks effectively. Having examined Twain's admiration in Roughing

tent

at

character

it seems

length,

to contrast

appropriate

with Twain's

that

admiration

in Life on theMississippi,

treatment

of powerful characters of which are the river engineers. notable perhaps return to River to gather notes for the the Mississippi Twain's Upon on the aware that engineers he becomes of completion Mississippi, Life to control from the United have attempted States River Commission the most

the river in order to make it safer for the residents of river towns as well as more efficient for travel. the engi upon initial inspection Although neers

who

tain

the

are river

tional contain

to be

appear

scientific

power

and

violence.

competent

The

sense of the word, the

river

are

engineers

considered

betray not

a violent

and

arrogance

their tendency

violent

and

to con

attempt

their

levees and dikes

but building be

could

to

approaches characters,

for the reality of their environment

disregard ward

calculated

using

radical

in

the

to

tradi

to attempt

to

reconstruc

tion of the landscape. Twain is conflicted between the benefits the en to control the gineers' work would bring and the brazenness of trying powerful Mississippi. ambivalence Twain's

is evident when he states that the engineers over the Mississippi "have taken upon their shoulders the job of making in of size the transcended creating it" by only original job again,?a job river to of the task the controlling engineers' {Life 205). By comparing not diffi the Twain underscores that of God's creation of the river, only but subtly criticizes the engineers' god-like ar culty of the undertaking rogance

of

trying

to

contain

and

remake

one

of

nature's

purely

power

ful features. As John Brazil states, Twain "has decidedly mixed feelings to him the embodi about the efforts of the Army Corps of Engineers, to ment of pragmatic consciousness, dredge and levee the {par excellence) of pi he admires the pragmatic competence (103).While Mississippi" lots like Bixby, Twain ismore reserved toward the pragmatic arrogance wavers between a and power of the engineers. Within half-page, Twain a claim that "one who knows the Mississippi will promptly aver?not ten thousand River Commissions, with the aloud, but to himself?that

Twain mines

more

of

back,

cannot

tame

that

lawless

to a

stream"

position of not feeling "full confidence now to prophesy like impossibilities" {Life 205). So while Bixby is generally able the

negotiate

the

their

9

unsure

against to

at

the world

and Piloting

Twain.

river

encounter

river

The

bivalence

power

in

more struggle

in Twain

harmony, mixed

the reaction,

between

from

engineer

toward both?a

to

attempting

engineers

and

as well

river

the

river

produces

far cry from his unabashed

control as from an

am

celebra

tion of the competent

pilot. the Mississippi River Bixby's level-headed competence, Countering serves as the most dominant in character the book, certainly powerful more if only by virtue of its origin. than the river engineers powerful not as clear-cut as the outlaw Murel in Life on theMississippi, Although Slade or Blakely in Roughing It, or Colonel Sherburn in Adventures of some retains the of the characteristics of Finn, Mississippi Huckleberry these powerful characters and is useful for a comparison to Bixby, con that the two directly interact.6 Applying the definition of the was character that from the of Slade powerful representation developed one sees in Roughing It to the Mississippi similarities. River, striking to impress Twain takes the first few chapters of Life on theMississippi not River's rich history, but also its upon the reader only the Mississippi almost contemptuous for human constructions. Cut-offs "have disregard thrown several river towns out into the rural districts" and could have even theoretically "transferred a slave from Missouri to Illinois and made a free man of him" Twain makes reference several times to river {Life 40). sidering

towns

turned

into

country

towns

and

vice-versa

by

cut-offs,

and

it seems

that if the river is capable of turning a slave into a free man, particularly given the importance of the slavery issue to Twain, then it is a force to be reckoned with.7 Writing more explicitly about this phenomenon, Twain claims

that when

a cut-off

becomes

"twelve

or fifteen

feet

wide,

the

ca

as for no power on earth can stop it now" lamity is good as accomplished, As Sherwood {Life 147). Cummings succinctly states, "The river is obe dient to the laws of physics but is indifferent to human weal" (218). This resonates with Slade's indifference indifference particularly to physical in Roughing It, typical of opposition powerful characters. Bixby's nego tiation with his environment lies in stark contrast to this display of raw power.

to recede Upon Twain's return in 1883, the river is just beginning from a flood, and its destructive work is evident everywhere. Twain re acts to the scene toward the destruction that by expressing ambivalence

lo

Southern

LiteraryJournal

the river has caused. When Twain writes that he sees "signs, all about, of men's hard work gone to ruin, and all to be done over again, with strait ened means and a weakened courage. [Itwas] a melancholy picture" on seems to express sympathy for his return to the Mississippi Valley, he the people whose lives were devastated by the flooding {Life 225). The once at is "in all remarkable" also capable and ways Mississippi {Life 39) infliction to a fire" {Life 230) of "the next most wasting and desolating when

it floods.

appearing the

people

Twain

never

expresses

this

awed by the river's overwhelming devastated

acter like Bixby. the river itself.

by

that

same

sort

of

power

power?toward

once

ambivalence?at

and sympathetic a

competent

It arises time and time again when Twain writes

to

char

about

is capable of incredibly destructive The Mississippi power?flood a steamboat about like a toy?yet it is also the life towns, tossing ing blood of the nation. Twain reminds the reader of the paradox before even a snip text of Life on theMississippi the main begins, including that "the basin of theMississippi pet from Harpers Magazine proclaiming on to claim, is the BODY OF THE NATION" {Life 30). Twain goes as far away that the drains land Mississippi seemingly tongue-in-cheek, as "Delaware, on the Atlantic seaboard" {Life 39).8 Joke or not, it seems as a national trea as to portray the Mississippi though Twain wishes one. sure that is a majestic and beneficial force as well as a dangerous As William Gibson points out, Twain "introduces occasional hints that benevolent the river is a Protean force, a power of nature equivocally and sinister" (57-8). Fittingly, Twain never portrays Bixby trying to con trol the river. Bixby merely adjusts to itwith good judgment and preci the limitations imposed by the river. sion to meet his needs, recognizing River as that "which the true the Mississippi that Bixby, Twain's himself" (199), suggesting so tune in true is with and aware (i.e., competent) pilot, example of the to of the river that it becomes almost internal. Bixby is able successfully encounter it is when in river's the have; every power only they negotiate Brown, the antithesis to Bixby, attempts to overpower the river in a dif it seems that true compe ficult spot that the river triumphs. Therefore, Stanley Brodwin pilot harmonizes

tence

always

wins

it has

out

over

power.

become for the apparent that Twain's admiration to runs in ambiva the comparison competent deep, especially pilot lence he feels toward the powerful river, the nature of this admiration can be examined more closely. It seems that Twain harbors a romantic

now

that

describes

within

Twain view, tence,

of

the

realist

essentially

on his admiration

and founded

nostalgia

through

and Piloting

steamboat

pilot.9

Twain's

m

of compe vi

romantic

sion of the profession is evident when, looking back on the heyday of pi a loting, he reminisces about the fact that "there is no instance of pilot to save his life his while and post by remaining sacrificing it deserting secure other lives from destruction" he might and goes on {Life 346), a once to list all the in steamboat accidents, symbolic of pilots killed now noble profession nearly dead. This romance of the riverboat pilot realism as its foundation, did not always have competent however, and it is increasingly

threatened

by the overwhelming pragmatic influence of that have occurred to the river since Mark Twain

technological changes piloted it. In the very beginning of the "Old Times" section o? Life on theMissis sippi, Twain is drawn to the river for the status, the spectacle, and the in that the river as well as the pilots on it appear to offer. Twain dependence towns not unlike the town in which he grew up river portrays brought to life by steamboats?a life that quickly dies away when the steamboat leaves.

Prior

to a steamboat's

arrival,

"the

day

was

glorious

with

expec

tancy; [afterwards], the day was a dead and empty thing" {Life 64). Twain resolves to run away from home and try to become a pilot so that he can earn "a princely salary" and return home "in glory" {Life 6j). This par ticular type of romantic view of the river is based on the na?ve glorifica tion of show over substance that Twain becomes very fond of disparaging when he is enlightened by what it actually means to be a riverboat pilot. Twain's

romance with

the profession of riverboat piloting evolves very his he is awakened in quickly during apprenticeship under Bixby. When the middle of the night to go on his watch with Bixby, Twain writes that "I began to fear that piloting was not quite so romantic as I had imag ined itwas; there was something very real and work-like about this new phase of it" {Life 74). It is not only getting up in the middle of the night that destroys Twain's naively romantic notion of it is the sheer piloting, amount of constant of and level attention that robs pilot knowledge its status. of virtues of and Twain thinks Just when ing simplistic glory he has the river learned, Bixby reveals some new aspect of piloting that to learn he must master. is crestfallen Twain it is the very Ironically, "work-like" nature of piloting?"the marvellous science" {Life 63)?that is the foundation of the independence of riverboat pi and competence lots that Twain comes to romanticize when he looks back nostalgically the his of upon profession youth.

12 Southern

LiteraryJournal

amount of memorized of one's surround detail and knowledge as more than identifies steamboat realist characters ings essentially pilots the naively romantic visions Twain originally held. Pilots deal with the The

hard facts of the river, interpreting and acting upon data they observe, all the while drawing upon their experience. Although essentially realist, there is an element of romanticism?markedly different from his origi nal na?ve romanticism?that Twain lends to the pilots as a result of the training he receives from Bixby. Twain writes that "I loved [piloting] far better than any I have followed since, and I took a measureless pride in it. The reason is plain: a pilot, in those days, was the only unfettered and entirely independent human being that lived in the earth" {Life 122). Al though

independence

sharing

as a characteristic,

the

charac

competent

ter differs

in which from the powerful character in the manner that in is As obtained and articulated. William Gibson "The states, dependence absolute power of the Bixbys, granted them for their ability to outwit so formidable an adversary as the had for its corollary?so Mississippi, Twain tells the reader?absolute freedom" (63). Both the pilots' power and freedom come from the competence they display in negotiat the derives its power contrast, River, which, by ing powerful Mississippi

Mark

from

sheer

force.

The new brand of romance with which Twain views the compe tent pilot is what Roger Salomon calls a "true romance [that] meant a and for Twain the independent strong capable individ struggle by existence" ual against the forces that control human (87). The "true ro contrast to the over mance" that Twain views piloting with is in stark blown notion romantic

of the profession

notions

were

more

that Twain akin

to

the

started out with. His type

of

romance

that

original he

sati

in Twain's estimation culture, caused mostly by Sir than who did "more real and Walter Scott, any lasting harm, perhaps, other individual that ever wrote" {Life 327). the new romance with the science of Fueled by Bixby's competence, an and accomplished piloting continues until Twain himself becomes a encounters crisis of At Twain this competent point, personal pilot. in the abil that while he had made a valuable acquisition sorts, writing as competent men like Bixby can, this knowledge ity to read the river to feel that "the romance and the beauty were all gone also caused him from the river" {Life 96). Sunsets that he used to appreciate for their aes thetic beauty when he was a passenger now only relay to him impor tant information of the steamboat as a pilot. regarding the navigation As Stanley Brodwin states, "Nature's most primordial and awesome ele rizes in southern

Twain

and Piloting

13

draws Twain to its heart in order to study its se the Mississippi, crets, only to make the study rob him of the river's glory" (200). Twain

ment,

mourns

the

loss

beauty,

while

at

based

upon

of the

competence

na?ve

this same

and

romantic

passenger's

time

he

gains

disparages

a more na?ve

notion

romantic

of

the

notions.

river's sense

romantic

informed

So what

is the reader to make of this conflicted view of romance from Twain? On the one hand, he seems to be firmly entrenched in his romantic view of the competent pilot and the pragmatic values that such a character entails. On the other, he mourns the loss of the na?ve romance that he seems to take such pleasure in disparaging. First of all, it could be argued that Twain is not entirely disappointed at his perceived loss of the capacity to appreciate the river's beauty. Writ of the sunset by a na?ve ing of the differences between the description a and Paul Schmidt claims that "the pilot's passenger competent pilot, view is easily the superior of the two" and that Twain's "subjectivity is no as it is in the but motivated gratuitous, longer passenger's description, and differentiated by the pilot's work. The excitement of control bubbles under the surface of his style" (109). In addition to this, it appears as not lose his ability to perceive the river's though Twain did completely at when he became beauty adept reading the river for critical data. Fol lowing the passage where Twain claims to have lost the ability to see the beauty of the river, he goes on to describe the beauty of a sunset (a pas sage that was necessarily written after this loss supposedly happened). As Shelley Fisher Fishkin points out, "Twain hasn't lost the river at all?for he evoked that wonderful ity to appreciate it" (124). Similarly, the

four

sunset after he had supposedly

on his return to the river, Twain

o'clock

watch

because

"one

cannot

'lost' the abil

gets up one morning see

too

many

summer

with sun

rises on the Mississippi. on to They are enchanting" {Life 228). Going on describe in great detail the beautiful sunrise the Mississippi, it seems as most not Twain to has lost the though certainly ability appreciate the on the aesthetics of the river. The fact that was written Life Mississippi several years after he supposedly lost the ability to perceive the beauty in the river contradicts Twain's claim. It seems unlikely that Twain some how regained the capacity to appreciate the beauty of the Mississippi after his long absence from piloting even though he "seemed to have for gotten the river, but [he] hadn't forgotten how to steer a steamboat, nor how to enjoy it, either" {Life 184). It appears as though Twain has gained a richer and river of the from deeper perception being aware of both its natural beauty and its less evident physical and scientific properties. It is

14 Southern

LiteraryJournal

of reality that is not tempered with and pragmatic concerns that Twain disdains. Twain finds himself able to enjoy the simple aesthetic as well as the complex technical aspects of the river upon his return. However, the acquisition of scientific knowledge of the river is not the only thing romance of threatening Twain's piloting. The Pilots' Benevolent Association also threatens the romance that Twain feels toward piloting by bringing a corporate-like group culture to what was an inherently individualistic to protect Formed profession. only the na?ve romantic perception a realism founded on competence

informed about changes in the wages and keep pilots more effectively association is the derided river, initially by the competent pilots. Even each and Twain lauds the orga tually pilot joins, however, nostalgically as

nization

"perhaps

commercial sociation

the

also

to

appears

the

compactest,

ever formed

organization

take

the

the

strongest

as {Life 128). But the from

away

emphasis

and

completest,

among men"

the

romantic

no

tion of a competent pilot negotiating the river with only his experience a as a The of competence group, thus, destroys the more romantic guide. As Twain writes, "The pilot who had for of the individual. competence to put up with seeing a shoal place once or possibly merly been obliged a a it for him, now, and twice month had hundred sharp eyes to watch bushels of intelligent brains to tell him how to run it" {Life 133). There is evidence, however, that Twain exaggerated the influence of the Pi on the profession. lots' Benevolent Association Edgar Branch asserts that "the 'association pilot' and the 'master pilot' were almost invariably? at one

and

the

same

time?one

and

the

same

person"

and

that

Twain

for "dramatic impact" (33). In were most probably always a like other words, competent pilots Bixby part of the association, receiving help from various other pilots. Instead that Twain of the association "paradoxically [violating] the autonomy celebrates in his earlier praise of the pilot's authority" (Howe 433), it ac and power" (Horwitz 259). tually "consolidates the pilot's independence overstated

Hence

the

the influence

association

of the association

effectively

strengthens

the

romance

of

the

com

petent pilot by protecting his authority and adding to the legend of the is yet another example of pilots using their profession. The association in order to negoti and (i.e., competence) experience superior judgment ate

the

economic

changing

A more

serious

advent of more

and

sophisticated

loting.10 Technology

natural

threat to Twain's

directly

environment.

is the notions of piloting to the science of riverboat pi technology attacks the importance of the competent romantic

Twain

and Piloting

15

to render the competence useless pilot for Twain because it threatens allows incompetent Browns to and irrelevant. If the aid of technology as effectively as competent Bixbys, then the romantic pilot riverboats a notion of riverboat pilot is effectively dead. Ironically, it competent to the is the competent pilot himself who contributes that technology The has "knocked the romance out of piloting" 204). government {Life has installed lamps to make crossings safer, and it is Bixby and another pilot, George Ritchie, who "have charted the crossings and laid out the courses by compass; they have invented a lamp to go with the chart, and have patented the whole" {Life 204). Roger Salomon writes that "with these innovations (reluctantly approved by Twain), the heroic adventurer a functionary in a mechanized system" (93). In other words, the pilot is stripped of his autonomy and competence, merely follow on a river that has been ing a course that is already charted out for him

became

robbed of all its danger. Twain has such reservations about the effective ness of the purely scientific to approach piloting that loses sight of the romantically competent pilot. When Twain getting up with the four o'clock watch one morning, seems to take suc in that he "saw Ritchie particular pleasure writing a dozen a in ruin half for his cessfully crossings fog, using guidance the marked chart devised and patented by Bixby and himself. This suffi the great value of the chart" {Life 355). Further illus toward science, a note earlier in the book, trating Twain's skepticism directly after Twain originally writes of Ritchie and Bixby s invention, indicates that in the manuscript Twain had sarcastically written, "Trust a as as a in is it Providence far but chart and very goes, ing good thing, are to six time. of worth Statistics have shown this be it, any compass true" {Life 204). Earlier in the book, discussing the fact that the Missis itself constantly by way of cut-offs, Twain sippi seems to be shortening that eventually Cairo, Illinois and New Orleans will be one speculates same town. on the scientific truths that led him and the Commenting to such a conclusion, Twain writes that "there is something fascinating returns of conjecture out of such about science. One gets such wholesale a trifling investment of fact" {Life 147). evidenced

ciently

comic ambivalence that Twain expresses toward science partic resonates with his ambivalent attitude toward the river engineers ularly and the river itself. It seems that Twain is particularly skeptical of the The

value

of

science

sponsibility

when

it does

not

take

into

account

that is typical of riverboat pilots. Twain's

the

competent

nostalgic

re

romance

\6

Southern

LiteraryJournal

regardless of such threats as technology and overwhelming influences precisely because one must still pragmatic be competent, above all else, to negotiate the power of the Mississippi River effectively. With the rise of the railroad and the opening of the and compe West, Twain's romantic notion of a ruggedly individualistic tent riverboat pilot was threatened a cor and by technology developing at on in But these Missis culture. least the porate despite challenges, Life a firm grasp on his to maintain sippi, the competent pilot still manages riverboat importance. One gets the sense that in Twain's world, whether of the individual

retain

pilots

their

or

preeminence

no matter

power

survives

pilot

the

not,

will

competence

trump

always

odds.

NOTES The

author

constructive

to thank

like

would

P. Lamb

R.

on drafts

criticism

of this

S. K. Robisch

and

for

their

article.

that both Roughing Lt and Life on theMississippi are largely

i. Considering

works,

autobiographical as "Twain." the author,

Iwill

refer same

The

to the narrator

convention

will

o? Roughing be used for

Lt, as well the cub

as

and

later full-fledged pilot narrator of Life on theMississippi and the author. The if any

of the writer/narrators,

differentiation

can

is necessary,

from

be extracted

context. 2. Incidentally, to describe Huck

these

are some

in Adventures

in escaping he shows courage times he utilizes his intelligence rider in Roughing Lt, two other

same

of the

to protect characters

that

characteristics

could

be used

Finn

and (i.e., the calculation the many cabin, not to mention as the Jim) as well Pony Express in Twain's works who the exemplify

ofHuckleberry from his father's

character.

competent 3. Edgar

Branch

being fictionalized

of the Hat

the possibility

discusses

Island

crossing

in his "'Old Times on theMississippi': Biography and

Literature 45.1 (1990): 73-87. Nineteenth-Century to concur with Cox's seems "instinct" of what B?rde 4. Edgar analysis the shape of the river he knows that "the pilot follows means, innately writing as The Writer rather than the one he sees objectively" (882) in "Mark Twain: Craftsmanship,"

Pilot," PMLA 93.5 (1978): 878-892. Howard Horwitz and

natural

natural, laborious

instinct

untransmissable,

in his

take even

on

the

unlearned,

subject,

stating

although

incorporates both training that

"the knowledge a product

admittedly

is of

(256). training" in Connecticut Yankee of the effects of social 5. For further analyses training see the of Mark articles and Pudd'nhead Coburn, Wilson, "'Training insightful in Pudd'nhead Wilson" and the Individual is everything': Communal Opinion "'De Lee Clark Mitchell, Modern 31.2 (1970): 209-219; Language Quarterly or in Pudd'nhead in You': Race Wilson?" Nineteenth-Century Training Nigger

Twain Literature

42.3

Training,

Birth,

and Brook Thomas, (1987): 295-312; of Competent and Communities

1.4 (1989): 754-785. Literary History is an outlaw of the Mississippi 6. Murel "a retail but considers James James, in with force and violence Roughing like Slade). Colonel Sherburn (much and

up to the for their desire

then

stands

the citizens

"little to

own

town"

of justice vigilante in Arkansas and mocks

form

(180)

in Adventures

him

lynch

likens to Jesse acts (212). Blakely of justice procedures

wholesale" the normal

Lt, ignoring enacts his

American

Twain

whom

Valley

17

of Race,

"Tragedies Pudd'nheads,"

rascal; Murel,

one-horse

and Piloting

Finn

ofHuckleberry

U of California P, 1998). (^Berkeley: mentions

7. Twain

the Mississippi on

its

of

surroundings 8. For a discussion

drastically

177,189,190,196, pages of Twain's claim that

see James edition.

from Delaware,

River

Cox's

"Introduction"

the Mississippi to the Life

drains

was so rife in late 1840s that "nostalgia a rather traumatic with preoccupation widespread and geographic breaks" Twain's (191) and mentions

temporal with minstrel

shows

Love

throughout

and

Theft:

Blackface

280. all the way

on the Mississippi

Classics Penguin Eric Lott notes 9. to indicate

the geography

changing 257, and

225, 247,

blackface

as

songs

distance,

parting, own fascination and

Minstrelsy

the

American Working Class (New York: Oxford UP, 1995). It is interesting to connect

the nostalgia he himself

nostalgia 10. One

is also

Connecticut

Yankee,

as his

well

own

prevalent harbored reminded his

in the blackface

with

fascination

doomed

shows

Twain

on the for piloting Mississippi treatment here of Twain's critical

venture

personal

fingerprinting with the

observed

to the

River.

of technology in Pudd'nhead Wilson,

in

typesetter.

Paige

WORKS CITED Branch,

Edgar

"Mark

Marquess.

Twain:

The

Pilot

and

the Writer."

Mark

Twain

(1985): 28-43.

Journal23.2

in Mark and Structure Twain's Art and Mind: John R. "Perception on the 34.2 91-112. (1981): Mississippi Quarterly Mississippi? on the "The Useful & the Useless River: Brodwin, Stanley. Life Mississippi in American Revisited." Humor Studies 2.3 (1976): 196-208. Brazil,

American Cox,

S. "The

Jr., Clinton

Burhans,

Literature

James. Mark

Piloting."

Studies

(1962):

The Fate

Twain:

Sherwood.

Cummings,

34.3

Sober Affirmation

"Mark in American

of Mark

Twain's

Life

Hadleyburg."

375-384. Humor. of

Twain's Humor

Princeton:

Theory 2.3

Princeton

of Realism; (1976):

or The

UP,

1966.

Science

of

209-221.

Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. Lighting Out for the Territory.New York: Oxford UP, 1996.

Gibson, William M. The Art ofMark Twain. New York: Oxford UP, 1976. Horwitz,

Howard.

on Mark

Twain's

"'Ours River."

by

the Law boundary

of Nature': 2 17.1 (1990):

Romance 243-271.

and

Independents

as

i8

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LiteraryJournal

Lawrence. the Limits "Transcending American Literature theMississippi" 63.3 on the Barriss. "Old Times Mills, Mississippi

of Experience:

Howe,

Mark

Twain's

Life

(1991): 420-439. as an

Initiation

Story."

College

English 25.4 (1964): 283-289. Salomon,

Roger

Schmidt,

Paul.

B. Twain "River

Nineteenth-Century Twain, -.

Mark.

and

the Lmage

vs. Town: Fiction

Mark

15.2 (i960):

on the Mississippi.

Life Lt. 1872. Berkeley: Roughing

ofHistory. Twain's Old

Haven:

Times

Yale UP,

1961.

on the Mississippi."

95?in.

1883. New U

New

of California

York:

Penguin

P, 1993.

Classics,

1986.

on