Jon Johanning <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>That, of course, is part of the argument in favor of teaching the Mark
>Twain novel--that it should be part of students' educational experience to
>learn how to grapple with the past in its less-than-attractive, as well as
>its admirable, aspects.  In addition, no one doubts that Twain was himself
>a strong humanist.  On the other hand, one can also argue that there are
>other works of literature which can get the humanist message across without
>(even inadvertently) giving offense.

There are so many questions begged here that I hesitate to respond,
especially as we seem well off-topic - though the same problem afflicts Mr
Johanning's enjoyment of Gilbert, and I think there's something important
here which needs to be aired.

To rehash my attempt to disentangle him from his difficulty - the
underlying assumption here is that we know better than our poor benighted
forebears did, and that from our perch of advanced civilisation (and the
hindsight of the victorious) we are able to sort out Where They Went Wrong.

Where they are too eminent and established to be bowdlerised (alas,
poor Biggles!  but that's another story) we are left in the embarrassing
position of having to patronise them to extinction.  Fortunately, there's
only one "Huckleberry Finn", one "Parsifal" and one "Mikado" - and you
can't have the humanism without the offence.

In truth, there is no "Wagner Question" or "Huck Finn Question".  Some
people find them offensive or disturbing? All well and good - nobody gets
hurt by watching "Parsifal" (except possibly by having to sit in the seats
at Bayreuth).  And only psychotics rush out and behave like Klingsor -
they'd probably have done it anyway, somehow or other.

Plato banished artists from his Republic for this reason - they rock the
boat of our smug contemporary social mores; they disturb us and make us
question our assumptions; they promote ambiguity over certitude, individual
experience over Political Theory, however Correct.  That is what art is
for, and I for one do not "respect the feelings of those who object",
because the alternative they propose is censorship.  Ask Salman Rushdie.

If Mr Johanning doesn't always like it, he's in good company - in the
Gilbert case nor did Queen Victoria, who consistently refused to
contemplate giving poor Mr G.  his knighthood.

But "The Mikado" is good art, and a masterpiece, for all that.

Christopher Webber,  Blackheath, London,  UK.
http://www.nashwan.demon.co.uk/zarzuela.htm
"ZARZUELA!"