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!"