You undoubtedly read this book in childhood, and if for some reason you passed it, you lost an enormous amount of pleasure and a lot of pleasant memories. According to this book, films, series with various actors in the main role are shot, but the "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" is absolutely immortal.
The plot, when a certain hero falls into the past, extensively uses his knowledge and skills there, this plot is used in many books. But at the source of the genre, at the origins of the situation, there is some classical work where all this is deprived of some unnecessary details, has not yet acquired the realities of time, which is obsolete much faster than new books are being written and at the same time, , all the main components of the plot are already here.
Here there is a classical "two worlds" where there is a representative of a modern, rational world, with rational thinking, who knows quite a lot from science and technology, so that this knowledge can embody and amaze their already contemporaries from the past, in particular the royal court, the courtiers, knights and ordinary people.
But it's not even about the "two worlds". The point is that showing with what simplicity and clarity our most ordinary things produce an incredible impression on not such distant ancestors of ours, Mark Twain, who always believed in human progress, that science and technology are the progress of human society, society it's getting better, people are getting better with the centuries. And of course he embodied all his dreams and thoughts in this book.
This is a very simple theory. People who do not know how to keep track of time, because there are not hours yet, do not know how to treat illnesses, because they know only the recipes of medicines from several of the most common diseases, and everything that is more difficult is under the ecclesiastical prohibition or is not yet open. They do not know how the luminaries move in the sky, or rather they know some patterns, but only so that various magicians, charlatans and sorcerers (Merlin) use them for predicting the future, past and present.
These people, who are basically intelligent, strong, kind and possess a lot of other spiritual qualities, Mark Twain shows how they could greatly improve the quality of their lives, how much good things have been done, how much less ignorance and stupidity has been created if only some Don Rumata is in the past.
The book "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" like a stone thrown into the water, circles on the mass of works diverge, but I want to say that for all its simplicity, this idea is no good.
Each person is the fruit of historical development, the era to which he belongs. And each person can use not to harm himself, but for good, with the understanding that he does only what he is prepared socially, mentally, psychologically and spiritually. Because every invention, it is first used by man to the detriment of another person, because aggression is one of the engines of technological progress. Then this invention is used for the benefit of society, and then goes into the subcortex, to the foundation and we completely do not notice it. We do not even know that someone, once, invented the button for the first time, we do not remember the year when the lightning bolt was born for the first time, we do not remember who guessed to make double-glazed windows, we do not understand who invented the classic shape of the switch, which is now mostly used, etc. And our children and grandchildren will not remember the creators of other technical miracles, which for us now still look like magic.
We do not have a TV that projects an image in the air without any visible screens, devices, it's necessary to see the projector's eye or the beam somewhere. We have a wireless connection, but we do not yet have the same connection connecting the planets, where we have not yet visited. But our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and I believe in this, as Mark Twain believed in progress, they will definitely embody it, they will visit us, but it seems to us not by magic, but by some technical miracle.
This book, of course, shows how progress is changing people. But the most important thing is that this book shows that people in spite of any technical perfection - do not change. And not for nothing, the most brilliant Mark Twain, whom I love very much, guessed that the main character can not and should not win. If you remember the finale of this book - an open one than it really ends - it's not clear, because the hero has a chance to wake up and take some steps to save himself or at least tell a story from the first person. It must be remembered that Mark Twain did not complete this book with the victory of the hero, he did not build a technological society in England during the time of King Arthur. And no one would have built, the humanity was not ready for such discoveries, which he used there.
I want to say that this book is full of kind, very understandable humor. This book is written very simply, it can be read, I do not know even for how many years, but probably from the very childhood, there is nothing that could not be read to a child.
The book is written and I want to believe that despite the fact that the main character is defeated - this time. Having some knowledge of modern social, economic and human sciences, we perfectly understand what implantation of these technologies and all achievements is by this "fellow-citizen" - it will lead to nothing, it is basically impossible and does not serve the good - these are two. Even knowing that in principle there are books written on this subject and their hundreds, Mark Twain is just the first in this series, I mean genre literature - it's three. Anyway, this book is one of the most remarkable texts that was written with faith in human progress, with faith in the attainment of human thought. A person can be a person with any technical equipment, but it is much better for him when he is appropriately dressed, shod, fed, lives in the appropriate dwelling and enjoys all the relevant goods.
It is very pleasant to read this book twenty years after I read it for the first time, because it is very well written, now you understand how far the society and human thought went far ahead, in comparison with those concepts in which he believed so, to to which he was so eager.
Let's hope that the dark forces will not win, the progress will continue and we will gladly read Mark Twain always, because progress is also the preservation of such texts as Mark Twain's novel "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court".
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