. . . of Miller is pretty astute! For me, he does raw disaffection more potently than the beats, so I think I just related. If anything, he's as close as our country ever produced to a Lawrence.

I have to disagree with regards to Twains mastery of plot, theme, or symbolism . . . but then, I find that comedy, in general, is underrated in American academia and those who take even tangential interest in it. I think Twain was the American Aristophanes, the American Voltaire, the American Swift, and I'd trade a hundred Hemingways or Fitzgeralds (our two MOST overrated literary artists, if I had to pick) for any one of those.

Still, I'll take this back from Twain's column: The Platonic ideal of a Twain novel was achieved not by Twain, but by Melville. It's called The Confidence Man, and it's probably one of the world's top five treatises on ethical nihilism. I can't recommend it enough.