What Would Mark Twain Make of Disneyland’s Tom Sawyer’s Island?
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 06.25.04 | 9:22 PM ET
That’s but one of the questions cultural historian Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom ponders in a thoughtful article in the journal Common-Place. Wasserstrom focuses on Twain’s classic travel memoir “Innocents Abroad” and the way we travel in the Age of Simulation. “Since rereading ‘Innocents Abroad,’ I have been asking myself…‘what if’ questions about Twain’s voyages across the globe and on the page,” Wasserstrom writes. “What would he make of his birthplace in Hannibal, Missouri, becoming a heritage site? Would he be flattered, annoyed, or simply amused by Tom Sawyer’s Island?” Wasserstrom never really answers the questions, which he raises in the fourth part of the article. But his exploration of the issues is at times compelling.
Email to friend
Twitter
del.icio.us
Digg
Facebook
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Mixx
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! Buzz
Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
