Recommended reading from Matt Taibbi
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Taibbi provides a transcript of a discussion between himself and Walter Kirn about what they claim is one of Mark Twain’s greatest stories. They’re so enthusiastic about “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburgh” that when I finished Taibbi’s piece, I had to go to the provided link and read the story for myself; I agree with their assessment. I’m posting a short excerpt from Taibbi’s lengthy transcript, but do read the entire thing and see if it doesn’t similarly inspire. I’m familiar with Twain’s novels — I’m pretty sure that I’ve read them all — but not with his short stories. This is a great one.
As usual, Racket publishes the short story discussion from “America this Week.” In this episode, Walter Kirn and I discuss “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” by Mark Twain:
Matt Taibbi: The story this week we’re going to do is one of the all-time great works of literature that’s been done in English fiction, certainly in America: “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg.” There’s a lot to say about it, it’s relevance to the present, but also just how unbelievable it is as an artistic achievement. What’s your summation of this story by Mark Twain?
Walter Kirn: So, I’m a Twainiac, as Mark Twain fans call themselves sometimes. I love everything he wrote. He wrote far too much for any one person really to consume and meditate on in even a lifetime. But this has to be among the top five pieces of writing he ever did, for me. It’s a short story, but what I guess it really is, is a fable. It doesn’t attempt to realistically portray everyday life, it only attempts to realistically portray the human psyche and character. And so in this fable, there’s a small town, Hadleyburg, that is famed for its virtue, famed for its prudence, its honesty, its children of simple, rugged virtue. And it has a problem one day. A man who has come through earlier and had some kind of a bad experience in Hadleyburg decided to take revenge on it. We don’t know this at the beginning of the story. We don’t know that this prank that is pulled on the town is in fact revenge, but it turns out to be total revenge. The setup for this story, which is worked out with mathematical precision…
Matt Taibbi: I was going to say.
Walter Kirn: One of the beauties of this story is that it’s like a logical proof. It sets up a very simple situation and then it plays it out in its details to exquisite and precise imaginative precision, to use the word over again. Anyway. What happens is a letter arrives in this town along with a big bag of gold, saying that someone in the town once did a stranger a favor. And this stranger, who has since become rich, would like to thank that person by awarding them this gold bag.
But the way to claim this gold is that you have to come forward and remember this piece of advice. You have to remember verbatim this piece of advice you gave the stranger, which changed his life. And anyone who remembers that and can be presumed to have been the Samaritan who helped this person is entitled to this gold. And this letter and this bag of coins, or ingots, comes to the town and it’s announced that there is this kind of contest. And the result of this contest is that almost everyone in the town, anyone of any esteem, not the little people but the big people in town, become absolutely venal, deceptive and corrupt. It’s a trick and everyone falls for it. And the beauty of the story is that you see the rationalizations of people as they start to believe their own entitlement to something that they deep down know they’re not entitled to.
Because what the psychological process that this contest causes is for everyone who wants the money to think, “Maybe I was the one who helped this stranger. How might I have helped the stranger? How can I at least credibly pretend that I did it?” And we see, especially through the eyes and thoughts of one couple, how the process of convincing ourselves we’re virtuous when we know we’re not actually works.
Far more at the link, and well worth your time.
