Did Twain intend for the reader to sympathize with Satan? I thought so after the ending about life being a dream, and also he fucks with the angry mob. But also he totally disregards human life, sooo hummm.
>>8208040
isn't satan a sympathetic character to begin with? otherwise, how could his influence be so enticing to people? pride and resistance against god and all that jazz
>>8208040
i don't think twain wanted the reader to view satan as an object capable of being anything other than a product of it's nature which is inherently evil. So to some degree I think you could argue that asking if the reader is supposed to sympathize with satan is like asking if they're supposed sympathize with a butter churner that only produces evil butter
>>8208093
by butter churner i mean a butter churn, not one who churns butter; it is the 21st century, keep up b
>>8208097
is satan inherently evil or just contradictory to divinity?
>>8208107
there's a kind of sarcastic embrasure of evil that makes it comical and undermines divinity, by making it seem reactionary to a more present and genuine force, my memory of the story fades my dude, but I remember satan seeming like he was the 'king', so it's cynicism or something is my conclusion
>>8208120
i just mean in general, i haven't read the story yet, i watched part of that claymation show though.
>>8208126
zoobomafoo?
Twains a great fedora tipper in his time, it's honestly quite annoying and comes through far too heavy with the anti church sauce in some of his books.
Just a headsup.
>>8208126
That claymation video makes Satan look super evil. In the story he's a mild-mannered gent who doesn't have "moral sense." But I guess he understands what it is, because he doesn't care about human life because even though they know right from wrong, they choose wrong most of the time.
Also he has like ultimate power over the world? Why?
Also also: at some point he says someone is better off dying sooner because they'll spend more time in heaven, then at the end he says there is no heaven and there is no world outside life on Earth. Why this seeming contradiction?
>>8208330
Was that the heavily edited version, or the No. 44 version?
>>8208252
I never thought his criticisms of the church were less than fair, really - they genuinely did get up to some horrible shit at that time. It's not like he was just being pointlessly edgy or anything.
