Would I travel with Mark Twain?

When I think about Mark Twain, I always think the same thing: was he a transcendentalist writer? For some reason I just cannot remember … then I Google it, and no, he was not. Well, now that I have gotten that burning question answered, I can focus on the blog at hand. Would I travel with Mark Twain? After careful deliberation this is what I came up with …

I think I might have to say no on this one. And no Ron Scott, it is not just because he offended a member high up on my family tree, Henry David Thoreau, it would be because I cannot travel with a complete stranger! Mark Twain dabbled in many things as we found out during our class discussion, but most famously he is an author. Not going to lie, I do not read. In fact I would go so far as to say I loathe it unless it has some historical significance. Thus, I have not read anything written by Twain, with the exception of the reading for homework, and I do not intend in the future. I have however, seen movies based off of Twain’s novels. But like most Hollywood exaggerations, I am sure the books are much better.

Now that my relationship, or lack thereof, with Twain has been established I can dive right into the reason why I would not want to travel with him. Like I said, for me Mark Twain is a complete stranger. He has a scary resemblance to Albert Einstein and I would want to travel with someone with similar “travel level” as me. I just got done googling Mark Twain, and learned that he had traveled extensively, not only in the United States but internationally too. He would be way above me on the travel scale. I want someone to experience things for the first time, not someone to guide me or tell me what I should do. For some reason I feel like Twain would do that. But is that necessarily a bad thing?

I am such an indecisive person; I cannot even come to a conclusion right now. I said that I might have to say no, but after getting my thoughts out I think that maybe it would not be so bad to travel with Mark Twain. Like I said, he is a stranger to me so I should take the time to get to know him before I judge. I think next time I travel I will take Twain with me, in book form that is. Then we will see … maybe my relationship with the “father of American literature” will blossom, or it will fizzle out and I will continue on with my Twainless life.