Creating Realities in Art

I love it when authors go to great lengths to create a reality, even if it is a remarkably unbleievable one.

I love it when those authors refer to their works in other works. In essence, they are constructing a reality. Contemporary authors like Steven King have taken this almost to an extreme. Many of his works reference his other stories. The events from many of his previous novels exist in the realities of the novels he writes.

For Mark Twain, the story of Huckleberry Finn exists in the same reality as Tom Sawyer. Similarily, The Tragedy of Puddin'head Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins also share the same reality. However, this reality could be called an alternative reality. Like something from Star Trek. Essentially the characters in both stories are the same. The same events occur, with similar outcomes, save for a few things. In one story, the twins are separate. In the other, they are joined. Many of the events that we get but a glimpse of in Puddin'head Wilson we experience firsthand in Twins. One could easily place the chapters of Twins in their appropriate place in Puddin'head Wilson and the narrative would work (same for the whole joined at the waist thing).

In essence, though completely different in tone, the one story helps us to understand the other better. We even learn more about Wilson in the second novel. Stories can be told from any number of perspectives. One of these stories is a tall tale, well the other is a tragedy. Essentially the timeline is the same, but the stories have a different perspective.

In a way, this novel reminds me of a double album that I own. On the first album, the singer sings songs that tend to be more serious, more depressing in nature. In this album he explores the negatives of human nature, and the effect of hard times on good people. In the second album, the songs are much more redemptive, comical, and light-hearted. Well there is humor in both albums, the tone of the humor is much more tongue-in-cheek on the darker album.

Twain works in a similar way in these two stories. Same people, same experiences. Both have their humor, but one is definitely a tragedy and the other a comedy. That's also not to say their aren't tragic elements in the comedy.

Twain was clearly a genius. I think that fact is supported with this work. How many of us can create such monsters by just letting our minds wander?

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