So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because Kurt Vonnegut often mentioned Mark Twain. Mark Twain is respected as the father of American literature. However, I'm afraid that I'm a Japanese who grew up in Japan. I can understand that the novel written by spoken words was revolutionary at the time the novel was written. The story becomes untidy since Tom Sawyer appears. I felt that the end of the story was messy. I'm sorry to be unable to have respectable feeling for Mark Twain.

However, Huckleberry Finn is very charming. He is honest, rustic and a little timid but he can see the circumstance surrounding him. He chooses to live independently although he's just a kid. Living in society is annoying. I can understand that someone dreams of Huckleberry Finn lifestyle.

After reading Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I thought of Shichiro Fukazawa (深沢七郎 FUKAZAWA Shichiro). The Ballad of Narayama of the representative novel of Shichiro Fukazawa was made into a movie, which received the Grand Prix at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. It was a good movie, but I don't believe the movie conveyed the message from Shichiro Fukazawa.

Shichiro wrote rustic local peasants' life. His novels aren't distressing such as the movie of The Balled of NaraYama. Instead, peasants are upbeat and full of vital power. Generally peasants have to obey their landowner. So the actual life of them is similar to slave Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But then again the thoughts of peasants Shichiro wrote are more close to Huckleberry Finn.

Shichiro respected local dialect and got interested in music and play. He wrote some drama scripts, including the notes of inserted songs. Some points of those are close to Mark Twain's.

In fact, Shichiro Fukazawa now is a forgotten novelist even in Japan.

The Ballad of Narayama by Shichiro Fukazawa