Juha- Wit and Wisdom

In the Wit and Wisdom section of Tales of Juha, one story covers the theme of blame.  The story picks up when Juha has his donkey stolen.  When Juha tells his friends what terrible fortune has befallen him, he receives no sympathy.  Juha’s friends immediately begin telling Juha that it is his fault his donkey was stolen.  One friend tells Juha that the wall around his house was too low.  Another friend tells Juha that it is fate; Juha is being punished for the past.  Another friend claims that Juha must have left the gate unlocked.  No one says sorry or gives any condolences. 

I believe that this same reaction can be seen in our culture today.  There are many instances where a person befalls some misfortune and we try to blame everything else around the issue.  An unemployed person is given the excuse that the economy is bad or the job market is no good.  It must be Wall Street’s fault or the government.  In some cases this can be true.  There are fewer jobs in a bad economy and there are fewer opportunities.  Sometimes though, an individual is to blame.  Some people have not looked for a job and that is why they cannot find one. 

For a less controversial example, let’s consider my grades.  Overall, I have excellent grades.  I am in the Honors College, a Neeley Fellow, on the Dean’s List.  With this in mind, I once told my mom that I made a fifty-one on a test.  She immediately spouted off numerous reasons why it wasn’t my fault.  I, her baby, could never be wrong.  It must have been the professor’s fault.  His test was too hard.  He didn’t teach well.  Maybe it was my roommate’s fault.  He had kept me up too late.  No, those were incorrect.  Sometimes the blame needs to be placed on the obvious point.  I didn’t prepare for that test properly. 

This story of Juha and his friends made me smile because it is a phenomenon that I see regularly.  People sometimes just don’t accept the obvious.   

Wit

Over the course of this class, we have used the term wit over and over again.  In a presentation over British comedy, one aspect that was common was wit.  But what is wit?  We threw the word around frequently this semester, but did we actually know what it meant?  Could we put it in words? I would have said that wit is intellectual comedy.  It is a higher level of laughter or amusement.  Anyone can take a pie to the face and make a group laugh, but wit requires some substance.  Some people might have said that wit is a sort of cunning or wordplay.  Although I frequently use the word, I do not think I could have articulated its meaning.  Mark Twain had no problem articulating wit.  “Wit” Twain said, “ is the sudden marriage of ideas which , before their union, were not perceived to have and relation.” 

By Twain’s definition, I think we were on the right track.  We used it in the proper grammatical form and in the proper context.  We understood its meaning, but, we did miss one thing—its purpose.  Twain felt like wit in and of itself was of little substance.  It was able to make someone smile or chuckle but had nothing to it.  Twain said “Wit, by itself, is of little account.  It becomes of moment only when grounded on wisdom.”  The title of the compilation of Twain’s quotes is The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain.  He seems to be the authority on wit and wisdom and based on the words that fill the pages of this book, he had enough of both wit and wisdom to go around.

Strangely, the word “wisdom” was not one of the many words that received its own section in the compilation of quotes.  It seems that Twain was full of wisdom, but never directly addressed the topic.  Regardless, Twain’s one liners espouse moral and ethical wisdom.  Lines such as “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.” or “Always do right.  This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.” inspire the reader to be as better person while at the same time allowing them to laugh at the simplicity and ease of living an upright and moral life. 

Adam

The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain is without a doubt my favorite read so far this semester.  It is a shame that we will be spending such little time on this text.  While this book is a great compilation, I believe that Twain as a man deserves several class discussions.  When writers such as Hemmingway and Vonnegut laud a man with such praise as is seen on the book’s cover, it seems wrong to not dive in and learn more about a great comic and writer. 

You gather a sense of Twain’s wit and comedy from the very first page.  Never before have I taken the time to think about what it would be like to be Adam.  Adam was the first person to do so many things.  He must have been terribly curious and at the same time scared.  When any small thing happened, say his stomach grumbled, he had nobody to consult with.  He could not turn to his mother or father and ask if the noise was normal. 

While being the first man to do nearly everything had its challenges, it had a great upside.  Twain noted “[Adam] knew when he said a good thing, nobody has said it before.”  This is quite the interesting quote for several reasons.  First, it is so true.  Every person aspires to say and do things that are profound and original.  For Adam, originality was innate.  The second reason this quote is so interesting is because Twain scribbles this quote out to himself in his personal journal.  Obviously the aspiration of profoundness and originality was a personal vice or desire of Twain.  Why else would he enviously write this line out in his journal? 

When I graduate, I am going to work for Alvarez and Marsal Consulting.  As a future consultant, I laughed almost audibly at Twain calling Satan the first consultant.  Twain did not mean consultant in the business sense, but the line still gave me a chuckle.  I have found his quotes not only comical, but also wise and thought provoking.  The “Wit and Wisdom” aspect of the title is spot on, Twain was blessed with both.