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THE READERS' THREAD PAGES

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS

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Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 01:43:45 -0800
From: J E
To: arezis@mindport.net
Subject: watching for types

Just starting with chapter one, and never having read this Cooper before, I invite my fellow readers to watch for evidence in description or dialog of presumed characteristics of types of people: nobility, gender, race, nationality, etc. It will be interesting to determine how people of Cooper's day viewed their recent past.

---Jim M.

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Date sent: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 06:32:54 -0800
From: J E
To: arezis@mindport.net
Subject: cooper ch2

Following on the thread of social attitudes, in this chapter2 we have: "Should we distrust the man because his manners are not our manners, and that his skin is dark?" coldly asked Cora. Well, will Cora be shown to be a fool or a righteous pioneer?

Also we have some suggestive images:"Canadian savages...lurking...dark arches of the forests....fiercely wild savage art...unbridled passion..."

BUT Cooper writes,"...judge not too rashly from hasty and deceptive appearances."

So are the Indians surly sullen barbarians? Are the British babes and boobies in the woods? Are the American colonists wood-wise and capable pioneers? Read on!

J.E.M.***

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Date sent: Mon, 03 Mar 1997 02:32:51 -0800
From: J E M
To: arezis@mindport.net
Subject: the mind's construction in the face

In chapter 3 where we meet Hawkeye, the omniscient narrator reads his spirit:"...countenance without guile...expression of sturdy honesty." And in chapter 4 our Hawkeye asserts that "If he is a true Iroquois I can tell him by his knavish look." and from evil looks to evil nature: "Tis a safe thing to calculate on the knavery of an Iroquois..." So what? well, my interest is to see how people understand human nature in this novel. Judge by looks, by inner character, by associations, by presumptions. And who judges rightly: the characters, the narrator, the reader? Are we looking here for universal nature, the zeitgeist, revision vision?

Any thoughts, Fellow Readers? J.E.M.***

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From: Self
To: J E M
Subject: Re: the mind's construction in the face
Send reply to: arezis@mindport.net
Date sent: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 08:07:57 -0500

I don't want to be an apologist for Cooper, but remember this is a work of fiction intended for the purposes of telling a story. There are "Good Guys and Bad Guys".

It was a far less politically correct time when Cooper wrote this book. Ishmael wrongfully indicts Queequeg in Moby Dick based soley on his first impression, but since his Island Home is never mentioned there are none of Queequeg's race to say, "Hey that's bigotry!" - and in the end Queequeg is presented as the most honorable character in the whole book. "Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian", says Ishmael.

Now who does the Judging and what is intended?

Ultimately you the reader have to Judge the Judges presented in the book.

Why is it when the indian is portrayed in films like "The Outlaw Josey Wales", Him and everyone like him is presented as a sage, cosmic/earth genius? Is that a fair way to represent the indian as a whole? We wish it were and they wish it were.

The point is Cooper employees sterotypes of Real Cultures and that he applies negative and positive attributes to these Real Cultures, it would be offensive to no one if Cooper where writing "Gullivers Travels". Every culture in that book is DEFINED by their flaws.

But by exposing his Bigotry early on in the book, we can make the judgement that this is how the Narrator sees the people in this book, and get over it in one second and read the book as a story and nothing else.

If you can't put aside your prejudices of Cooper then why do you expect more from him?

I live 40 miles from one of the largest Casinos on Earth. Who own's it? The Mohicans.

Regards, Aaron Ezis
American Literary Classics - A Chapter A Day Publisher

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Date sent: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 00:36:43 -0800
From: J E M
To: arezis@mindport.net
Subject: entertainment value of bad behavior

Dear Fellow-Readers:

Conflicts , mistakes, and problems, not to mention suprises are the very stuff that make narrative interesting. We may not want to live in interesting times but we enjoy reading about them. So when characters make mistakes we hope for correction. When characters act badly we hope for punishment We follow the fortunes of our favorites in the hope they will prevail. But since the nature of the characters is the creation of the author, we read carefully the voice of the narrator for implied values of writer that shape the direction of the story. So we have "read" the characters, the narrator, the author, and ourselves.

The fun is in watching the action and outcomes, and sometimes these motions can be found with motives. Milton's God in "Paradise Lost" is less entertaining than Lucifer.

J.E.M.***

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Date sent: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 02:35:50 -0800
From: J E M
To: arezis@mindport.net
Subject: bad behavior

The entertainment value in bad behavior is in the emotions it generates: suspense, revulsion, fear, pity, and so on. The badness might be deliberate evil acts or in ommissions to do things rightly, or being foolish. And it is not only behavior (acting) but also being (nature) that can be bad. So specific examples in our present story: -Cors's arrogant idealism -judging rashly from deceptive appearances(Heywood's choice of guide) -predatory stalking(wolves, Iroquois) -hymn-singing in a warzone -going your own way and getting lost or mislead -putting womenfolk at risk (babes in the woods) -looking knavish (being debased) Later we will have attacks, betrayals, sacrifices, misjudgements enow to give a thrill per chapter per day.

Something else: for years I watched the PBS Mystery series and its opening animation which showed a dark and damp country inhabited with Agatha Christie characters. A black widow puts a finger to her nose. What does she mean? I never knew until I read Cooper's note for chapter 4 which apparently was a sign of caution. whaddayaknow?

J.E.M.***

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From: Self
To: JEM
Subject: Your agenda is clear but your tracks need covering
Send reply to: arezis@mindport.net
Date sent: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 08:31:27 -0500

Jim,

Your agenda is clear but you don't cover the tracks to it well enough. You said in your first missive:

"Just starting with chapter one, and never having read this Cooper before,..."

And in your latest missive you say:

"Later we will have attacks, betrayals, sacrifices, misjudgements enow to give a thrill per chapter per day."

If you never read this before how do you know what is to come?

If you never read it before as you clearly state then you must be prejudiced against Cooper. You have clearly pre-judged him, the very thing you condemn HIM for.

By your example it is okay for all of us to prejudge all your future missives and do what you do to Cooper, dimiss them as valueless before all the evidence has been presented.

I invite you to not read the book. Criticism on any book is always welcome, but not the same criticism daily.

If you can't read the book without cringing - don't read the book.

Regards, Aaron Ezis Publisher of American Literary Classics - A Chapter A Day

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Date sent: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 17:33:14 +0000
From: Martha L
To: arezis@mindport.net
Subject: The Last of the Mohicans

I'm up to chapter 2.

WOW.. The style is soooo incredably different than My Antonia....

I find the stranger terribly pompus and arrogant as I have found other clergy type characters in similar reading.

Unlike JEM, I seem to be patiently waiting for the story to unfold and not willing to dissect every note all the way. It is also my belief that we need to keep in mind that many of these classics were written in a less "politically correct" time as Aaron pointed out. However as JEM did point out there does seem to be a great deal of language used trying to force us the readers to draw conclusions about the types and characters flaws of the various characters. However, as I've learned in the past often an author uses such a tone to set us into the stage of moral outrage - or to make us examine our own moral fiber. So I've decided to putter on and wait to see what the author is going to say before I start drawing conclusions about this story.Otherwize we make this story like winter "that lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen."

Marti

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Wow - I am still a few chapters behind. But I find myself becoming nervous for the captives. I have left them up on the shelf ready for certain torture while help seems to be coming...

Although I still do not like this as my as My Antonia. I am becoming intrigued.

Anyone else feeling this way?

Marti

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It is interesting to me that grasslands are viewed as "barren." Apparently, trees are essential to the "esthetic" landscape and give some viewers a sense of "fullness." As a Floridian accustomed to the broad extent of the Everglades and its rich flora and fauna, I must disagree with a description of grasslands as "barren." It is a different esthetic than perhaps some are accustomed.

Armando

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I'm delighted to see "Mohicans" on the American Literary Classics program. As Secretary of the James Fenimore Cooper Society (a national literary organization, founded 1989) it is always good to see attention being paid to an author we consider important. I'll save specific comments for later, but readers interested in the background of the book might find the following helpful:

Cooper's information on American Indians was drawn primarily from the works of John Heckewelder (1743-1823), a Moravian missionary among the Delaware Indians in Pennsylvania, who was perhaps the best informed and most sympathetic student of Northeastern American Indians of his time. Along with Heckewelder's ethnographic information, Cooper absorbed some of his prejudice in favor of the Delawares (and against the Iroquois), as well as his (and others) tendency to confuse what are now considered distinctive ethnic groups, such as the Mohegans of Connecticut and the Mahicans of the Upper Hudson Valley.

I'll save my thoughts about Cooper and Indians for later, but it might be well to quote what a real Native American at the time wrote about Cooper: "No living writer, nor historian, has done so much justice to the noble traits of our people. The whole American feeling takes pride in such a man, as the author of 'The Last of the Mohicans'.... With us one word of commendation from the white man, either by his pen or in history, learns [sic] us to forget outrageous usages--and the sweet morsel of approbation outweighs all other wrongs, which have been inflicted on our races, in this country." Kah-Ge-Gah-Gah-Bowh (George Copway), an Ojibwa chief, in "Copway's American Indian", July 19, 1851.

Two recent books with good background and analysis of "Mohicans" (and they are very readable, too), are: John McWilliams, "The Last of the Mohicans: Civil Savagery and Savage Civility" (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994 [Twayne's Masterwork Studies]); and H. Daniel Peck, ed., "New Essays on The Last of the Mohicans" (Cambridge University Press, 1992 [The American Novel series]). Both are available in paperback. On the historical background to the novel, including Cooper's use of it, see Ian K. Steele, "Betrayals: Fort William Henry & the 'Massacre'" (Oxford University Press, 1990).

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What a read! No one has mentioned any outstanding dramatization of this novel which was presented on Masterpiece Theatre over twenty years ago. I have a partial video tape of that production. It has its limitations, mostly scenic, but does a fair job in presenting the story as it was written. Whatever liberties it takes are minor, and serve to strenghten and clarify the plot. The written narrative can be confusing. Some of the serious scenes described, such as the bear masquerade would be hard to translate into drama without being laughable. I've always been fascinated by this time period and subject matter, especially the Indians. I saw the dramatization long before I read the novel (in my forties), after several aborted attempts. It gave me an enhanced appreciation of this novel.

As a baby boomer growing up in the late Forties and early fifties, I seem to identify more with Chingachook than any of the other characters. I can't say why. Without putting a judgement on it, will we be "The Last Of The Mohicans" in the perhaps not so distant future?

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After reading THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, I was a little confuse about what happen to alice after the incedent that happen at the delaware tribe. At first there was to be a trial by fire-I don't recall anyone getting set on fire. What was the agreement on that. Secondly, it was agreed that Cora Munro be Maguas squaw. Last, but least Alice was taken away by an indian girl to a lodge. Did I misunderstood something because after that her name was not mention again except for at the burial ceromony when cora and uncas was buried. But her name wasn't really mention. corrected me if i'm wrong, the book gave a discription that seem to fit that of Alice Munro and again it was said she was located in the lodge. Why was she in the lodge and not at the burial ceromy. Another thing that confused me was Major Heyward. Was he in love with alice or cora. It seem to me that he loved them both.

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From: b4n
Date sent: Sat, 06 Sep 97 10:02:22 -700
Subject: Last of the Mohicans

I'm just starting to read this novel, and since it's off the computer I am curious? How many pages roughly is this book? For time purposes only. Anyone know?

hawkeye

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Organization: James Fenimore Cooper Society
Subject: Last of the Mohicans -- for Hawkeye

The length depends on the edition (printed) you read -- I don't know about on-line versions. Cooper's novels, like most novels of the mid-19th Century are long -- originally published in several volumes. The Last of the Mohicans is, however, one of his shortest (perhaps that is one reason why it was so frequently assigned to students to read). The Signet Paperback edition is 415 pages, which is probably about normal. I hope you enjoy it!

-- Hugh C. MacDougall, Secretary, James Fenimore Cooper Society.

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