ABSTRACT
To address these issues, we need to examine more carefully Twain’s conception of the nature of aesthetic experience. Twain says that without knowing the language of the river, the uneducated passenger sees nothing but pretty pictures. However, his account of his own aesthetic experience of the river before he had acquired this knowledge of the river’s language reveals an experience more cultivated than simply seeing pretty pictures. It is an experience of overpowering beauty which “bewitches” him, reducing him to a “speechless rapture.” Moreover, his description of the scene that evokes this rapture is primarily in terms of two kinds of things. First, he describes “marvels of coloring” such as “the river…turned to blood,…the red hue brightened into gold,” “rings…as many-tinted as an opal,” a “trail that shone like silver,” and a “bough that glowed like a flame in the unobstructed splendor that was flowing from the sun.” Second, he describes what may be called marvels of form, such as “a long, slanting mark…sparkling upon the water,” “the surface broken by boiling, tumbling rings,” and “a smooth spot…covered with graceful circles and radiating lines, ever so delicately traced.” In short, Twain’s conception of aesthetic experience is that of an intense emotional state evoked by the appreciation of striking combinations of colors, lines, and shapes. Twain’s experience is both more refined and in a sense sparser than that of seeing pretty pictures.
