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February 10, 2005
Spinal Tap and Mark Twain
I finished A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court yesterday. It was worth reading just for the conversation with the blacksmith. In it the main character “the boss” has a long debate with a blacksmith over the concept of purchasing power. In one village everybody makes twice as much as in Camelot, but everything also costs about 2.1 times as much money as it does in Camelot. One month of labor in Camelot will get you more stuff than an equivalent month of labor in the other village will get you. But the blacksmith always replies that the people in the village make twice as much money as those in Camelot!
It was extremely reminiscent of the scene in Spinal Tap with the amp:
"The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board. Eleven, eleven, eleven."
"Oh, I see, and mostly, the amps go up to ten?"
"Exactly."
"Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?"
"Well, it's one louder, isn't it?"
"One louder."
"Why don't you just make ten louder, and make ten be the top number, and make that a little louder?"
“These go to eleven."
The constant scientific realism of the Connecticut Yankee was a great contrast to the romanticism of the knights, wizards, monks, etc. of Camelot. I read Huck Finn again a year ago or so and had a similar reaction to the end of that novel, where Twain has Tom Sawyer use as much romanticism as possible to rescue Jim to show how ridiculous romantic ideas can be in the real world.
Posted by Pete at February 10, 2005 05:44 PM
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