Mark Twain’s short story, “How I Edited an Agricultural Paper”, is a humorous criticism of journalistic standards during Twain’s time. Twain was concerned with the lack of truth telling in journalism especially the way reporters and editors conducted themselves. The use of humor as a device was employed by Twain to mask his misgivings against the journalistic conduct of the day. Mark Twain’s concern was that sensationalism coupled with the lack of editorial competence was eroding the power of journalism. Using Booth’s ideas on the function of rhetoric in fiction, this paper seeks to analyze Twain's rhetorical devices in “How I Edited an Agricultural Paper”.
The short story “How I Edited an Agricultural Paper” is a first person narration of a new editor who takes on a temporary editorial position of an agricultural publication of a small farming town. From the onset, it is evident that the nameless narrator is sure of his incompetence. The first line is an admission of incompetence when the narrator says, “I did not take temporary editorship of an agricultural paper without misgivings. Neither would a landsman take command of a ship without misgivings” (Twain n. p.). What ensues after this admission is a hilarious take down of journalist practices. Practices that Twain found in his real life work as a journalist and editor cumbersome and detrimental to excellent journalism. Twain creates a fictional character moulded in his own experience to mock what he thought were serious flaws in American journalism. Booth’s take on rhetoric of fiction helps to illuminate Twain’s goals and purpose in writing “How I Edited an Agricultural Paper”. Booth argues that in fiction, authors always pretend to be objective which is not often the case. Booth cited by Herrick notes that “the author’s judgement is always present, always evident to anyone who knows how to look for itWe must never forget that though the author can to some extent choose his disguises, he can never choose to disappear” (Herrick 220). Twain’s own subjective voice permeates “How I Edited an Agricultural Paper”. The presence of Twain’s subjective hand becomes apparent when one reads Twain’s other works of fiction such as Roughing It and his journalistic sketches. Humor becomes a critical device for Twain because of its ability to disarm and make vulnerable even those who were against his ideas of how journalism should be conducted. Part of the role played by humor is its indirect moralizing ability. Twain’s idea at the end of the day is that individuals who have no competence in a particular field should not take on a task they are unable to complete. This is in addition to the notion that journalists should steer away from rigidity of writing rules to telling the truth in a simpler fashion.
Booth’s contention that the author should be the advocate of social or political concerns can be applied to Twain’s “How I edited an Agricultural Paper”. Booth as Herrick observed, argued that the notion that authors should stay in the background or give an illusion of existence is mistaken. The argument that the author should be present in their fictional work so that the reader can avoid “dramatic vividness of pure showing” in a very critical one (221). An individual who reads Mark Twain reads him specifically for his voice. The silencing of Twain’s voice leads to the silencing of Twain the writer which results in no fiction being produced. It is the voice of Twain and his subjectivity that the ills of journalistic standards are exposed. The narrator in “How I Edited an Agricultural Paper” manages to produce a sensationalist journalism piece that even baffles the madman of the town. The narrator had not edited an agricultural paper before and knew nothing about agriculture. It is his conversation with the old farmer that brings to the fore Mark Twain’s argument. When the narrator says with confidence that “I have no doubt that every year millions and millions of bushels of turnips are spoiled in this township alone by being pulled in a half-ripe condition, when, if they had sent a boy up to shake the tree”, the old man replies by saying, “shake your grandmother! Turnips don’t grow on trees!” (Twain n. p.). This is a significant part of the story inasmuch as rhetoric is concerned. Twain riles against confident ignorance. The suggestion that Turnips grow on trees is a reflection of journalists failing to accurately tell stories because of ignorance and pride.
“How I Edited an Agricultural Paper” is successful in sensitizing consumers of journalistic products to the bad practices of those who are tasked with reporting and editing. Herrick notes that rhetorical advantages of narratives are clear. “An art that has always been concerned to mediate among the past, present, and future will be drawn irresistibly to narrative” (221). Narratives like Twain’s have a significant function in that they alert readers to the developments in both the social and political sphere. Boyd’s assertion that stories do have a strategic role in testing creating new ways and forms of thinking about particular social or cultural phenomena. Mark Twain’s narrative is on its own rhetorical. The reader does share a special relationship with the humor and depiction of the small farming town.
In addition to rhetoric as a narrative, there is also the concept of identification that helps in understanding the function of rhetoric in “How I Edited an Agricultural Paper”. Burke argued that “you can persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his” (Herrick 210). In fiction identification comes in many ways including the reader or audience’s appreciation of humor. Twain is able to use humor in dismantling the bad journalistic practices. This appeals to both consumers as well as those who are part of the journalist circle. There is an element in Twain’s short story of understanding the torture that readers go through as they read sensationalist and untruthful new pieces.
In conclusion, an analysis of Mark Twain’s How I Edited an Agricultural Paper helps in illuminating some of the functions of rhetoric especially in fiction. Twain relies on humor in his mocking of bad journalism. The ideas of Booth rhetoric as narrative are critical in understanding that Mark Twain’s subjective voice is at the center of the criticism of journalist and editors.
Works Cited
Booth, Wayne. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Herrick, James. A. History and Theory of Rhetoric: An Introduction. New York, NY: Routledge,
2015.
Twain, Mark. “How I edited an Agricultural Paper”. Inthesetimes. Web 26 April 2016.
