The title of this post is only in fun. No, there's no evidence that the famous American author was secretly into WAM. But there is a passage in Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper" about the joys of playing in the mud. Upper class repression vs. lower class fun:
From Chapter 3:
"In summer, sir, we wade and swim in the canals and in the river, and each doth duck his neighbor, and spatter him with water, and dive and shout and tumble and"--
"'Twould be worth my father's kingdom but to enjoy it once! Prithee go on."
"We dance and sing about the Maypole in Cheapside; we play in the sand, each covering his neighbor up; and times we make mud pastry--oh, the lovely mud, it hath not its like for delightfulness in all the world!--we do fairly wallow in the mud, sir, saving your worship's presence."
"Oh, prithee, say no more, 'tis glorious! If that I could but clothe me in raiment like to thine, and strip my feet, and revel in the mud once, just once, with none to rebuke me or forbid, meseemeth I could forego the crown!"
There was a line in the novelisation of E.T. about the mother having face-cream all over her face and feeling like she'd been hit with a pie, and it made a big impression on the young Me. Maybe we should start a Wam-in-literature thread...
(I realise we've gone from Mark Twain to E.T in two posts, so maybe 'literature' isn't the right word, but Hey.)
I agree: He's WAM-smitten, hiding it a bit in the dialect of a royal. On the other hand, people were less squeamish about certain pleasures, a century and a half ago. The mid and late 20th Century was a disaster for any kind of normalcy - swinging from the hyper-conservative to the flagrantly narcissistic.
"In America sex is an obsession, in other parts of the world it is a fact." -Marlene Dietrich
I distinctly remember in high school a teacher saying something about essays written by Thomas Jefferson and his sploshing ways. Wetlook in the White House? I wouldn't be surprised! lol
If not covered in frosting, are you really living?
The Adventures of Huckleberry Pie The Prince and the Pieper Old Times On The Mississippie Puddin'head Wilson (didn't even have to change this one) Ah ha! this proves the WAM theory!
Love you, too
