In 1895, Mark Twain put down on paper his formula for how to tell a funny story. The speaker should know how and when to deliver the punchline, learn to be seemingly indifferent to his own humor, and show mastery of the pause. A few years later, in his autobiography, Twain explained how he, in fact, had to learn to follow his own advice. He was perplexed because the version of the story “His Grandfather's Old Ram” published in Roughing It “could not be read aloud” (Autobiography, 177). To remedy this, Twain made changes to the story allowing the same enjoyment and humor that a reader got from the Roughing It version to be shared by an audience who heard the story come out of Twain's mouth. In his autobiography, Twain “recites” the edited oral version, so that the reader “can compare it with the story of Roughing It, if he will, and note how different the spoken version is from the written and printed one” (Auto, 177) . This essay examines the two versions, paying close attention to their similarities and examining their differences. It attempts to answer the question of why one can be performed effectively before an audience, while the other cannot – a question that Twain claimed to be "incapable of clearly and definitively explaining" (Auto, 181). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe respective versions differ greatly in how they begin the story. Echoing his story of Jim Smiley and his frog jumping in that someone's sets, Twain stands up to hear a story that goes nowhere, the Roughing It version focuses much more on Twain explaining how he got there to listen to the story, while the oral description explains why he now chooses to share it with us. In the written account, Twain sets the stage somewhat literally, setting the scene. All reporting-related questions are answered in the first paragraph. Who told the story? "Jim Blaine." What is it about? "His grandfather's old ram." When did he tell it? “One evening. . . [when] he was calmly, serenely, symmetrically drunk. Where was the narrator? “He was sitting on an empty gunpowder barrel.” And finally, why was the story told to Twain? Because his “curiosity was sky-high to listen to her” (RI, 287). In the oral history's introduction, less attention is given to how Twain came to hear the story than to the lesson that can be gleaned from it. hearing him tell it now. “The idea of ​​the story,” says Twain, “is to show some ill effects of a good memory: the kind of memory that is too good, that remembers everything and forgets nothing” (Auto, 177). The historian (Twain does not call him Jim Blaine in the later version) is described as having this kind of memory, and the audience is told that it can be seen in his often begun, but never completed, story of his grandfather's ram. This feature of the historian's memory, on which the entire joke rests, is not addressed at all in the preparation of the written version. There, the historian is described extensively regarding his physical appearance: his round, red face, disheveled hair, and bare throat, but nothing is said of his storytelling technique that indicates what is to come. For all we know, we will hear a funny story about an old ram. This is a significant difference between the two versions because, in the oral tale, the audience is essentially prepared for what is to come. They are informed of the joke before the punchline is spoken. This clue from the public is oneone of the main reasons why the version in the Autobiography works well when acted, while the Roughing It version does not. A story is much more effective for the audience if they can keep up with the speaker. In the written version, the reader is as confused as Twain was initially by Blaine's divergent ramblings. We don't really know what's going on, and we know by wondering when the ram will return to the story. But in the oral version, the audience was told what will happen. They know that the ram will disappear from the fire, which makes what happened even funnier. Twain wastes no time in pushing the ram out of the spotlight in the Roughing It version. In fact, one of the most notable differences between the written and oral versions is the simple fact that in the former the word “ram,” which is apparently the point focal point of the story, he appears only once. In Roughing It, the second sentence of Jim Blain's story, "there never was a bullier old ram than he," is the first, and especially the last, that the reader hears about the ram (RI, 288). In direct contrast to this, the oral version uses the word “ram” seven times and is mentioned in the pronoun form “he” or “him” in another ten instances. The audience knows, thanks to Twain's introduction, that the story of the ram will eventually become the story of everything. But because of this knowledge, the fact that the ram remains in the spoken version simply serves to create suspense for his impending departure. Twain knowingly plays with this when he asks the historian to make his first diversion in which he tries to determine Smith's true identity, only to return to the battering ram moments later. The audience, in a sense, begins to root for the historian here as if his internal monologues are imploring, “Come on man, you're on the right track again. Don't lose him now." But of course he does, and when he makes his second detour to Smith, we know he won't be back. The ram is gone forever. It's this teasing suspense that Twain builds in the spoken version, that makes it best suited for a recital. Twain also makes several changes in the language of the piece that help the Autobiography version to be read aloud with greater effect. The later ones, using the term loosely in this case, are much more fluid in spoken version. This fluidity alleviates the choppy effect produced when the Roughing It version is read aloud. This can be seen by comparing the two accounts of the woman lending her glass eye (Miss Jefferson in Roughing It and Mariar Whitaker in the Autobiography) from its initial introduction to its eventual elimination. Oral version (from the Autobiography, 178) Because look here, one of them married a Whitaker! I guess this gives an idea of ​​the kind of society the Sacramento Smiths might socialize in; there is no better blood than that of the Whitakers; I guess someone will tell you. Look Mariar Whitaker, there was a girl for you! Little? Because yes, she was small, but who cares? Look at his heart, he had a heart like that of an ox – as beautiful as the day is long; if she had something and you wanted it, you could have it and welcome her; because Mariar Whitaker couldn't have anything, and another person needs it and doesn't get it, he receives it and welcomes it. He had a glass eye, and he lent it to Flora Ann Baxter who had none. Written Version (from Roughing It, 288) Old Deacon Furgeson got up and pushed it through the window and it rested on old Miss Jefferson's head, poor old filly. He was a good soul, he had a glass eye and he lent it to old Miss Wagner, who had none. It is evident that in the oral version it takes much longer to shift attention than in the written one. The good heart ofMariar Whitaker is described in detail. Miss Jefferson's...not at all. In the written version, Miss Jefferson is just a dot between two dots, while in the spoken tale, Whitaker is a character in the story. He has a part to play. This transition, from next pawn to vital role, is characteristic of almost all parallel character accounts in the two versions. In the oral version, the passages from person to person, while maintaining their ridiculous volubility, flow with greater ease. This increase in fluidity transforms the audience's mood from frustration with Jim Blaine's ever-evolving narrative technique, to the entertainment of the historian whose "memory defeated his every attempt to march on a straight horse" (Auto, 177). It is largely due to this change that the Autobiography version is reproduced better by audiences when read aloud. Much of the reason this oral version is performed more effectively than the Roughing It story is that the former's language places more emphasis on showing rather than telling. In Roughing It, for example, Twain must tell the reader how other people reacted to the grotesque sight of Miss Wagner's spinning glass eye in order to make his point. “The adults didn't care, but it almost always made the children cry, it was so scary” (RI, 288). In this version we read how others reacted to the event and form our own opinion from that. Compare it to the oral version. "As soon as he got excited, that handmade eye would swirl and then it would keep swirling and swirling faster and faster, and flashing first blue and then more yellow and then blue and then more yellow, and when it got to it it was darting and flashing in that way, the oldest man in the world couldn't keep up with the expression on that side of the face” (Auto, 179). Here the story is so visual in its description that what happens is no longer limited to hearing it, but seeing it. We become the frightened child who must turn away. The oral version of the story of the glass eye is a great example of how the language of the piece lends it to a spoken performance. The onomatopoeic nature of the words “Whizzing ” and “a-whirlin,” combined with the extensive use of alliteration, makes this version quite suitable for spoken discourse. Twain also uses polysyndeton in this sentence to give it more of a tendency to be recited than read. e” causes the speaker to get “excited” and excited as he recites this sentence, making his oral performance even more entertaining. This is evidence of the importance that Twain emphasized in his later essay How to Tell a Story, that the manner of telling is more important than the question itself. The way Twain told the story then, is an obvious explanation for why the Autobiography version was read aloud well while the Roughing It version was not. Twain talks about the many “platform changes” that the story has made over time, the modern comic equivalent of “working the crowd” (Auto, 177). Many of these changes in delivery can be seen. There are other jokes, or notions as Twain calls them, in the spoken version, which one might expect would generate laughter from the audience. For example, commenting that the glass eye was too small for Flora, Twain, in one of his indifferent parts that he outlines in How to Tell a Story, says that "[the glass eye] was a number seven, and she was dug for a fourteen” (Auto, 178). After this you can almost hear the final lines like these help give timing to the piece, which in turn helps this version to “sound good” to the audience. Changes in comedic content weren't the only changes made.