Mark Twain: Advice to little Girls

K’s bognoter gør det normalt ikke så meget i børnebøger, men med Mark Twains mindre kendte Advice to little Girls gør vi en undtagelse.

Mark Twain skrev disse små opbyggelige råd til unge piger i 1865, da han selv var 30 år gammel. Om rådene også blev opfattet som decideret opbyggelige i Twains samtid, og om de fik nogen synderlig udbredelse, ved jeg ikke, men man kan nok tillade sig at tvivle: Lurendrejeren Twain giver naturligvis ikke råd fra artigpigeskolen – men snarere opfordringer til unge piger om at være mindre regelrette og mere selvstændige. Med råd som: “Prøv aldrig at stjæle din venindes porcelænsdukke – med mindre din samvittighed tillader det, og du er sikker på, at du kan gennemføre det.”

De små råd til små piger er nu genudgivet – i en lækker luksusudgave med rød stofryg, kraftigt papir og med herlige, herlige tegninger af den russiske børnebogsillustrator Vladimir Radunsky.  Og selv om man ikke har børn, så er det altså bare en dejlig bog at have mellem hænderne. Og ret sjov. Prøv bare at se disse eksempler:

 “If at any time you find it necessary to correct your brother, do not correct him with mud — never, on any account, throw mud at him, because it will spoil his clothes. It is better to scald him a little, for then you obtain desirable results. You secure his immediate attention to the lessons you are inculcating, and at the same time your hot water will have a tendency to move impurities from his person, and possibly the skin, in spots.”

“You ought never to take your little brother’s “chewing-gum” away from him by main force; it is better to rope him in with the promise of the first two dollars and a half you find floating down the river on a grindstone. In the artless simplicity natural to this time of life, he will regard it as a perfectly fair transaction. In all ages of the world this eminently plausible fiction has lured the obtuse infant to financial ruin and disaster.”

“If you have nothing but a rag-doll stuffed with sawdust, while one of your more fortunate little playmates has a costly China one, you should treat her with a show of kindness nevertheless. And you ought not to attempt to make a forcible swap with her unless your conscience would justify you in it, and you know you are able to do it.”

Thanks to Maria Popova, Brainpickings.com for her part in the american re-release of this beautiful book and for promoting it on Brainpickings.