Initial Reactions to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

There are definite interesting statements that emerge when comparing the feudal era of Europe and the "modern" times represented by the blacksmith in Twain's A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court (Arthur's), when viewed through the lens established by Richard Wright's introduction that we previously read. To Wright, the feudal era was something to overcome, and when it was conquered by the sort of bourgeois revolution of the Industrial Revolution, a new dawning of Man was started. Now take Wright's view and compare it to how Twain is describing, at least at this early stage of the book. The blacksmith sees as the people of that particular pre-modern time period as backwards both in knowledge and technology, but also in morality and civilization. So the two seem to match up, and when one considers that this period of time was considered the "Dark Ages" of Man it sort of makes sense. It is ironic though because characters in the book keep referencing Christianity, namely Catholicism, and invoking that particular set of morals, however they seem to be completely devoid of everything that they supposedly stand for. This much is obvious. However, since I know a little of the history of the writing of this novel, I know that the blacksmith is not to be viewed as a sort of paragonic ideal. The question is, how does his unwavering certainty of his superiority reflect on the society that bred him, and following that, Twain's society? How will he, despite his superior knowledge, ultimately fall? Or does Twain completely eschew the route of the tragic hero altogether? These are the things that I am looking forward to seeing answered in the future.

Another question, this really is the main one considering the topic of the class, is how does this all relate to the dehumanization and cheapening of lives due to a due discontinuity between the powers that be and the people, cogs in the machine, that make life go, or in other words the concept of machine politics. How does this pre-modern world, with its lack of advanced technology relate to this this? I suspect that at some, the blacksmiths introduction of technology will start to generate some of the bad consequences experienced in his own time which will start to royally screw things over for the people of King Arthur's court. Exactly how is yet to be seen, especially since they are already, as the blacksmith puts it, behaving like and being treated like animals.