Neil, Pan, everybody: Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven.
Hi Neil, glad to see you here again! :-)
I just must comment on your summary a bit.
Summary of “Excerpts from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven.”, written by Mark Twain, as once recommended to me by Maryk.
Extracts From Captain Stormfield's Visit To Heaven is the first-person account of a sea captain's trip to heaven after his death. The story opens with Stormfield flying through space on a comet, already in his 30th year of travelling the cosmos. Stormfield reckons his speed is one- fifth the speed of light. The captain comes upon another comet, and challenges its crew to a race. As Stormfield
is passing his opponent, he thumbs his nose at it, which prompts the rival captain to discard his cargo of brimstone and zoom past Stormfield, leaving him in the dust.
The rival captain is taking people to hell. That's
why he has a cargo of brimstone, too. Fire and brimstone
is classically what if found in hell.
Stormfield arrives at the gates of Heaven, but discovers he is at the wrong
area due to veering off course during the comet race. He has a difficult time explaining the planet he is from, but finally the clerk knows Earth as the Wart. Upon entering Heaven, Stormfield uses a wishing carpet to teleport to his proper
area of Heaven.
He gets to a gate into heaven where there are blue
people with one eye waiting. The point is made that all
kinds of people from all over our world, and also all
over creation (there are other inhabited worlds,) are
waiting to get in. I think Twain was away ahead of his
time, and still ahead of our time in his thinking here.
Earth being so small it could be found, then finally
mistaken for a "fly speck" at the top of the giant calendar
which it took weeks to ascend looking for it, and the fact
that it was know to others as "the Wart", is intended to
deflate earthlings of their ideas of being so important, and
the centre of the universe. We can certainly use a little
of such deflation still!
In his proper area, Stormfield is giving his angel gear: wings, halo, harp,
etc. He notices that American Indians form a large contingent in this area of Heaven. Stormfield is taken to his cloud, and after a day of trying to sing and play the harp, as a proper angel should, he becomes despondent and averse to the idea of being an angel. An old acquaintance tells the captain that Heaven is a busy place, where people focus on enriching themselves in ways they weren't able to on Earth.
People are given whatever they believe is the proper
outfit for heaven. American Indians didn't get wings,
halos and so on. They received what they expected according
to their own teachings. Once again, Twain had a broader
vision that most at the time.
Stormfield has a tough time getting used to his wings, but is told they are
used only on special occasions. A Brooklyn pastor is disappointed with Heaven when he learns that all people are welcomed there, and not just the pious, as he preached and believed.
Stormfield and the newcomers all trot out to the cloudbanks
with wings, halos and harps, ready to sing hymns of Hossanahs
and he is eager. However he begins to notice people coming
back without them, and piles of such things at the side of the
road, and somebody asks him to please hold his wings, halo and
harp for a minutes. Then disappears, and never comes back.
This is common. Stormfield and his friend try it out at the
cloudbanks, but decide that this is a very boring way to
spend eternity. Again, Twain gently pokes fun at the
Christian idea of how eternity is spent. But he does it with
humour, and gently.
Another surprise is that Heaven isn't a republic, but rather a very authoritarian kingdom, ruled over by God. The greatest prophets in Heaven are often regular people, who didn't get their just reward while living. For example, a Boston
bricklayer named Jones, who was the greatest military genius ever produced, although he never had the chance to use his talent. Stormfield notices that white people are an insignificant minority in the American section of Heaven, and don't
amount to anything.
More of Twain's wisdom. How many potential geniuses of
every kind are among those children and youth dying of
starvation or curable illnesses in poverty-stricken
countries? Twain, back in the 1899's in the USA, a country
with a strong race problem based on colour illustrated his
own beliefs in the matter. Again, he was so far ahead of
his times. Even now he still is.
The story ends with Stormfield joining millions of other angels in welcoming
a reformed bartender who died the very night he accepted religion. Moses and Esau appear to welcome the bartender.
There are many little stories in this one. There is the
mother whose little daughter died. The mother always dreamed
of finding her baby when she died and went to heaven, too.
The mother was weeping and wailing and couldn't be comforted,
because her daughter had continued to grow and develop in
heaven, and was an excellent young woman who was studying
some interesting science. The mother couldn't reconcile
herself to not finding her just as she was when she died --
a dear, cuddly little baby.
In regards to God being the ruler of heaven: this is what the prayer that
Jesus gave. It is known as The Lord's Prayer. A few lines of it go thisway: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."
This is such a wise story. You subtle Chinese people would really enjoy it,
I think. I hope Neil gets to read it all, and that others here will, too.
Don't be afraid of Mark Twain's reputation for greatness. He is veryaccessible.
Affectionately, Mary
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