Applying King's and Hughes' Writing Guidelines to Mark Twain's Corn-pone Opinions

Mark Twain's writing is proven genius by both Stephen King and Langston Hughes whether Hughes would like this or not. King and Hughes have each written guidelines for people to become better writers. When their rules are applied to Twain's writing of "Corn-pone Opinions," the genius of this essay is illuminated because we are now able to clearly see the mastery Twain has over his writing. If King and Hughes were to read "Corn-pone Opinions" in a critical fashion, though King would enjoy the essay from beginning to end, Hughes would be highly critical. After reading all of these texts myself, it seemed as if Twain had read the guidelines for an essay that King and Hughes had laid down, had taken what he wanted from them, and tossed out the rest.

There are some obvious points that King makes; these obvious points make up the initial test to see if a writer is an advanced writer. A writer needs to be talented. According to King this means he has to be able to get his works published and sold with money that he is able to spend (King). Not to say that the world revolves around money, but if the essay was able to sell, then it was obviously able to reach an audience and the audience obviously enjoyed reading it (King). A writer needs to be neat. Once a writing is fully compiled, people must be able to read and understand the writing clearly (King); your message has to get across to the audience you are trying to speak to (King). A writer needs to be self-critical and needs to be able to evaluate criticism. During a first draft one has a license to write what his will commands, however, afterwards a truly advanced writer will know how and when to be self-critical and have the ability to evaluate criticism from others (King). Twain quickly passes this test: He proves his talent in and out through his numerous best-sellers. His essay is organized in such a fashion as to drill all his points so that everyone understands them. If you have ever seen a copy of one of Twain's initial manuscripts, you would see the endless markings that saturate every page showing that he is self-critical. You also don't often see a writing by Twain that is simply bad - my guess is that he simply tosses the bad ones out and doesn't go on with them, going by the simple guideline of giving a bad writing a mercy death of the trash can (King). This would all assure King that Twain is not a beginner writer and that Twain knows what he is doing. However, Hughes would take another approach to Twain's writing.

Hughes would believe that Twain does not follow some of the basic conventions of how to write and he was really bothered about it. Twain uses clichés and twists grammar to fit how he wants to say something - Hughes finds this horrifying. The fact of the matter is that the way Twain does this is what makes him an excellent writer. Twain does use clichés, but instead of keeping them boring, he uses satire to make fun of the clichés he brings about. He does twist grammar, but twisting grammar is allowed as long as it is done in advanced writing, meaning that since Twain brings about meaning from his twisting of language, there is nothing wrong with it - in fact I'm sure that it betters his essay.

Other than that, it seems that both King and Hughes would enjoy Twain's writing. King would love the fact that Twain uses a serious concept like conformity to serve his story about corn-pone opinions instead of the other way around and uses satire to better enjoy writing it himself and keep the audience interested. Hughes would like the fact that Twain "built his career upon his experiences in the western states and his travels in Europe and the Middle East," (Hughes) meaning that these were his ideas about something he knew well. To make it even better, when Twain writes, he always tied it to the present, or near-past, which he obviously did, talking about himself, and the society of slaves that was abolished, yet at the same time keeping it eternal showing that conformity and corn-pone opinions have always been and always will be. There are even some things that both King and Hughes would enjoy. Twain does not use extraneous words that confuses his writing; he is sharp and to the point. King and Hughes would cherish this because this is a sign of an advanced writer that knows what he's doing.

Though Stephen King and Langston Hughes would have often disagreed either with each other or with the way Twain went about writing and would have found - what they would consider - faults, they most likely would have both enjoyed reading his essay. Stephen King came in a century in which people have arguably been more able to think outside the box and therefore more able to enjoy Twain's writing. Though Twain does not follow some of the basic conventions that Hughes would feel were quintessential, Hughes could still appreciate the advanced aspects of Twain's writings, or at least the ones that were still conventional. King on the other hand was able to keep much more of an open mind as long as Twain enjoyed doing his own writings, made some money and was able to use the money he earned.