Word: fishkin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Huckleberry Finn anyway? The most celebrated hobo hero in American literature took on a new dimension when Shelley Fisher Fishkin, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, unveiled the research that went into her forthcoming book, Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices...
Twain said Huckleberry Finn, the young narrator of his most famous book, was based on Tom Blankenship, a poor white boy in Hannibal, Mo. But Fishkin argues that Huck's voice was in part inspired by Jimmy, a 10-year-old black servant. Twain described this boy in an 1874 article in the New York Times as "the most artless, sociable and exhaustless talker I ever came across." Added Twain: "He did not tell me a single remarkable thing, or one that was worth remembering. And yet he was himself so interested in his small marvels, and they flowed...
This potentially smacks of plebiscite democracy. TV call-in polls are about as representative as trying to gauge the mood of the country by listening to talk radio. As James Fishkin, chairman of the government department at the University of Texas, argues, "Electronic town meetings are just a device to step outside established political mechanisms -- to abandon traditional forms of representation and elections -- in order to acquire a mantle of higher legitimacy. And in the very worst case, it could be invoked toward extraconstitutional ends...
...says a slightly flustered Fishkin...
...third break for Antwan: McNamara, who worked as a night bailiff to get through law school, is actually on Fishkin's side this time. She was born and raised in New Jersey in a blue-collar family; her hard-nosed reputation is a reflection of a strong sense of outrage at the inner-city disaster. "Sometimes," she says, "I get home at night and I think my name is 'Bitch.' They stop being kids to you after a while. Some of them are vicious and nasty. They'd shoot you in a heartbeat...