Talk:The Mysterious Stranger

Link
I think there needs to be an explanation for the youtube video link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.227.27.177 (talk) 04:53, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Characters
The Characters section is definitely incomplete, and the rest of the article could use a re-write too. Oddity- (talk) 08:59, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Lengths of the three stories?
The article currently does not mention the lengths of the three stories. It's impossible to tell whether each of them is 1,000 pages or 2 pages. Could someone knowledgeable add this information to each? Tempshill (talk) 22:36, 28 November 2007 (UTC)


 * In Gibson's edition, it's roughly 140 / 46 / 188 pages, according to Google Books. --Jvs.cz (talk) 08:21, 6 May 2012 (UTC)

Existentialist philosophy?
Maybe I'm just getting my definitions wrong, but isn't "There is nothing but you" more like solipsism than anything else? Existentialism means "Firstly, I exist in the world" and not that the world isn't real, or does it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.186.230.4 (talk) 08:02, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

childrens television station?
"A short animated film has been made of 'The Mysterious Stranger' but was banned from the childrens television station it was aired on after people complained about it's suitability." source? what "childrens television station"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zerothis (talk • contribs) 04:38, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Sigh... You've got to love the internet...

I'm pretty sure the OP was referring to the well known segment from the claymation film "The Adventures Of Mark Twain" - a clip of which was uploaded on Youtube last year, under the erroneous title "very creepy, disturbing children's cartoon, banned from TV" The video has since received well over 7,000,000 hits.

The misleading title of the video has been the source of a great deal of confusion, and despite THOUSANDS of comments informing the video poster of the actual source of the footage, the video remains mistitled. Recently, the uploader added a subtitle to the video with the intention of correcting the title, but STILL cited an incorrect source. (The subtitle named the source film as; "Mark Twain's - 'The Mysterious Stranger'" - While it's clear this work inspired the scene, this is obviously not the correct title)

I have seen this film (Adventures of Mark Twain) on TV, and it included the Mysterious Stranger segment. Pdarley (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:48, 9 April 2009 (UTC).

Version of this story in Man the Myth Maker
This story has an appearance in the book Man the Myth Maker. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.28.72.87 (talk) 20:54, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Rainbows End reference?
Is the "Mysterious Stranger" of Vernor Vinge's "Rainbows End" intended to be a reference to this book? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.62.226.199 (talk) 05:46, 7 May 2011 (UTC)

Setting
The book takes place in Austria during the Late Renaissance, not the Middle Ages. The narrator says "Austria was far away from the world, and asleep; it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so forever." indicating that the Renaissance had not reached Austria yet. 174.102.234.140 (talk) 00:07, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

Possiable Vandalism?
Why is there just a big blank space in the indroduction? 96.224.64.42 (talk) 20:06, 9 September 2013 (UTC)
 * It's because of how wide the table of contents is. One of the section titles is lengthy, so the table wouldn't be able to fit directly under the lead paragraph. Lugia2453 (talk) 20:09, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Rewriting the Article
I feel that the article as written is very scattered and lacks focus. As a result I feel that it doesn't really inform the reader what the book is aside from the fact that it is a book by Mark Twain that he took several attempts at writing. I am wondering what the best approach to fixing this is. I know the matter is complicated somewhat by the Thomas Paine version of the book, and the debate as to which of Twain's manuscripts would be the definitive version. I've been wondering if the article should reduce the section on the Thomas Paine version of the book to a small paragraph detailing the origins of its creation while the main article should summarize the events of the "Print Shop" version of the book, since according to literary scholar William M. Gibson that was the version of the story that Twain would have published had he lived. I'm a little new to the whole editing of an article and I was hoping to get some feedback from somebody with more experience before moving forward.Normaschthewanderer (talk) 06:37, 3 July 2016 (UTC)


 * While I agree that the article should be improved I am not sure that the "Print Shop" version should be considered definitive or superior version of the story. --Jvs (talk) 16:23, 11 October 2016 (UTC)


 * For the claim "according to literary scholar William M. Gibson that was the version of the story that Twain would have published had he lived" citation is needed. In his introduction to The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts Gibson never states anything like this. --Jvs (talk) 19:09, 10 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Well, I found a similar claim here on page 2 (book jacket). But it is unsigned. --Jvs (talk) 19:00, 19 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Also, Twain wrote the "Print Shop" version between 1902 and 1908 and died in April 1910 so it seems that he could publish the book if he wished so. --Jvs (talk) 20:02, 6 November 2017 (UTC)