A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Technology and Modernization Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Page)

Quote #7

I snatched a dragoon revolver out of my holster, there was a flash and a roar, and the revolver was back in the holster before anybody could tell what had happened.

Here was a riderless horse plunging by, and yonder lay Sir Sagramor, stone dead. (39.11-12)

Eat your heart out, Indiana Jones.

Quote #8

We had a steamboat or two on the Thames, we had steam warships, and the beginnings of a steam commercial marine; I was getting ready to send out an expedition to discover America. (40.2)

This raises an intriguing question: If Hank continues and the 6th century becomes the 19th, how much more advanced will people be in his own time? If we do the math, that would make Twain's own time the technological equivalent of the year 3288 or thereabouts. So flying cars, teleporting… the whole nine yards. Whether or not that would be a more fair and moral society is still up in the air: flying cars and teleporters do not enlightenment make.

Quote #9

"Hello-Central!" (41.2)

Hank's final fate is foreshadowed by a technological phrase—a telephone greeting. Could this suggest that Hank's use of technology in an early era is wrong somehow? Is the 19th century coming back to collect its troublemaking son who's doing all sorts of things he shouldn't in Arthur's England?