Interesting to bring Huckleberry Finn into the discussion. I agree, it is one of America's best novels, and it is indeed subversive. And to bring one aspect of this thread full-circle, it is that element of "subversiveness" that many American Indian novelists have adopted and cultivated in their writing. There are subtexts that run deep, and the works of Owens, as the particular example I gave before, they seem straight-forward enough on the surface, but positively churn below with layers of cultural nuance and baggage. They are written intentionally to place the "mainstream" reader at a disadvantage, if they don't have the tools to crack the cultural code within. The same kinds of layers are easily detected in Twain's novel.