Defending The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain, and American History from the Left

01/25/2011 | Jim Byrd

[jim byrd]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is being censored; since censorship is a concept and weapon of the Left to enforce political correctness upon the masses, Mark Twain is involved in 21st century politics; when advocating or opposing the censoring of "Huck Finn," one has taken a political stance But the Right has a storied history of ceremoniously burning books that they believe are evil with celebrated bonfires. Both the political Left and Right have ink-stained hands

[shibumi]

"But the Right has a storied history of ceremoniously burning books that they believe are evil with celebrated bonfires."

"Sniff-sniff."

Care to flesh out that statement with facts, while you still have a chance, Zot-Boy?

[FrankR]

SIMPLE SOLUTION: Don't buy the revised book.

The left is always so big with protecting the integrity and free speech of the artist, i.e. Crucifix in urine jars, etc., let them eat the expense of their little tirade in to the land of censorship. It's what they do.

If you don't have the proper accent, or speak the proper (politically correct) words, the left is going to attack, it's as simple as communism.

Just don't buy the book...period. There should be enough copies of the orginal Huck Finn at used book stores, yard sales, and eBay to satisfy those with a sudden hankering to read about old Huck. I suppose die-hard Mark Twain fans already have a copy in their libraries.

There more ways of voting than just the ballot box, vote with your dollars, vote with your feet, and otherwise just raise hell.

[shibumi]

And on behalf of everyone here at FreeRepublic, Thanks! for not linking this to your MySpace page.

[TheOldLady]

Is that ozone I smell?

[Salamander]

I admit it.

I was one of the Salamanders in Fahrenheit 451.

[Salamander]

Go try to find a copy of “Song Of The South”.

[shibumi]

Got one right here in da Briar’ Patch!

[Salamander]

If you do, you’re sitting on a fortune.

[Sherman Logan]

Probably referring to the Nazis.

Which begs the question of whether the Nazis were “right.”

While they certainly incorporated elements of European version Rightism, along with a great many from the Left, the European version of conservatism/rightism/reaction has almost nothing in common with American conservatism other than opposition to Communism.

“Conservative” Americans obviously banned books, but pretty much exclusively prior to 1950. And even then they seldom burned them.

[Mercat]

One of my favorite memories of raising my son is reading Huckleberry Finn to him when he was about 10 years old in dialect. I’m sure I read it as is. He turned out okay. (he would continue to read it after I left which was the whole idea even though he was supposed to turn out the light and go to sleep).

[antiRepublicrat]

Some churches in the US burned Harry Potter books.

[Allegra]

I wonder if Derek will ask me to the prom?

I'll just die if he doesn't.

[GOPJ]

A few examples might be nice... my experience is it's liberals who want to 'correct' speech, ideas, books, and all things offensive to THEM! Yeah, they don't burn the books - they just 'rewrite' them to their taste - a la George Orwell.

That said, Maxwell - a black columnist for the St. Petersburg Times came out in defense of the original Huckleberry Finn. It was nice to know there's liberals who will occasionally stand for what's right over what's politically correct. ( And if you were wondering - 'no' - I don't like the offensive word either ... )

[GOPJ]

No they didn't 'ban' Harry Potter - that's something that can only be done with the power of the State. Some churches chose to recommend that the parents in their congregations NOT allow their children to read Harry Potter.

By your definition is a church that tells parents of 9 years olds not to allow their children access to porn also "banning" a book? Take a deep breath and get real...

[Admin Moderator]

This is Jim Byrd’s own writings.

Posters can post as much or as little of their writings as they wish too.

Mr. Byrd, you would have much more credibility here on Free Republic if you would interact with the replies when you post your writings and post a substantially long excerpt OR the whole article if it isn’t several pages long.

A link to the original article would help also.

[antiRepublicrat]

No they didn't 'ban' Harry Potter

The claim he quoted and challenged was that they burn books. Some churches did publicly burn Harry Potter books.

[humblegunner]

“Thanks! for not linking this to your MySpace page.”

He’s corrected that omission:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2663605/posts?page=1

[Boogieman]

There’s a big difference between pushing for censorship and burning a privately owned book as a form of political protest. The fact that the author tries to draw some form of equivalency between those things in the first paragraph pretty much invalidates anything else he has to say, as far as I’m concerned.

[Boogieman]

“Go try to find a copy of “Song Of The South”.”

You can watch the whole thing on Youtube now :)