"The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." ~ Mark Twain ~
Posted on 01/03/2011 7:16:53 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
A PUBLISHER is planning to release a new edition of two of Mark Twain's classic novels that replaces the racial slurs used throughout the books with less offensive language.
NewSouth Books will release a single volume containing both novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, overseen by Twain scholar Alan Gribben, Publisher's Weekly said. In both, the n-word is replaced with the word "slave" and the word "Injun" is removed.
"This is not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colourblind," said Mr Gribben, the head of the English department at Auburn University at Montgomery in Alabama. "Race matters in these books. It's a matter of how you express that in the 21st century."
The n-word appears 219 times in the current edition of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, including the table of contents. The racially-charged language has resulted in the book being banned from many grade school curricula and libraries over the decades despite its status as a classic of American literature.
Mr Gribben said he was inspired by speaking with teachers who were disappointed that the language in the book prevented them from teaching it.
“They said 'we would love to teach [Tom Sawyer] and Huckleberry Finn, but we feel we can't do it anymore.' In the new classroom, it's really not acceptable," he said. "For a single word to form a barrier, it seems such an unnecessary state of affairs."
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.com.au ...
It’s a sad day when political correctness trumps classic literature.
Oh brother! Next up, Showboat.
Mark Twain is rolling his eyes in his grave.
Why do these people want to improve the image of such folk? Are they terminally stupid or what!
It’s time to burn the books!
Just ban it altogether. To butcher it removes the true meaning of the story’s. This is from Australia? They’re the most un pc people you will ever meet
1984 plus Fahrenheit 451
Just what the world needs—”African-American Jim” and “Native-American Joe!”
I did not see the movie, but I heard that in the Demi Moore version of Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne runs away with Dimmsdale.
Also, a remake of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has Jim crossing the river into freedom.
This was the job of Winston Smith in “1984”, to go back into the archives and re-write them to match the current needs and beliefs of INGSOC. In Fahrenheit 451, books (and anything in print) were illegal, the TV and radio statements of the government could never be refuted using references, only memory.
And due to copyright issues, Free Republic can no longer archive the original versions of news stories (but individuals can archive them as long as they don’t put the article online).
I’m in a dark mood, I hope I am not seeing where this is all going.
SACRILEGE!!!
Excellent point!
At least at Williamsburg we can see how slaves were treated.
Just re-read both books.
Actually it’s a move that will put both wonderful stories into circulation again and that’s not so bad for kids, especially boys. The originals will still be there for adults.
Something’s going to have to be done about “gay,” too. For the same reason. And Jim calling the boys “honey.”
George Carlin’s 7 words you can never say publicly are now part of the language. Replaced by other words.
"The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." ~ Mark Twain ~
Then it’s not Mark Twain. It’s some PC (insert word). We’ll have to go to Canada to buy an original print version.
You can say Nigga in popular culture, but not the word that ends with -er. WTF is the diff?
What about N***** Jim? I always thought he was a good guy. He helped Huck survive on the island and kept him from seeing the dead guy in the floating house.
I love Sam Clemens. If I ever had kids I would have given all of them the middle name Langhorne.
Exactly! I predict that eventually, out of a mix of political correctness and esteem-building, all references to slavery will be removed from history, at which point it will be impossible to claim that the Confederacy was racist.
Keep the offensiveness of it or MArk Twain will rise up as a zombie and kill some editors.
I suggest cutting the last 1/3 out of Huck Finn so that the novel actually is interesting.
“We’ll have to go to Canada”
Project Gutenberg.
The whole point of the novel was that Huck was willing to go to hell for freeing Jim. Of course, the left will never see that, nor will they see all those loyal KKK Democrats.
There is a more modern novel that still uses the N word (as well as other terms for Indians and Chinese), Last Go Around by Ken Kesey and Ken Babbs.
Wonder what they’ll do to the very arguably anti-semitic “Merchant of Venice.”
Is this going to apply to rap music?
We all took pictures with the grave stones then we went down the hill to check out some crypts with some relatives in them. Actually that whole graveyard just reeked of family names with which I'm familiar ~ rather impressed that Mark Twain himself chose to be buried among them.
Honored, really.
If you ever find yourself wandering about here's where to go: http://www.ci.elmira.ny.us/history/mark_twain.html
Sad thing is that we may soon find ourselves in the position of envying even the positions of slaves back then... our government has become a monster that follows no law yet deceitfully clothes its lawlessness in legal speech and ‘rules’ and ‘regulations’: the citizen has NO protection from “the law.”
Just today I went to the municipal courthouse, there on the door in big bold letters is posted “NO WEAPONS;” this in direct opposition to the State Constitution which, in its Bill of Rights, says “No municipality or county shall regulate, in any way, an incident of the right to keep and bear arms.” When I inquired of the security-guard about it he said “It’s the judge’s decision” and that I’d have to talk to him about it. (This disturbs me to no end: how is a mere judge, in a municipal court which is authorized by the State Constitution, able to place himself into a position above that selfsame Constitution? Madness!)
Yes, it is. Leave his books alone.
Editing Twain's words is no different than editing King's speeches -- but that is probably on the PC police agenda as we speak. After all, King did use the word 'Negro' a lot.
--------------------
"All right, then, I'll go to hell!" -- Huck Finn
I dunno. I think that Chopper Reid disagrees with you. (Caution: Crude language warning for those squeamish types who need to take Chopper's advice.)
Will they ban RAP music?
I like it,,,makes us White Folks seem nice.....(ST)
The seven most powerful words in all of American literature, IMHO. BTT.
When Michelangelo finished painting in the Sistine Chapel, the pope had another paint clothes on the figures. They called him the tailor but Michelangelo was not happy. Most of that paint, I believe has been removed.
You will miss the some of the points Twain makes if you take out the offensive language. The language lets you understand the mindset of the period. In Huckleberry Finn the language shows that Huck is not doing the right thing out of some intellectual enlightenment but simply in the end because it is the right thing. You have to understand the characters as being products of their time to appreciate the profound morality of their actions. I think this political correctness would simply of confirmed Twain’s lowest opinions of humanity.
“Sad thing is that we may soon find ourselves in the position of envying even the positions of slaves back then”
I certainly hope not. I mentioned Williamsburg above, there and similar historic re-creations show that slaves were usually very poorly treated. House slaves charged with (white) child care slept in hard bins with thin blankets. Then there were the field workers. Then there is the food. And the constant reminders that you are subhuman, inferior, and property. An entire societal apparatus designed to “keeping them down”. The depth of slavery really can’t be easily grasped today, even as we work for more than half the year for our masters.
We have a long way to go before we are subjected to that. Nobody in the next 50 years will be punished for being able to read.
I agree with everything else you said, though- being a “citizen” now is clearly not what the Founders fought and died for.
Yes.
“It was a powerful and influential book and to change the language is to destroy Twain’s work. “
Or change Twain’s work.
Hmm, maybe to help keep the Democrat Plantation delivering reliable votes? In precincts with 99 or even 105% turnout, all Dem?
They’re not “wonderful stories”. They are great American literature, and really way too complex to be taught to kids. They’re for the advanced Enlgish class of senior year high school, or college.
Probably ramp it up to have Shylock cutting pounds of flesh from poor Palestinians while Othello pleads for more money from the EU. ;~((
New version: Jim, you are one worthless Obama!
Change we can believe in.
The last third is the best part.
E x a c t l y.
This nonsense is why we’ll never see “Song of the South” freed from Disney’s vaults. Or, worse yet, they’ll go back and “remaster” it. It was locked up before I got a chance to see it.
In order to reclaim bits of my childhood I couldn’t quite remember, I purchased all the Astro Boy manga released and translated by Dark Horse. At the front of each volume is a well-written and respectful disclaimer regarding themes that may be offensive to some for racial reasons, but everything was kept intact. I couldn’t have been more grateful. It gave the series a historical depth and insight that would have been missing if the themes had been sanitized. And there were even a few anti- white and/ or American, which wouldn’t have been out of place just after WWII.
Just think of all the wartime cartoons you don’t see anymore...but I suppose that’s better than having them mangled by the PC Police.
Y E S.
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