Posted on 01/03/2011 7:16:53 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
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.
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"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.
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