Posted on 01/04/2011 6:59:28 AM PST by MissTed
What is a word worth? According to Publishers Weekly, NewSouth Books’ upcoming edition of Mark Twain’s seminal novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will remove all instances of the “n” word—I’ll give you a hint, it’s not nonesuch—present in the text and replace it with slave. The new book will also remove usage of the word Injun. The effort is spearheaded by Twain expert Alan Gribben, who says his PC-ified version is not an attempt to neuter the classic but rather to update it. “Race matters in these books,” Gribben told PW. “It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”
Unsurprisingly, there are already those who are yelling “Censorship!” as well as others with thesauruses yelling “Bowdlerization!” and “Comstockery!” Their position is understandable: Twain’s book has been one of the most often misunderstood novels of all time, continuously being accused of perpetuating the prejudiced attitudes it is criticizing, and it’s a little disheartening to see a cave-in to those who would ban a book simply because it requires context. On the other hand, if this puts the book into the hands of kids who would not otherwise be allowed to read it due to forces beyond their control (overprotective parents and the school boards they frighten), then maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to judge. It’s unfortunate, but is it really any more catastrophic than a TBS-friendly re-edit of The Godfather, you down-and-dirty melon farmer? The original product is changed for the benefit of those who, for one reason or another, are not mature enough to handle it, but as long as it doesn’t affect the original, is there a problem?
This is unethical. It is time to buy up old copies and save them for presents or sell them later on ebay for profit.
Bingo!
“The original product is changed for the benefit of those who, for one reason or another, are not mature enough to handle it”
Can someone explain to the academic pedant that If you’re mature enough to actually read it, you’re mature enough to “handle” it?
For crying out loud. I read this book at eleven, and I knew you weren’t supposed to say the “n” word. My mom would have slapped me into the middle of next week.
By the way, Huck calls the girl with the cleft palate, whom he really likes, a ‘harelip.’ Are they going to change that, too?
But that’s all irrelevant. Under the guise of keeping this book out of the hands of children, they manage to ban it for everyone, which is their real goal.
Like Stalin airbrushing guys out of photos,,,, just ‘updating’.
Liberal book burners. Finn was the most frequently challenged book in libraries in recent history, and it’s the leftists who are doing it, not conservatives, not Christians. Idiots. What better way to criticize racism than to use racism’s own terms? Finn immerses you in that society to let you see how wrong parts of it were.
This will be a diluted version that my kids will not read. My kids know what that word means, and what baggage it entails, and that will make Finn even more effective for them.
LOL! That was my thought. Twain called him that for a reason. Idiots.
ML/NJ
The n word has many different definitions and that is the whole point.
Also, it must be taken into account how the n word is used and in what context.
Cannot history teachers use the n word in their class as an example of times past and a matter of historical record?
I am reminded of the scene in THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE. Anybody remember that movie?
I hear you. Sometimes if I notice that it’s on TV, I will turn it on just to hear what the dummies bleep out.
The Ministry of Truth is alive and well.
Twain used the term “Nigger Jim” because that was his name. That, simply, is that.
Also, we tend to overlook Huck’s genuine moral quandary near the end of the book. He knew that helping Jim escape to freedom was right. But he also knew that Jim was property, and that he was aiding in theft of that property. Rather than choosing between a right and a wrong, Huck was aware that he was selecting from two wrongs — hence why he calls himself “damned.” I suspect that Twain was giving us an analogy for the Civil War itself.
And Indigenous Person Joe.
Is this book in the public domain? If not Twain’s heirs could sue under copyright laws. Right?
Blazing Saddles: So, does the black guy hold the gun to his head and say “Nobody move or the KNUCKLEHEAD gets it.”
On FAMILY GUY there was an episode where Peter and the gang were the STAND BY ME characters. In the end the narrator said that the River Phoenix character had died from a drug overdose in front of a nightclub. It then showed a picture of Joaquin Phoenix and said “All we have left is a hair lipped reminder of what might have been.”
At that historical time, the “n” word was used generally, not just regarding negroes.
I read historic fiction books by Terry C. Johnston, and he uses the term a lot, among whites only.
IIRC, the quote for the novel “1984” goes something like this:
“Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak
BTW, I am vehemently opposed to altering the text in any standard edition of the author’s work. However, if it will encourage the reading of the novel by children who would otherwise not have it available, I think replacing the “N word” with slave in a special school edition (and in school editions only) is fine. Fine just as long as the reasoning for the changes in the text are clearly explained to the student reader both in class and in the text and all instances of the change are appropriately identified (italicized, footnoted, etc.).
And that, Sir, has been a central theme of the Democrat party since its founding two centuries ago.
Since we’ve all been mentally hogtied into using the phrase “n-word” even in the context of discussing why the word nigger has been airbrushed from works of literature, speaks volumes about the level of social control we’re willing to impose on ourselves.
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