Offbeat News

[dreadgeek]

This seems, ummmm....silly. Not to put too fine a point on the matter. Like most of you, I've read Huck Finn. I read it when I was young. Did the use of the 'n-word' bother me? Sure. But it did not keep me from reading the book or enjoying it. This idea--well meaning as it might be--that people are SO sensitive that they can never, ever, be exposed to the ways, language or mores of a different time or place has got to die. Removing the n-word from Huck Finn is not going to get a single black youth who doesn't do her homework now to do her homework. Removing the word 'injun' isn't going to improve the life of a single Native American child.

What's more it does violence to literature. Books are written in a particular time and place. Some books are so fantastic that they transcend their time and place and Huck Finn is certainly one of those. We *can* judge behaviors in the past and condemn, unambiguously, the blatant racism and its sanction by the society of 19th century America. The fact of the matter is is that fin de siecle America WAS a fundamentally racist place. Changing the verbiage used by Twain or any other writer from that period isn't going to change that.

Along with the violence done to literature it does violence to history. Most modern people's ONLY connection to the 19th century will be through the literature they are exposed to in grade school. It is vanishingly improbable that most people, certainly most Americans, will ever read a book of history on their own volition and so the years they are in school is the only time they will ever be exposed to how the culture they are scions of came to be. We already have a problem with revisionist history in this nation--a big problem in fact--and the left mindlessly aping the right on this subject doesn't help. My concern is that people, exposed to this sanitized version of Twain, will be lulled into believing that America has *always* been as racially sensitive as it is now. We know, however, this isn't true.

Lastly, by doing this we are stealing from students the opportunity to learn a valuable skill; deep and contextual thinking. I love movies from the 40's and 50's. Give me some b/w film about a gumshoe and I'm a happy girl. Now, using the logic deployed in this butchering of Twain, not only am I not supposed to like these movies (I'm black, I'm a lesbian and I'm a feminist--none of those are reflected in those movies) but merely being exposed to those movies is supposed to be soul-shattering to me. So much so that I must be 'protected' against such movies. Using this logic, either Casablanca should be edited to eliminate the role of Sam or I should not see it at all lest I be psychically scarred.

It's hogwash. Pure and utter hogwash based upon hokum-based theories of human psychology.

Cheers
Aj

Originally Posted by Jet

Huck Finn Gets Some Changes

By Mike Krumboltz – Tue Jan 4, 3:34 pm ET
Yahoo Blog

Acclaimed by critics, scholars, and -- of course -- readers, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the great American novels. The book has been reprinted countless times, adapted into movies, and translated into just about every language under the sun. But should it be updated for today's times?

News that the manuscript would undergo some changes sent shockwaves through the Search box. According to Publishers Weekly, NewSouth Books plans to release a version of "Huck Finn" that cuts the "n" word and replaces it with "slave." The slur "injun," referring to Native Americans, will also be replaced.

It's important to note that in using the words, Twain was critiquing racism, not endorsing it. Also important: These changes affect just one version of the classic novel, and won't apply to all the printings. Regardless, public response has been swift. Almost immediately, Web searches on "huck finn censored" and "huckleberry finn changes" spiked into breakout status.

The reponse on Twitter has been equally thunderous. Many of the comments appear to be against the changes. One person sarcastically writes, "I love when people erase racism and pretend it never happened." Still, not everyone is outraged. One respondent writes that it is "awkward being the only black kid in class and having to read it." Another points out that the original is in the public domain and still available to anyone who wants to read it.

A popular column for Entertainment Weekly asks whether this is all such a bad thing. Is it so different, the column asks, from editing "The Godfather" so it can be shown on network television? With this new version of "Huck Finn," more people, including young readers, will be able to enjoy it. Does that make the changes worth it?

We don't know the answer, but it's a question worth thinking about. Either way, the novel will survive the controversy. "Huck Finn" was first published in 1884, and it was just a year later when people began to wonder if the book should be banned. The more things change...