New edition of 'Huckleberry Finn' to lose the 'n' word
Offline 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.
I don't know if someone has posted this, but im curious, what do you guys think?
I appreciate why they want to 'update' it but I cannot help but be against it. If you want the book leave it as it was intended by the author or if you don't like that it is not "pc" for the times don't read it. Everyone is capable of realising when the book was written and is capable of viewing it in that context, especially with the themes of the book. I'm fine with pc'ing things up which are made now, within limits. But im against watering down things from the past to make them more apropriate for the present.
http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/01/03/huckleberry-finn-n-word-censor-edit/?hpt=T2
That said it is only one version of the book and no one is forcing anyone to read this version although it is likely that this is the versions schools would pick up.
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
No animal shall wear clothes.
No animal shall sleep in a bed.
No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.
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Speaking of old pieces of literature for children and racism, here is an odd story .
A long time ago, I picked up a copy of a book in the library called : The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter.
I was about twelve or thirteen years old.
Anyway, the story is about a half Cherokee/half white kid that comes of age at his grandparent's home in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee. The book was even made into an excellent film some years later.
Great story. I actually smiled in several parts and almost was moved to tears in other parts.
Supposedly, the entire book was an autobiography of Carter's life.
Turns out, Carter was at one time, a leader in the Ku Klux Klan and an avid supporter of segregation. He ran for political office on a white supremacist platform and wrote major articles for a white supremacist newspaper.
I found this out many years later.
Carter died an old man with his past undiscovered. So questions were never answered as to why a man who had once been such a staunch racist would write a book that was opposed to any kind of bigotry.
A great shocker to learn about.Because to be honest, that was one of the first books that I ever read that demonstrated to me how utterly ridiculous racism was.
Either the writer of that book experienced a profound change of heart or he was cleverly writing the story to try and fool the public. I would like to belief that it is the former.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
Careful, overuse can cause a word to lose its dysphemistic quality. It'll eventually be useless for shocking the squares and proving how edgy you are.
There are twists of time and space, of vision and reality, which only a dreamer can divine
H.P. Lovecraft
OMGosh, the part when they take the little boy away to the orphanage... definitely a 10 tissue book!
'Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.' A. Einstein
Definitely a moving an emotional book.
Bad part about it, Carter died without ever being discovered and no one will probably ever know what his motives were for writing it.
One of his publishers speculated that Carter experienced a major change of heart and that was his testimony through his literature.
Others are not so sure.
Irregardless, he did sever all ties to his past and invent a completely new life when he became an author. But he changed his name from Asa Earl to Forrest (Ku Klux Klan honorary mention maybe ?). But from that point on, he talked in interviews as being a half-Indian child in a largely prejudiced country. Apparently, he invented a brand new life and history for himself. I wonder how many people have tried to do something like that ? Odd.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno