Huckleberry Finn Censored

[Saya]

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...e-2177172.html

To some, Huckleberry Finn is getting a welcome makeover for the 21st century. To others, the greatest American novel is being sacrificed at the altar of political correctness. Either way, a new edition of Mark Twain's most famous book has deleted all 219 of its mentions of perhaps the most incendiary word in American English: ******.

Claiming they want Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to reach as wide an audience as possible in an era when schools and libraries are painfully sensitive to the ins and outs of racial politics, NewSouth Books, an Alabama publishing house, announced yesterday that the term "slave" will henceforth be used instead.

The man behind the move, the new edition's editor, Dr Alan Gribben of Auburn University, said he hoped to ensure that Twain remains required reading for schoolchildren who might otherwise feel that his casual use of the N-word creates a "barrier" to their enjoying the work.

"This is not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colour-blind," he told reporters. "Race matters in these books... It's just a matter of how you express that in the 21st century."

In addition to removing "******" from Huckleberry Finn, Dr Gribben has altered the word "injun", in its sister text The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, so as not to offend Native Americans. The name of the villain in that book duly changes from "Injun Joe" to "Indian Joe".

The publisher's blurb celebrates this as "a bold move, compassionately advocated". But Dr Gribben admitted that his new edition would dismay traditionalists. "I'm hoping that people will welcome this new option, but I suspect that textual purists will be horrified," he said. "Already, one professor has told me he is very disappointed."

A chorus of academics, teachers and readers yesterday criticised efforts to rewrite Twain's famous prose as a misplaced exercise in literary censorship.

The plot of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is explicitly progressive, they noted. The book's eponymous hero, a white youth, befriends an escaped slave. He then hears how he has been mistreated by his white master (or rather mistress) and helps him to win freedom.

Thomas Wortham, a prominent Twain scholar at UCLA, compared Dr Gribben to Thomas Bowdler, the British editor of the 19th century who created a notorious "family" version of Shakespeare, which removed all sexual themes so as not to offend Victorian wives and children. "A book like Professor Gribben has imagined doesn't challenge [readers] to ask, 'Why would a child like Huck use such reprehensible language?'" he told Publishers Weekly.

Ironically, Twain, who died in 1910, was a passionate critic of racism, and donated money to a number of civil rights organisations. But his failure to use politically correct language in Huckleberry Finn, which was published in 1885, has nonetheless long been a bone of contention.

In 1957, the New York City Board of Education removed the novel from circulation in elementary and junior high schools. Today, it remains the fourth-most banned book in American schools, according to Banned in the USA, an influential book about literary censorship.

The black author Toni Morrison, meanwhile, addressed the enduring controversy in her introduction to the current Oxford edition of Huckleberry Finn. She admits that the repeated use of the term disturbs her, but nonetheless criticised efforts to remove the book from schools and libraries.

So, depictions of racism and slavery are not at all disturbing, but drop the n word or people won't read it?

[Despanan]

I heard about this.

I am similarly incensed.

Hopefully it won't take.

[Sir Canvas Corpsey]

This is kind of sad, I really hope this whole move to censor it dies off, especially if the word is still disturbing people when it is read. As far as I'm concerned, the censorship and PC movement is less about protecting people's sensibilities, and more about turning away from or covering up real issues with flower stickers and pretty smells.

If n. igger wasn't still being used in a derogatory manner then the word wouldn't be censored but because it is, that is indicative of how deep the problem of racism runs.

'Well because it's racist word and we can't be fucked actually doing anything about racism, we'll just censor it and pretend it doesn't exist. Naturally there was racism in that time but not now, we don't live in a society that has racists that's why the word is so... offensive... because it's being used in a racist manner by... racists..."

Well fuck you too Alan Gribben.

[Sir Canvas Corpsey]

A former teacher of mine made an excellent point when i mentioned this on Facebook:

"...I sort of have a problem with the idea that "******" is offensive but "slave" is quite ok!"

[CptSternn]

Changing anything in a book written in a time period about a time period defeats the purpose of the book. The book reflects attitudes and culture at the time. Rewriting this to match today's cultural norms renders the book useless as a learning tool.

[ape descendant]

I agree, it is important to learn about times and cultures past. One thing that it can do is remind people that things used to be different and can help us to remember why it was important to change.

On top of that its incredibly rude to change some one's work after they've finished it. It'd be like putting nipple pasties on the Venus de Milo or boxers on the statue of David to make sure people aren't offended by their nudity, despite the fact that the artist made them that way for a reason.

[Despanan]

Unfortunately, Huck Finn is now public domain, which means anyone can do anything they want with the text.

A publisher could legally publish a version where Huck is a talking cat, and Jim is an old work Mule, and injun Joe is a purple space alien.

The same thing happened a while back with Darwin's "Origin of the Species". It was published and distributed by Kirk Cameron's insane church, but only after they'd added a 50 page creationist insert to the text.

[ape descendant]

Yeah I totally heard about that Way of the Master/ Origin of Species debauchle... f-ing banana man.. he needs to stick to what he knows... mind you, he'd spend a lot of time saying NOTHING!!

[Underwater Ophelia]

I read about this, and I am furious.
This is wrong.

[Xombie]

The words they are censoring were used in the text for a reason, which was to help describe the time and situation they were living in. To replace those words would alter some of the book's major themes as well as its overall integrity. Boo.

[Renatus]

Originally Posted by Despanan

Unfortunately, Huck Finn is now public domain, which means anyone can do anything they want with the text.

A publisher could legally publish a version where Huck is a talking cat, and Jim is an old work Mule, and injun Joe is a purple space alien.

The same thing happened a while back with Darwin's "Origin of the Species". It was published and distributed by Kirk Cameron's insane church, but only after they'd added a 50 page creationist insert to the text.

On the bright side this also means that that its available to download and distribute free on the internet without fear of repercussions, so in the end I suppose if parents want their kids to read the unaltered version, they can simply download it completely free. So in theory the parents and people who don't care about the language of the original can still read the original, and now finally people who dont like the language of the original will finally be willing to read the book, which is at least better than never reading the book. Whether or not such theory is the way things turn out, is somthing only time will tell.

Speaking of which; http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76

[Saya]

I'm glad we did this in school, we were a mostly white school and a lot of people felt comfortable saying racial slurs since they were kids, so it let us have a good discussion about the historical implications and why we should think about it before we say it again.

And I must be a horrible person because I do remember that my copy had the slurs, but I don't recall it being that distracting.

[Sir Canvas Corpsey]

Nah, Saya, we just live in a highly de-sensitized world. Plus I don't believe you have any Black heritage (as far as I am aware), but if you did, I'm sure the words would have a very different impact on you.

[Versus]

Originally Posted by Despanan

The same thing happened a while back with Darwin's "Origin of the Species". It was published and distributed by Kirk Cameron's insane church, but only after they'd added a 50 page creationist insert to the text.

I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Originally Posted by Sir Canvas Corpsey

Nah, Saya, we just live in a highly de-sensitized world. Plus I don't believe you have any Black heritage (as far as I am aware), but if you did, I'm sure the words would have a very different impact on you.

I do, and the word doesn't bother me. It's so far removed and irrelevant that I don't have a visceral response at all. People are just being pussies about it.

[JCC]

Originally Posted by Sir Canvas Corpsey

Nah, Saya, we just live in a highly de-sensitized world. Plus I don't believe you have any Black heritage (as far as I am aware), but if you did, I'm sure the words would have a very different impact on you.

THANK FUCK someone finally said it. The opinions of white people on this issue matter very little to me, including my own opinion, which is why my opinion is that whatever black students feel is appropriate is appropriate and I know from people I speak to that many people often feel very uncomfortable studying books with explicitly racist language in class. But it depends on the student, and they're the people I care about listening to on shit like this.

[Underwater Ophelia]

I've asked a few black people about it, actually, and they were unanimously pissed about this.

[Alan]

And how does the feeling of some people have legitimacy over the artwork of another?

[JCC]

Originally Posted by Alan

And how does the feeling of some people have legitimacy over the artwork of another?

Because it's a discussion about something being shown in public schools. Public schools are a service being provided for the youth of the country, not a lending library for personal use. Artistic integrity has very little to do with it.

[Alan]

Artistic integrity has everything to do with a discussion about the public sphere.

[JCC]

No, it doesn't. The obligations of a public school are to its pupils.

[Versus]

I would understand removing the book from a curriculum, but changing the word to be less offensive destroys the purpose of it's placement and a great deal of the impact the book is supposed to have in the first place.

[JCC]

There are a great deal of readings of Huckleberry Finn which don't tackle racism at all. It's a very detailed and well-written book and there's still plenty in there to dissect.

[Solumina]

Originally Posted by JCC

Because it's a discussion about something being shown in public schools. Public schools are a service being provided for the youth of the country, not a lending library for personal use. Artistic integrity has very little to do with it.

Every school in the US that I am aware of does have a lending library available to the students for personal use. Why else would there have been an issue about people wanting Harry Potter banned from public schools? It’s not like it was required reading anywhere.

As a side not I found it really funny that Harry Potter was banned due to magic being evil or some such thing but yet The Lives of the Mayfair Witches was available in my school. Actually I'm pretty sure we had some "spell books" available.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by JCC

There are a great deal of readings of Huckleberry Finn which don't tackle racism at all. It's a very detailed and well-written book and there's still plenty in there to dissect.

And you are selecting which readings are acceptable and which aren't.
Ever read Fahrenheit 451?

[Renatus]

Originally Posted by JCC

Because it's a discussion about something being shown in public schools. Public schools are a service being provided for the youth of the country, not a lending library for personal use. Artistic integrity has very little to do with it.

Yep, what Solumina said, I used to make regular visits to my elementary, middle and high school libraries every week(well not so much with the elementary school library, but thats due to the fact that it's harder to get permission in elementary school), and became rather friendly with the librarians.