Huck Finn Gets Some Changes

[Cornhusker]

More PC idiocy.
Is there really anyone alive that would get offended reading this book?

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.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsro...s-some-changes

[beowoulf90]

Typical political correctness at it's worse..

[Gregg Alexander]

I heard this on local talk radio and in my humble thinking changing a classic is a bunch of well you know

[AR Cattails]

The article asks if it should be "updated" to reflect today's times.

NO, it should not. Leave the dang book alone. People shouldn't go around and rewrite books because of their sense of political correctness. Mark Twain wrote his books the way he meant to and doesn't need any help today.

[tinknal]

I did my advanced college English paper on this very subject. It is clear from the other writings of Mark Twain that he was very opposed to Jim Crow and was not a racist. The words he used, he used for effect. If you change the words you change the whole meaning of the book.

It's a travesty to do this to the first great American novel.

[glazed]

Another sign of our times.



Thank goodness I have an impressive personal library full of classic literature to continue to enjoy in its original glory ... and to share with my children and grandchildren.

[Pizza Guy]

PC running amok again. Maybe they should remake the movie Gone With the Wind. The original movie might give some of those over the top PC'ers the vapors.

[texican]

Some pc slaves think there is something in the Constitution that protects them from being offended.

I'd at minimum get "deleted" and at worst "banned" if I said what I really thought about PC'ness, Thought Crimes, and Offensive Language.

I respect this site's rules and policies, and general decorum, so I shan't.

But if you want to know what I really think, think to yourself every four letter word, a bunch of fives, and some multi-syllablic ones, including everything your not supposed to say... about anyone...

I'm offended everyday... but I figure I'll live with it, instead of exacting swift and harsh revenge...

Freedom is a Cruel Mistress... I'll take the nasty, and like it, rather than water it down to accommodate someone's hurt feelings. If I don't like something I see or hear, I can stand it or move along... same goes for others.

Sounds like todays generation needs a swift kick in the rear, and learn the world ain't always been the way it is now...

[Tricky Grama]

On another note, if it were to be changed, think of what would be lost! Not knowing how things were in those days (well, if all books that used those terms were scrubbed) not being able to see how folks were viewed, treated.

[TheMartianChick]

Originally Posted by Pizza Guy

PC running amok again. Maybe they should remake the movie Gone With the Wind. The original movie might give some of those over the top PC'ers the vapors.

Actually, the original book Gone With The Wind had inflammatory language that was deliberately left OUT of the movie. One good example is the scene where the slave Polk says that he doesn't know how to milk a cow because he is a house "worker". That is one place where the N word would have been i the original story. In fact, there is a pause before the actor says the word "worker" because the director wasn't sure if he wanted the N word in his movie. As much as I like the movie, the book had so much more depth of character and included Scarlett's other children.

As a writer, I choose the words that I do to attain a certain effect and to set the scene. In that sense, I am against changing Twain's words though I thoroughly despise the N word. Rather than change the book, I would rather see the book left intact and use the "ugly" language as a teaching point. I think that it is important for people to know why some words are particularly offensive.

[EarlsNan]

Originally Posted by AR Cattails

The article asks if it should be "updated" to reflect today's times.

NO, it should not. Leave the dang book alone. People shouldn't go around and rewrite books because of their sense of political correctness. Mark Twain wrote his books the way he meant to and doesn't need any help today.

I agree. It wasn't written in 'our times' so why should it reflect them?

[Canning Girl]

As a high school English teacher, I taught Huck Finn to my American Lit class for 8 years. Every year before we started the novel, I talked with my juniors about the "n word" and why Twain used it. I told them that I didn't want to hear them using it in their conversations but that it was important to the novel in the time that it was written. We also examined the close, almost father-son relationship between Huck, a white boy, and Jim, a black slave. My students at 16 years of age were old enough to understand the use of the word, and it provoked some good conversations about race relations. To change the text of a great American classic is literary blasphemy. I wish Twain were alive to give a pithy response to the PC crowd. No doubt his quick wit would cut them down to size!

[glazed]

Originally Posted by EarlsNan

I agree. It wasn't written in 'our times' so why should it reflect them?

Beautiful.

[plowjockey]

Originally Posted by Cornhusker

More PC idiocy.
Is there really anyone alive that would get offended reading this book?

I think that everyone who reads this books SHOULD be offended, if so desired, but read this classic anyway - AS WRITTEN, to feel and learn, from a great literary work.

Why "clean" it up, so that it sound's as moving as a stock prospectus?

Are both adults and children, becoming so weak minded, that they cannot handle "bad words" in a novel? Could black people not read this book and "get it"?

It great to see people standing up, against this PC non-sense.

[plowjockey]

Had to LOL today, when this quote appeared for this very subject.

From the Master himself.

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."
— Mark Twain

[glazed]

Originally Posted by plowjockey

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."
— Mark Twain

Brilliant. Thank you for sharing this.

[Trixie]

It bothers me that not only are they considering 'cleaning' up books like this, but we are loosing many books written in past times, which reflect past times - actions and thoughts - are being lost. No one is going to publish them again and they will be lost to future generations.

What better way to understand the past - the good and the bad - than to read things actually written at the time. This goes for ficition, non fictions, speeches, etc.

I think black people and white people can read those books and 'get it'. The fact there was language we consider offensive is one thing they can get. Another thing they can get is that people lived together, worked together, helped each other and loved each other - despite what the current history books would like us to believe.

It bothers me we are loosing our past - and there was some saying of 'controlling the past and controlling he future'.

[shanzone2001]

Originally Posted by Tricky Grama

On another note, if it were to be changed, think of what would be lost! Not knowing how things were in those days (well, if all books that used those terms were scrubbed) not being able to see how folks were viewed, treated.

Exactly. That is how it was. By erasing it, we are in a sense robbing the very ones who were treated so badly. The suffering they endured should be remembered as it was in hopes that it never happens again.

[MO_cows]

Grrrrrr! The utter arrogance of it is almost beyond belief. It's like touching up the Mona Lisa because her hairstyle has gone out of fashion! I went to the publisher's web site and left them a comment. If this watered down version shows up in the local library, I will complain and ask to have it removed.

Behind all the hearts and flowers is money, I believe. The book is a classic and in virtually every library in America. How much money can be made by selling them all a new copy???? Nothing wrong with making money in general, but butchering a classic work of literature and depriving young people of knowledge to do so is just wrong.

[pancho]

Think about it a little. Changing a book seems to have hit a nerve and I agree with those who think it should remain the way it was written. But then people have changed history to suit certain groups of people, a single book should be easy.