A new edition of Huckleberry Finn is to be altered, removing all blatant racial slurs. Thoughts? I think it's horrible; the book is a product of its times to be preserved. I hope it's just this one publication...
A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em
its a disgrace, I would never spend my money on a classic book that has been altered to be more politically correct.
Saw the report on the news and I simply cannot believe it.
Wait, yes I can. We live in a time where EVERYONE can call each other names except whites, who have to apologize for everything and maintain political correctness.
Editing Huckleberry Finn is an absolute travesty, just as much as changing the OT.
Damn it, you beat me to it. A friend of mine on facebook pointed this out, and I was livid. Granted, I'm not AS livid because apparently this is just going to be one edition, and the original is still going to exist. I still think it's completely asinine that people feel such an edition needs to exist. But as long as they clearly mark this bastardized version as Huck Finn CENSORED or Huck Finn WATERED DOWN or Huck Finn FOR SPINELESS POLITICALLY CORRECT SISSIES, then at least I'll be able to tolerate it.
But you know what? Remember that whole slavery thing? Yeah, I know thinking about it makes me feel kinda uncomfortable. I think we should rewrite the history books so that cotton plantations are forever referred to as fluffy amusement parks for black people. There. I feel much better now.
There is no lingerie in space…
C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.
I've seen books re-written for kids in similar fashion. For example, I read a version of Gulliver's Travels as a kid that only included half the book (and was entirely re-written by another author). I suppose I'd be less upset if it were a situation like that; however, this is altering Mark Twain's prose. It's ludicrous. Like Gaff said, this is only one edition though so there's no harm done aside from the company looking foolish.
A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em
It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.
Kenobius Prime said:
Wait, yes I can. We live in a time where EVERYONE can call each other names except whites, who have to apologize for everything and maintain political correctness.
Editing Huckleberry Finn is an absolute travesty, just as much as changing the OT.
I agree that an altered "Huck Finn" is a tragedy. IMHO much worse than the SEs.
But my first though isn't "Oh, us poor poor white people!"
I figured it's being published so white folks can read it and not be made uncomforable.
EDIT: Read up on it. Yeah, the according to the expunger and the publisher of the work, it IS all about white people's comfort levels.
Kenobius Prime said:
Wait, yes I can. We live in a time where EVERYONE can call each other names except whites, who have to apologize for everything and maintain political correctness.
As a white person, I sure wish I could call other races names. That would make my life so much more complete.
TheBoost said:
But my first though isn't "Oh, us poor poor white people!"
show me where anyone here was thinking that. I know I wasn't.
edit: please disregard the above.
TV's Frink said:
Kenobius Prime said:
Wait, yes I can. We live in a time where EVERYONE can call each other names except whites, who have to apologize for everything and maintain political correctness.
As a white person, I sure wish I could call other races names. That would make my life so much more complete.
how about none of the races calling other races names. Wouldn't that nice?
Honest question-
If the alternative was for a high school class to NOT teach "Huck Finn" at all because of the n-word, or to teach "Huck Finn" in this altered state, which is prefferable?
Deleted for redundancy.
Warbler said:
TV's Frink said:
Kenobius Prime said:
Wait, yes I can. We live in a time where EVERYONE can call each other names except whites, who have to apologize for everything and maintain political correctness.
As a white person, I sure wish I could call other races names. That would make my life so much more complete.
how about none of the races calling other races names. Wouldn't that nice?
Of course. But I always think it's funny sad when whites complain because other races get to use slurs and we don't.
TheBoost said:
Honest question-
If the alternative was for a high school class to NOT teach "Huck Finn" at all because of the n-word, or to teach "Huck Finn" in this altered state, which is prefferable?
a good question. I suppose teaching it in the altered state is better than not teaching it at all. But, I would think it would be bad and false education. I would protest such a decision and demand that the school teach the original and if I were a teacher, I would refuse to take part in teaching the altered version.
TheBoost said:
Warbler said:
TheBoost said:
But my first though isn't "Oh, us poor poor white people!"
show me where anyone here was thinking that. I know I wasn't.
Kenobius Prime said:
Wait, yes I can. We live in a time where EVERYONE can call each other names except whites, who have to apologize for everything and maintain political correctness.
yeah, I know. I thought about it and edited my post and crossed out that part of it. I now realize you were just referring to him. Just so you know, I myself was not thinking "Oh, us poor white people!".
TV's Frink said:
Warbler said:
TV's Frink said:
Kenobius Prime said:
Wait, yes I can. We live in a time where EVERYONE can call each other names except whites, who have to apologize for everything and maintain political correctness.
As a white person, I sure wish I could call other races names. That would make my life so much more complete.
how about none of the races calling other races names. Wouldn't that nice?
Of course. But I always think it's funny sad when whites complain because other races get to use slurs and we don't.
it may be, I am also forced to agree with them that it is a double standard. But again my preference would be for all races to stop using racial slurs.
Warbler said:
TV's Frink said:
Warbler said:
TV's Frink said:
Kenobius Prime said:
Wait, yes I can. We live in a time where EVERYONE can call each other names except whites, who have to apologize for everything and maintain political correctness.
As a white person, I sure wish I could call other races names. That would make my life so much more complete.
how about none of the races calling other races names. Wouldn't that nice?
Of course. But I always think it's funny sad when whites complain because other races get to use slurs and we don't.
it may be, I am also forced to agree with them that it is a double standard. But again my preference would be for all races to stop using racial slurs.
You are just saying that because you are a honkey.
KIDDING!!!
Warbler said:
it may be, I am also forced to agree with them that it is a double standard.
Think for a moment about this "double-standard."
Do we mean that black people can use any slur they want? Can President Obama drop the N-Word? Has Branford Marsalis called you a cracker? Does former Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson have a pass to call other people of Chinese descent various slurs? Do these things happen?
Or are there a few low-class pop musicians using slurs and selling primarily to white people, and some political activists chosing to embrace epithets for their own goals?
What actually is it that upsets you?
Back to the question at hand.
The dude who did the fan-edit of "Huck Finn" is a scholar. He's not a knee-jerk hippy who wants to remove all racism from the past. He's not trying to put boxers on Michaelangelo's David or re-edit "Birth of a Nation" to be less offensive.
His main goal seems to be getting Huck Finn back into classrooms that have in the past rejected it do to one word. The N-word.
In the US at least, public school classrooms are far from ideal. They answer to elected officials. are constantly villified in the press, and any angry parent is capable of disrupting everything.
A few thoughts
Is the venhement reaction against the removal of one word that much better than the reaction of people who wont read such an important novel because of one word? If we boil the complicated issue of racism down to a word, aren't we missing the forest for the trees? Would Strom Thurmond have been less racist if he didn't say the n-word? Would Martin Luther King Jr. have been a terrible man if he did? Is the word magic in-and-of itself?
I'm against this edition of "Huck Finn." I wish America could look at its own checkered past honestly, without freaking out, but that's not the case.
But in all honesty, is it better to get a classroom of teenagers to confront these issues in a book that is 'censored,' or to deny them the work totally?
TheBoost said:
Warbler said:
it may be, I am also forced to agree with them that it is a double standard.
Think for a moment about this "double-standard."
Do we mean that black people can use any slur they want? Can President Obama drop the N-Word? Has Branford Marsalis called you a cracker? Does former Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson have a pass to call other people of Chinese descent various slurs? Do these things happen?
Or are there a few low-class pop musicians using slurs and selling primarily to white people, and some political activists chosing to embrace epithets for their own goals?
What actually is it that upsets you?
I never said it upsets me, I said it was a double standard. I wasn't aware that rap is primarily sold to white people. Don't alot of black rappers use the n-word? Maybe I'm wrong, but a lot of black people buy and listen to rap "music". No, Branford Marsalis never called me a cracker. No, neither President Obama or Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson could get a pass on using racial slurs. But do you honestly think if Obama used the word cracker, that the reaction would be as bad as it would have been if Bush had used the n-word? In order to be polite in this post, I said n-word instead of the full word, but didn't have to abbreviate the word cracker. Do you there would be an altered edition of Huck Finn if instead of using the n-word, cracker was used? It is not that black people can use any slur they want, its that it is treated differently and less of a serious problem than when a white person uses a racial slur. Also it seems that racial slurs for minorities are considered less offensive that those for whites. Any one complain when the word redneck used? A politician lost his job because he used the word niggardly and it sounded close to the n-word. Do you think a black politician would lose his job if he used word that sounded similar to cracker or redneck or honky? I remember at one time Micheal Jackson used the words "Jew me" in a song, it was in the news but it wasn't made too serious of an issue and you may even have forgotten it. Do you think a white superstar that had said something similar in a song about black people would have been treated the same? He would have been put out of business. All the above is what I mean by double standard.
TheBoost said:
Is the venhement reaction against the removal of one word that much better than the reaction of people who wont read such an important novel because of one word?
yes, They are judging the book because of one word. We are trying to preserve the original version of a classic book.
TheBoost said:
But in all honesty, is it better to get a classroom of teenagers to confront these issues in a book that is 'censored,' or to deny them the work totally?
what is better is to protest the schools that would deny the students the original work or would teach an altered version and try to get their heads out of the sand(and for teachers to refuse to cooperate with such schools), instead of caving to their demands.
TheBoost said: If we boil the complicated issue of racism down to a word, aren't we missing the forest for the trees?
when did I boil the issue of racism down to one word?
Warbler said:
TheBoost said:
But in all honesty, is it better to get a classroom of teenagers to confront these issues in a book that is 'censored,' or to deny them the work totally?
what is better is to protest the schools that would deny the students the original work or would teach an altered version and try to get their heads out of the sand(and for teachers to refuse to cooperate with such schools), instead of caving to their demands.
The demands are from people, usually parents, usually middle-class, usually white. (I'd be interested in any black leaders who want to censor to the language in "Huck Finn"). Schools don't make demands. Schools follow policy.
Principals and teachers are civil servants, not policy makers. Something like "Huck Finn" being on a banned book list is usually up to the elected school board. I think it would be very sad for a teacher to lose their job because they think "Huck Finn" is without worth without the N-word.
I'd love to see a School Board nominee run on the platform "I'll put more racial slurs into your child's education!"
If you want to eliminate banned book lists, get in line. While you're trying to change the fundamentally irrational, reactionairy, and painfully conservative underpinings of American public education, generations of students will be denied a chance to be taught "Huck Finn."
Did you know the original manuscript was titled "Fuck Finn?"
What's better... getting a copy of this book from the library and reinserting the modified terminology or going up to whom ever takes the book out and read out loud the original version as they go to their car?
Warbler said:
In order to be polite in this post, I said n-word instead of the full word, but didn't have to abbreviate the word cracker.
Does the word 'cracker' carry with it the history of centuries of violence, oppression, slavery, and murder?
Is it a double standard, or are the words just not equal in meaning?