The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - The Politically Correct Version

[Daikenki]

Uh... call me stupid, but wasn't the man in the book not a slave?(Disregard this, apparently he was a runaway slave) The N word doesn't mean slave at all, it's just a derogatory term. Nowdays it mostly means an ignorant person. Though, don't get me wrong, I hate both terms, even if I do live in Alabama. :T Not everyone here is racist btw. So don't clump the south into something you know nothing about.

But I never saw a problem with it. We even read the books in highschool. No one was allowed to say the word out loud when we read the books, but the teacher made a note to teach us the significance of the book, the meaning, and all that other stuff.

Taking out a word isn't going to keep our children from learning it. 5 year olds are calling each other worse things, including the n word, than I would ever let be said out of my mouth.

And I don't care if anyone is free to edit the book. You just don't decide one day to ruin someone else's hard work just because you want to try and make it politically correct. It's like the whole Indian in the Cupboard thing all over again. Who seriously has a problem with this? Not me, and not even all of the black people I know. Not one got upset when we read these books, including Uncle Tom. They kinda laughed it off if anything.

 

[Bluerang1]

Honestly, I don't find the n-word offensive. Well maybe it's because my own family didn't go through the whole slave-trade thing. It's only the way in which one uses it that I may find it offensive. I don't see the point in censoring it except when it comes to it being read in a class xD awkwardness. Slave is a step down. Negro is fine... :) (Delete that last part if it's sounds too bad).

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

I disagree with the changing of the text, but it's interesting reading the responses as to why the publisher - NewSouth Books in this case - did so. According to the updater himself - a Mark Twain scholar named Alan Gribben - the main reason is to help get the book back into classrooms, as the n-word was the primary reason for its banning from libraries.

At NewSouth, we saw the value in an edition that would help the works find new readers. If the publication sparks good debate about how language impacts learning or about the nature of censorship or the way in which racial slurs exercise their baneful influence, then our mission in publishing this new edition of Twain's works will be more emphatically fulfilled.

Again, a noble goal, but the work won't be emphatically fulfilled until kids have read the original versions. If at the end of the debate, people decide they want to start censoring more works of literature, then there will certainly be substantially less emphatic fulfilment!

Although this bit on the book's Wikipedia page did make me laugh:

Responses to this include the publishing of The Hipster Huckleberry Finn which is an edition with the word "******" replaced with the word "hipster". The book's description includes this statement: "Thanks to editor Richard Grayson, the adventures of Huckleberry Finn are now neither offensive nor uncool."

 

[Rainy Day]

Or, you could attempt to /understand/ the historical significance of that word, and what it means. I doubt anybodies ever called you a filthy word like that. I doubt the KKK ever put bricks through your window and flaming crosses in your front yard. I doubt a relative of yours was Lynched. I doubt you were hosed down with fire hoses and were attacked by police dogs. I doubt that you were denied a job, or a chance to get an education because of the color of your skin. So, don't talk like you know what you're talking about, because you obviously don't.

My people were not allowed citizenship, had to attend racially segregated schools, denied the right to marry whites, and forced to give up all their possessions so they could be placed in placed in internment camps due to their ancestry.

And you know what? I don't think my family particularly minds the word Jap in a work of fiction.

 

[Livewire]

My people were not allowed citizenship, had to attend racially segregated schools, denied the right to marry whites, and forced to give up all their possessions so they could be placed in placed in internment camps due to their ancestry.

And you know what? I don't think my family particularly minds the word Jap in a work of fiction.

But what of the other Japanese immigrants who experienced that? I'm sure some of them do mind.

 

[donavannj]

But what of the other Japanese immigrants who experienced that? I'm sure some of them do mind.

I personally think that leaving it in reminds us of where we were, what we've gone through, and that we're more tolerant now than we were back then.

 

[Livewire]

I personally think that leaving it in reminds us of where we were, what we've gone through, and that we're more tolerant now than we were back then.

I agree. That's why I dislike revisionist history. We are doomed to repeat societies mistakes if we don't understand the significance of events or the significance of literary works like Huck Finn. It's an expose of Antebellum America, and to alter or change the text in someway is to change the fundamental message behind the novel - how cruel and evil Slavery was, and what it was like to live during that time period. Changing the text is not the way to market the book. Maybe opening peoples eyes would be a better route.

 

[Xairmo]

I think censoring Huck Finn would be just a total middle finger to Twain, even now in death. If you read the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and all you take way from it is that they use the "N" - word a lot, then you obviously weren't paying attention to the story and did not grasp the true importance of what was going on.

 

[Misheard Whisper]

hahahaha oh lord, what a joke. Gotta love Bowdlerisation of classics.

Actually, no, you don't. And I don't. :( This is stupid. Makes me wonder who complained about it enough to make them change it?

 

[LightOfTruth]

I think we should keep the original book that I remember reading when I was younger. I was fine with it so I don't think it needs to be destroyed by nanny world :)