Posted on 01/04/2011 2:08:14 PM PST by Artemis Webb
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I believe it is on much more higher moral plain in this life for our Nation to acknowledge the bumps and corrections made with time than to hide these as never happened. I was learning about Huck Finn in grade school. Not only because Twain at one time lived in my home town but because the parochial school I attended was God oriented. We at one time lived in a house which was next door to a Negro church. The sunday morning and evening music and songs were a joy to the neighborhood as much as I knew and remember.
I believe it is on much more higher moral plain in this life for our Nation to acknowledge the bumps and corrections made with time than to hide these as never happened. I was learning about Huck Finn in grade school. Not only because Twain at one time lived in my home town but because the parochial school I attended was God oriented. We at one time lived in a house which was next door to a Negro church. The sunday morning and evening music and songs were a joy to the neighborhood as much as I knew and remember.
Those don't seem equivalent terms. Slave is a station, perhaps an occupation of sorts or a title, and when freed, he's no longer that. It's not as dehumanizing as "n*gger" which, in actual history, Jim would've still been called and considered even freed from slavery.
Calling him "Slave Jim" is like saying Dr. McCoy.
additional:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2651318/posts
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“All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn... American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.” — Ernest Hemingway, “Green Hills of Africa” (1935)
“The world was a much better place then, believe it or not, and bullies, without exception, soon met that kid who put them to shame in front of everyone”
And therein lies the rub. There is no shame anymore. What was shame is now hurt “feelings”.
We have been legislated and socially engineered to accept the unacceptable, to see absurdity as normality.
My father told me that life’s not fair and that the world didn’t owe me a living.
That’s been my experience. Apparently I’ve been wrong.
And here we are.
...by what authority can anyone change the text of a book without the author's permission?
Who gave the publisher the authority to change one word in the book?..
and are the changes explained somewhere in the book?
...nobody, and I mean nobody should buy the book....let them find out about unintended consequences via another "classic": Kiplings....
.."The Gods of the Copybook Headings"
So sad, Stormdog and so true.
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