[jmacusa]

The ‘’Right’’ burned books? Where? When? If this idiot means the Nazis then he is what I just said, an idiot. The Nazis were Leftists. They’ll all about banning books, and burning them.

[humblegunner]

Is there some particular reason you felt a need to post this same blog post twice this morning?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2663567/posts

[Admin Moderator]

Thank you for complying with part of our previous post to you.

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Mr. Byrd, you would have much more credibility here on Free Republic if you would interact with the replies when you post your writings and post a substantially long excerpt OR the whole article if it isn’t several pages long.

A link to the original article would help also.

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We require bloggers to post a substantial excerpt or the whole article, not just one paragraph.

Please follow these directives in the future, or we will pull your posts with an admonishment to do so.

[Retain Mike]

Mark Twain scholar Alan Gribben prepares a new version of Huckleberry Finn, which removes the N-word among others. To me this result raises the barriers attacked by Twain.

When I read The Life and Times of Fredrick Douglas, one passage always stayed with me. After speaking to an abolitionist audience, Douglas considered the evening a great success, because he concluded his talk believing these people were convinced he was equally human with them. Those who saw the TV show Roots can remember the president of the black college being asked to sing by his benefactor to convince the woman she was with about how precious these people were because of their wonderful voices. Even the strongest supporters of blacks questioned whether they were as fully human as themselves.

Now comes Mark Twain in 1876, just a few years after the decline of the KKK, saying that even “poor white trash” like Huck Finn can figure out that “Nigger Jim” is just like him. Twain uses a precise choice of words to wash away the entire pretense built up from etiquette, education, wealth, etc., which people acquire to form opinions of themselves and others. Because of Twain’s extraordinary word picture what remains on that raft is two people who can look directly into each others’ eyes.

In his final indictment Twain speaking through Huck Finn tells the reader that the accoutrements of civilization prevent one from being human and recognizing the humanity in others. I find that lesson timeless.

[Defiant]

Can you imagine if Twain was alive today and wanted to do authentic dialogue like he did in Huck Finn? He would be skewered and his work would never see the light of day. Twain was revered world wide.

[x]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is being censored; since censorship is a concept and weapon of the Left to enforce political correctness upon the masses, Mark Twain is involved in 21st century politics; when advocating or opposing the censoring of “Huck Finn,” one has taken a political stance But the Right has a storied history of ceremoniously burning books that they believe are evil with celebrated bonfires. Both the political Left and Right have ink-stained hands.

Teachable moment: that's pretty much exactly how you don't want to start a blog post: by assuming there's some massive, monolithic thing called "the Right" or "the Left."

You want people to read beyond the first paragraph before they start attacking you, so concentrate on specifics, not on gigantic generalizations.

The irony of all this is that in a lot of ways Mark Twain was on the left in his own time. Or was he? Mises.org has an article claiming he was a (radical) classical liberal. It's not the worst thing they've ever put on the Internet.

Twain probably wouldn't cotton to being taken over by Lew Rockwell's gang, but that's not as much of a stretch as some of the things they've said.