Posted on 01/04/2011 6:59:28 AM PST by MissTed
What is a word worth? According to Publishers Weekly, NewSouth Books’ upcoming edition of Mark Twain’s seminal novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will remove all instances of the “n” word—I’ll give you a hint, it’s not nonesuch—present in the text and replace it with slave. The new book will also remove usage of the word Injun. The effort is spearheaded by Twain expert Alan Gribben, who says his PC-ified version is not an attempt to neuter the classic but rather to update it. “Race matters in these books,” Gribben told PW. “It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”
Unsurprisingly, there are already those who are yelling “Censorship!” as well as others with thesauruses yelling “Bowdlerization!” and “Comstockery!” Their position is understandable: Twain’s book has been one of the most often misunderstood novels of all time, continuously being accused of perpetuating the prejudiced attitudes it is criticizing, and it’s a little disheartening to see a cave-in to those who would ban a book simply because it requires context. On the other hand, if this puts the book into the hands of kids who would not otherwise be allowed to read it due to forces beyond their control (overprotective parents and the school boards they frighten), then maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to judge. It’s unfortunate, but is it really any more catastrophic than a TBS-friendly re-edit of The Godfather, you down-and-dirty melon farmer? The original product is changed for the benefit of those who, for one reason or another, are not mature enough to handle it, but as long as it doesn’t affect the original, is there a problem?
Speaking of, think they’ll release “Song of the Sounth” any time soon??? *rolleyes*
His next project is a massive attempt to update Shakespeare by taking out the weird, old language and that pesky iambic pentameter. "People these days just don't speak that way," the professor said.
Not in a million years.
What’s really funny is if you go to Splash Mountain in Magic Kingdom, Briar Rabbit, Fox and Bear are the theme.
I had to buy a pirated copy to let my girls see the film.
Why not? Stalin used to cut out the faces of Enemies of the State from old pictures before publishing them in newspapers and presenting them as historical fact too.
Liberalism is pure, unadulterated evil.
lol
Next, digital editing of Richard Pryor albums.
Ironically, the very first person to say, “Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt,” was Mark Twain.
He also said: “The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.”
Mein Kampf is a hate-filled, anti-Semitic book. Are we going to cut out the anti-Jewish passages before publishing it in the future? Or are we simply going to ban it?
This publisher doesn’t have exclusive rights to the Twain works.
They might sell some to schools and Libraries. The umpteen million copies that exist in the market place aren’t going away anytime soon.
lol - I like that!
Mark Twain is one of the greatest American writers who ever lived.
His works have stood the test of time.
Because some of the language he used, which was commonplace at the time, is offensive, is no reason to edit the offending word or words.
If Twain is edited then should we also not edit works by black authors who use the same language or words? Where does it end?
Liberal do-gooders are guilt ridden racists. Liberal do-gooders want everything and everybody to be put through a sieve so everybody and everything comes out the same...sort of like a Twilight Zone episode. Scary stuff to be sure.
Liberals are anti democracy, anti freedom.
Apparently it is contagious. A few years back I noticed that one of online sites dedicated to honoring Lincoln removed the n word from one of his speeches.
No kidding, look what they’ve done to Blazing Saddles on network TV. The whole point of the movie is the absurdity of Racism and they bleep out N*****. Except they still say “Chinks”.
“African-American Jim” ?
So I guess this means that all black people will quit using that word too?
If you don’t like the history and learn from it just rewrite it. Thats how things are done now.
Nothing is real. Reminds me of a movie I saw last week.
Exactly.
That was the whole point of having a black sheriff in the first place.
Furthermore, Richard Pryor was one of the writers of BLAZING SADDLES.
The townspeople in the film were all a bunch of redneck buffoons.
And let us not lose sight of the fact that THE MOVIE IS A COMEDY. WHAT PART OF COMEDY DO THESE PEOPLE NOT UNDERSTAND.
Even I “got” that when I was a 17 year old that didn’t want to read it in the first place. After I finished, and rather enjoyed reading it, I was really confused about why there was such controversy about the book. My teacher really did not get into it other than to just have us read it and take quizzes and tests about what we read. We didn’t talk about it.
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