Huckleberry Finn: Censorship?

[elgecko]

Is this ethical? Is it akin to painting a mustache on The Mona Lisa? Discuss.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jack...erry-finn.html

[smperry]

Short version: I think that the original should be kept uncensored.

[etoncrow]

PC run amuck

[elgecko]

Cliff Notes:

An Alabama publisher is planning on releasing a revised version of Huck Finn where "n*****" will be replaced by "slave"

[Relic]

In this case, a censor like this is akin to a lie or a denial. A classic like that is like a peak through a window into the past and should not be touched or altered in any way.

[shadowtippy]

Do you think they will also want to change the title of Herman Melville's classic to something less offensive like, "Moby Penis"?

[bassteban]

*peek*
On topic, nicht censorship, bitte.

[billhilly66]

Figure it's like a PC Reader's Digest version. The book has been banned from several places over the dreaded "N" word and now at least some kids will be exposed to MT who weren't before.

[jmattbassplaya]

Leave works of art unmolested.

[MakiSupaStar]

Originally Posted by smperry

Short version: I think that the original should be kept uncensored.

This.

[buzzbass]

The past is just that, the past. And it should be viewed in all of it natural beauty(?), warts and all. Leaving it is a far better lesson to kids. It teaches them how times have changed, and (hopefully) how much we've evolved as a society. Trying to selectively go back and edit the past is as dumb as the folks who believe that "evolution" is not a valid theory, and should not be taught in schools. Despite all of the evidence proving the theory of evolution is real. PC sucks !

[jmattbassplaya]

Originally Posted by billhilly66

Figure it's like a PC Reader's Digest version. The book has been banned from several places over the dreaded "N" word and now at least some kids will be exposed to MT who weren't before.

But it isn't Mark Twain at all once the word is removed. Adventures of Huck Finn is a statement against how wrong American society was for treating slaves the way they did (and for having slaves at all). Removing the word undermines Twain's whole argument and makes reality seem nicer than it really was.

[Disraeli Gears]

I'm inclined to take the "mustache on the Mona Lisa" side. Those words were in the books for a reason, and that reason was not Mark Twain being racist.

[MakiSupaStar]

It reminds me of the history writers of Orwell's '1984'. Teams of writers that were in charge of rewriting history according to modern interpretation.

[Atoz]

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

But it isn't Mark Twain at all once the word is removed. Adventures of Huck Finn is a statement against how wrong American society was for treating slaves the way they did (and for having slaves at all). Removing the word undermines Twain's whole argument and makes reality seem nicer than it really was.

This. People focused on individual words at the expense of context.

[onosson]

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

But it isn't Mark Twain at all once the word is removed. Adventures of Huck Finn is a statement against how wrong American society was for treating slaves the way they did (and for having slaves at all). Removing the word undermines Twain's whole argument and makes reality seem nicer than it really was.

Yep - he used language with a purpose.

[billhilly66]

Originally Posted by jmattbassplaya

But it isn't Mark Twain at all once the word is removed. Adventures of Huck Finn is a statement against how wrong American society was for treating slaves the way they did (and for having slaves at all). Removing the word undermines Twain's whole argument and makes reality seem nicer than it really was.

I agree but as it stands now, none of the book is available to HS kids (at school anyway) because of the "N" word. I’d rather they were able to read it as I did, in its entirety, but is not being able to read any of it better than reading it with the “N” word “translated”? I don’t know.
I enjoy Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Chekov even though they’ve been translated although I’m given to understand that it is much better to be able to read them in Russian. With that in mind, I’m still glad I read them. Maybe this is analogous?

[Chebass88]

Mark Twain is one of favorite authors. This is a shame. This just means I need to go out and purchase old editions of MT. There is only a finite amount of MT writings after all... And also to never EVER purchase anything by NewSouth.

On a broader sense, without having an older edition of a text immediately next to a newer edition, if reading for the first time, how does one know if it is censored? This is something that worries me, especially given the shift of book retailers to fill their shelves with mostly mindless bubble-gum entertainment books as well as a shift to e-readers.

Here is my approach. If you are so egregiously offended by the use of a particular word, DON'T READ THAT BOOK!

[Chebass88]

Originally Posted by MakiSupaStar

It reminds me of the history writers of Orwell's '1984'. Teams of writers that were in charge of rewriting history according to modern interpretation.

The Ministry of Truth. This is doubleplus-ungood.

[Eric Perry]

Absolutely ridiculous. PC crap at its finest (i.e. worst!)

Originally Posted by shadowtippy

Do you think they will also want to change the title of Herman Melville's classic to something less offensive like, "Moby Penis"?

This was funny, however!