Poll: Mark Twain censored. New copies of Huckleberry Finn to replace usage of the 'n-word'

[Caligulove]

[a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/05/huckleberry-finn-edition-censors-n-word"]Article[/a]

"A new US edition of Mark Twain's classic novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is to be published with a notable language alteration: all instances of the offensive racial term "******" are to be expunged.

The word occurs more than 200 times in Huckleberry Finn, first published in 1884, and its 1876 precursor, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which tell the story of the boys' adventures along the Mississippi river in the mid-19th century. In the new edition, the word will be replaced in each instance by "slave". The word "injun" will also be replaced in the text.

The new edition's Alabama-based publisher, NewSouth books, says the development is a "bold move compassionately advocated" by the book's editor, Twain scholar Dr Alan Gribben of Auburn University, Montgomery. It will have the effect, the publisher claims, of replacing "two hurtful epithets" in order to 'counter the 'pre-emptive censorship' that Dr Gribben observes has caused these important works of literature to fall off curriculum lists worldwide.'"

I understand that words are hurtful to people, but I'm surprised to hear about this, especially when it seems more like a decision to omit any sort of 'bad word' from an established classic, like some sort of algorithm rather than a discussion of humans that understand context, framing and narrative. Surprised most of all that a so-called scholar of Twain's works would advocate something like this. A scholar in favor of desecrating the written work of an American Classic author, I can think of no greater insult than to alter or censor an artist's work- long after they're dead, too.

Huck Finn wasn't my favorite book in the curriculum back when I was in high school, I just thought it was OK. I do like Mark Twain, though. As I remember it, Huck was an unreliable narrator, and that became a major thematic device for the whole novel. The word was used that way and it has remained unchanged for so long because the reader is supposed to cringe and not like people using such an ugly word so casually. But his language and choice of words is obviously the lens of that narrator, and we see how he changes over the course of the novel reflects what he has learned from his travels and society around him, including his usage of the n-word.

It's been awhile since I read it, though. Tell me what you think.
I'm more concerned that people seem to think that it's ok to deface an author's own work by changing even a single word of the finished product.

 

[Berethond]

Mark Twain is going to bust out of his grave and murder them all to death while shouting, "CENSOR THIS YOU B*TCHES".

Then he'll write a hilariously awesome book about it.

 

[VanityGirl]

But that's how they talked back then. You can't change dialogue like that.

 

[Count Igor]

It's only offensive because people are too sensitive nowadays.
It was how they spoke. It's not like we're changing every book published out of America and England into the national language.

 

[Caligulust]

It's only one publisher, though.

What bugs me most is that Twain painstakingly wrote the dialect in the book.

Really, slave just doesn't capture the attitude or have the same effect.

 

[Urh]

It's only one publisher, though.

Precisely. Right now you can get Huck Finn fully uncensored and FREE over at Project Gutenberg. It saddens me that Bowdlerizing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bowdler] is alive and well in the 21st Century.

 

[Magnatek]

Yeah, there's already been a few Twain historians crying against this move. One was on CNN and was passionate against the whole thing. By passionate, I mean I have a feeling that he may have gone on much longer if he wasn't stopped midsentence to move on to other news of the day.

Personally, I'd be ticked if I saw a copy of Mark Twain without that language. I mean, not only was it the language of that age, it actually helps to set the overall mood of the story. You can't just go and change that, even IF the author is no longer able to stop you.

 

[mattttherman3]

I honestly don't care, I never read it, never will.

 

[infohippie]

That's ridiculous. Do they want to do the same with To Kill a Mockingbird? Do they want to pretend that wasn't the way people spoke in that time and place? Do they think being inoffensive is more important than being truthful?

 

[King Crab]

censorship in any form is not a good thing. this descision is insane, like, frothing at the brains insane. Not just cause of the censorship, bad enough as it is, but because of the reason given.

I mean, ****** is downright offensive now, it has always been used as a derogratory insult, but to just forget about it? to cover it up and pretend it never existed at all? Then, what do we take from it? how can we learn from history if we blank out all the bits that disagree with our sensibilities?

Knowing the word won't make you a racist, though knowing and understanding racisim might help stop it.

Well, anyways, changing the word just strikes me as stupid. You might as well go through all the harry potter books and change the word 'wizard' to 'priest', 'magic' to 'faith in god' and 'spell' to 'miricle', ya know, to prevent children believing magic might be real or anything.

gah, that metaphor was strained.

 

[Nouw]

I'd be pissed if I saw a censored version of a book. I mean, it's how they talked!

You can't change history!

 

[WolfThomas]

It's public domain, why is everyone pissed? You can read the un-edited version for free. Hell if a writer wants to add zombies to it they can, which would be awesome.

Edit: I believe there was a version of Darwin's Origin of Species by creationists that adds footnotes saying how wrong he was, so yeah that's worse I guess...

 

[Canid117]

fucking read it!


that goes for the people who greenlight reality tv too

 

[s0m3th1ng]

If you were to censor Mark Twain for the purpose of removing racism, you would be left with a page and a half of text. Racism was a part of culture back then.
So censoring two words will have about as much of an effect on that as trying to paint a white-washed fence using a white ball-point pen.
Amazing that this is coming from a so-called Twain Scholar.
But, it's their publishing money so they can print whatever they want. More than enough of the real text around nowadays.

 

[knhirt]

I guess this is some kind of misguided attempt to appeal to the hyper-sensitive and politically correct of the US in order to scrape together some easy cash.

Edit: Nicely one-sided poll, here. 45 "no" to 0 "yes". I'm impressed, Escapist.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

That's just crazy. You can't change artwork to fit the modern times, that takes away from the meaning and just ruins it in the process, even something little like this.

You know, they did stuff like this quite a long time ago, although to a larger degree. They burned all inappropriate books and censored others. We now have no records of a big chunk of history because, at that point, culture and standards in society considered the works offencive.

That's admittedly taking the issue too far, but I think it's relevant.

 

[Hatchet90]

Um... what? It's how they talked. Clemens wasn't advocating slavery, he was severely against it in Huck Finn when he's trying to get Jim to safety. Well, can we censor the word out of rap music too? Yeah, instead of using that word, let's use slave, that sounds pretty good. *sarcasm And after that let's take all the cursing and drug references out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Catcher in the Rye. Let's take the old english speak from Shakespeare to make it more modern, yo. Let's take any mention of World War I at out All Quiet On the Western Front, and let's just burn 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, because lord knows those books are predicting the future. God, political correctness is ruining this country's culture.

Here you go, before anyone else does it. Sorry, it was the best quality there was.

 

[onewheeled]

I honestly find it a hell of a lot more offensive that they would replace the word "******", no matter how derogatory and offensive it is, with the word "slave". Just thinking that the two are interchangeable and it wouldn't make any difference in the context is absolutely ridiculous.

And c'mon, that's how they talked! Mark Twain didn't put those words in there for simple shock value, they had a reason to be put into that book.

 

[One of Many]

I hope someone kicks this so-called scholar in the nuts.