[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.
You can't change dialogue like that.
