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

[Jake the Snake]

*Sigh* People are idiots. Seriously. Do they not realize that's how people talked back then? And that Twain used it to make a point of stupid/ignorant/racist they were? It's a part of the message of the fucking book people! Do you really think Twain, as great an author as he is, would just put an offensive term in a book just because he could? Fuck me.

 

[Eogris]

I voted yes because I thought the question said "do you disagree with this decision?".

 

[Thaluikhain]

The US is becoming a bigger pussy by the second! Fuck this shit, Im moving to Australia bitches!

They are worse off.

Move to Signapore.

Worse off in that the Australian government is only now thinking of allowing an R rating for video games. Unfortunately for America, allowing violence in video games isn't the be all and end all for determining the amount of freedom in a nation.

...

I'm going to say I approve of this decision, because it seems everyone else is against it.

The average American, is a puny-minded creature (excepting, of course, any Americans who happen to be reading this, who are, of course, a credit to their society and the species in general).

The existence of words such as "******" and "injun" in literature would frighten and confuse the average American, who is used to hearing these words only in popular rap songs sung by people making fortunes singing about how poor they are, how bad it is to be discriminated against, and how awesome it is to discriminate against women.

Seeing the word used in such an un-glamourised and market driven setting would remind the average American that racism used to be a serious problem some time long before it was born, and in far off distant places, due to not having enough average Americans around. It then quietly says to itself that nowdays the problem is reversed, and that minorities have far too many rights. Society has to pretend to treat them almost like real Americans like itself nowdays, which is clearly political correctness gone mad. Feeling discriminated against, and in need of something to do rather than follow this train of thought any further, lest it discover anything unpalatable to its mindset, it then goes to download a video entitled "*insert gender based insult* brutally *insert verb* -ed till she cries", featuring a teenaged girl expressing her right to choose an expression of sexuality she'd been coerced into.

...

Or to put it another way, the publishers are just giving an audience what they want, blame the morons who want to stick their head in the sand. Hell, "To Kill a Mockingbird" has been banned in plenty of places, because the racist characters use the word "******", and that might make black people feel uncomfortable to read it. (In the interest of fairness, not just in the US, but in Canada as well. I'll forgo making any "I can't tell the difference" jokes, but it would seem to be a bit redundant.)

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

The US is becoming a bigger pussy by the second! Fuck this shit, Im moving to Australia bitches!

To avoid censorship, you're moving to a country notorious for censoring video games? I think you need to rethink your logic there.

Shit, I totally forgot about that.......what about Canada?

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

The US is becoming a bigger pussy by the second! Fuck this shit, Im moving to Australia bitches!

They are worse off.

Move to Signapore.

Guy already told me, I need to rethink my game-plan

 

[HaloHappy]

This is flat-out retarded. It was written back when that word was common, and while we're on the subject, since when did the N-word become bad? I'm not trying to be racist or anything, but it doesn't seem that bad to me, maybe it's because of the whole slavery thing, I dunno. But anyway, back on topic. I heard that the word to replace 'N*gger' was 'slave'......really? Because y'know, slave to me sounds a whole hell of a lot more demeaning, racist, and insensetive than the N-word. We're living in a society where at any moment you could be called out for saying something offensive, which a century ago was used in just about every sentence. Take a damn joke already and stop trying to censor the world people....also get your head out of your asses, it'll help out a lot.

 

[Gahars]

The US is becoming a bigger pussy by the second! Fuck this shit, Im moving to Australia bitches!

To avoid censorship, you're moving to a country notorious for censoring video games? I think you need to rethink your logic there.

Shit, I totally forgot about that.......what about Canada?

Not too bad, though people have a tendency to explode when they die there, so beware of that.

 

[Kakashi on crack]

I personally don't like people using derogatory terms like that, but considering the time it was written, and the fact that it was how people spoke back then, this is really, really stupid...

Mark Twain was a great writer, don't deface his works because of your inability to get over a few words and live on!

Gah, the idiocy of people never fails to amaze me...

Probably could've come up with an elaborate speech about why they shouldn't censor it, but it isn't worth it.

 

[Del-Toro]

I honestly do not, it's the result of cowardice not on the part of the publisher, but on that of the school system. Actually, they interviewed the publisher and they said that the decision came because many schools were afraid to make use of the book because of the word ****** (it's not racist because I'm typing it, not saying it) and now the cowards could have it without making the one hypersensitive black kid (actually, the complaint is just as likely to be put forward by upper middle class white wanker with no grasp on reality) that every school is afraid they have, but most actually don't (I think most black people can handle some racist language in a book written over a hundred years ago, try to give them a little credit), cry to the NAACP.

 

[Worgen]

they gonna call him N-word Jim like in family guy, now?

they are replacing the n word with the word slave, which is kinda what the n word means anyway

 

[Flamezdudes]

I don't understand this, thats how they talked back then so in a way you're destroying what the writer's made which gives emphasis on how people treated African's.

This is something irrelavent but something similiar happens in TV shows and Films of historical importance nowadays where they will randomly throw in an African or Asian person into a historical era of an overwhelming Caucasian population, so it doesn't make sense...

 

[Thaluikhain]

This is flat-out retarded. It was written back when that word was common, and while we're on the subject, since when did the N-word become bad? I'm not trying to be racist or anything, but it doesn't seem that bad to me, maybe it's because of the whole slavery thing, I dunno. But anyway, back on topic. I heard that the word to replace 'N*gger' was 'slave'......really? Because y'know, slave to me sounds a whole hell of a lot more demeaning, racist, and insensetive than the N-word. We're living in a society where at any moment you could be called out for saying something offensive, which a century ago was used in just about every sentence. Take a damn joke already and stop trying to censor the world people....also get your head out of your asses, it'll help out a lot.

The word "******" was always bad. It was used casually way back when, but nowdays "black people" isn't a contradiction in terms, so you can't say it.

Of course, removing the hostile word instead of removing the hostile attitude just meant that the next lot of terminology became viewed as offensive.

 

[Catalyst6]

This seems like a dangerous precedent. I've never been one to subscribe to the Slippery Slope Fallacy, but the kind of people that do these things are known for taking an inch and running it for a mile.

This just in! To Kill A Mockingbird has removed the trial altogether, Lovecraft's Rats In the Walls now features "Good Fellow Man", and Gone With the Wind contains the phrase "Frankly, my dear, I respect your right to express your distaste but I am unable to summon the compassion to create an adequate response. Tea?" and other gems.

Oh, and the Civil War has been removed from the textbooks. It was making us look bad.

 

[Sevre]

Michael Tomasky's take [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2011/jan/07/usa-marktwain-huck-finn-no-n-word]

I highly recommend everyone to read that, I'm indifferent to it though. I can see why they'd do it, but still, it kind of wrecks the anti-racist message of the book.

 

[Demonicdan]

Removing offensive words from classic books would just make it seem less consistent with the time it was written, this could be a very slippery slope. Just imagine if they tried this with other old books, like trying to make "The Art Of War" more acceptable for pacifists or the Bible more acceptable for Muslims.

 

[Demonicdan]

Sorry for double post, I got the captur wrong and had to do it again, but it must have posted anyway.

 

[Exterminas]

That's pretty normal stuff in germany. Almost all the bazi literature as been censored to spare the feelings of the uews.

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

Starts with eliminating the n-word, not long now until the blasters in Star Wars are replaced with walkie talkies, South Park was right!

 

[Numachuka]

And here was me thinking books would be immune to this sort of thing. At least it's only one stupid publisher who nobody will buy from.