A publisher is releasing a new version of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, excising the “n” word from the text. The move comes as a reaction to censorship-minded public schools, which have methodically banished the book from English curriculum.
Publishers Weekly reports NewSouth eliminated 219 uses of the word in the book.
“This is not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colorblind,” said the Twain scholar who came up with the idea. “Race matters in these books. It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”
If you’ve read the book, would the loss of the “n” word alter your appreciation of Twain’s opus? Do you think the benefits of reaching a larger audience with “cleaned up” text offset the damage in altering a masterpiece?
Upcoming NewSouth ‘Huck Finn’ Eliminates the ‘N’ Word [Publishers Weekly via San Francisco Chronicle]
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Bizarre.
A book is not only a story being told but also a reflection of the time it was written in. To “sanitise the language” has a 1984 vibe to it.
War is Peace, after all.
…. Wasn’t there a “Family Ties” episode about this 20 years ago?
I’d like to quote something said on another forum about this topic: “If reading about people calling Jim a nigger makes some southerners uncomfortable, I say that’s a good thing. It’s part of the history of the south and it needs to be confronted and acknowledged. Trying to sanitize it does more harm than good, I say.”
Instead of reading a classic which could be used as a discussion point, these people are being cowards and completing skirting around the entire issue. This is appalling.
Our society has already had remarkable success sanitizing the history of the South, so why stop now? Look at the success of the “state’s rights†concept, which would have us believe that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery or that Jim Crow was nothing at all like apartheid. It’s the same mindset where someone can have a Stars & Bars decal on their truck and claim it symbolizes freedom, not terrorizing black people. Facts are facts and some things have inherent meanings regardless of what people would like them to mean.
“It’s the same mindset where someone can have a Stars & Bars decal on their truck and claim it symbolizes freedom, not terrorizing black people”
.. or black people using the “n-word” and saying it’s okay for THEM (and only them) to use it because they’re trying to ‘reclaim it’?
I think it’s important for people to know the word was there at one point. This probably makes it harder for people to know that, or it at least makes it so it doesn’t hit people as hard.
Yes, there was a time when we, as a country, thought that word was acceptable. Yes, we don’t feel that way any more. This change is attempting to erase that.
Yeah … I don’t really agree with it.
No need to “pirate” the original book. Its copyright has long expired and it’s freely available. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76
It’s a horrible, hideous word, but I really don’t agree with this. What’s next, taking all offensive words out of the dictionary? Wiping all references to slavery from the history books? Things happened in the past, ugly things, but we can’t just pretend they didn’t happen. That book was written during a time in history when that word was commonly used. We shouldn’t go around re-editing every book with a bad word in it. I promise kids aren’t going to suffer from reading that word, in fact, I think it’s a good thing for them to read it because it illustrates how things USED to be versus how they are now.
Students everywhere celebrate the desecration of yet another celebrated piece of literature by blasting rap songs laced with racially offensive language.
Thank you Ministry of Truth!
Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.
I first read this book when I was 8 offensive words and all. I wasn’t horribly traumitized, infact I wasn’t even phased by it. Since I didn’t know what the word meant I asked my mom who had me look it up then we talked about what it meant. I knew that there were racial slurs, being half Mexican I had been called some, and I knew that only small-minded, ignorant people used them. This generation of kids is going to be in for a world of hurt and confusion when they leave the nest and mommy isn’t there to keep all the bad, mean things out of their life and hand them everything on a silver platter.
What audiences would finally read this book now that the word nigger is out of the book? Those school boards? The book burners? The anti-historians? The racists?
But the strange thing is the word nigger then– was prevalent, so much so, that an average 10 year old boy would think of nothing but to call a black man a nigger. (Even if he feels or learns to feel bad about it later.) But the word nigger has so much more gravitas as a heinous expression given all those more years of pervasive racism.
But, I believe it should still be as kept in as tool for learning. You don’t whitewash it out and forget it. And certainly I’m not even touching the issue that it is ART and should be kept whole. Sure, you want to make a derivative work or adaptation on TV, radio, Broadway or the movies?? Have at it, I won’t like it as well, but it IS more understandable to me.
Why not just take the typical leftist “solution” and destroy all copies of the book? I’m sure the left would be up for a good book-burning in the name of political correctness. Maybe they can label Huck a “hate crime terrorist” and start screaming about having to destroy the book for the sake of the children. People who read things like the NYT would be all for that.
God first made an idiot. That was for practice. Then he made a school board.
Language matters. Writers choose their words carefully. This is despicable.
Dear “Twain scholar” (Do you happen to have a name?):
“”Race matters in these books. It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”"
How can you assume that the idea of “how you express that in the 21st century” is more important than how it was originally expressed?
Sadly you sound like a visionary with one eye.
As a school teacher, I have been repeatedly shot-down when I have attempted to teach from these books in my classroom. Even attempting to get letters of permission from parents was denied by those above be because of the backlash it was likely to cause.
The value of “Huck Finn” doesn’t come solely from the use of the n-word. And removing it will also remove a HUGE barrier for me when it comes to letting my students appreciate the rest of what the book has to offer. I would love to buy a complete class set of these editions for my class. This thrills me in a way few things have.
I’ve read the original and it holds a treasured place on my bookshelf. I love it and would never want it to go away. But printing this edition doesn’t make all the original copies cease to exist. There are many abridged versions of this tale out there and I originally read one of them when I was a child. It inspired me to read the full version as an adult. As long as someone points out that the book being read is “not” the original… and the original remains available (which I can’t see changing)… this is awesome.
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.
Twain said that. New South should have listened.
First, there is a lot of other junk called art which is merely bad pornography which would be much more deserving of censorship.
Second, we ought to be more worried about of what we are teaching. Someone found the textbook that was being taught by Scopes in the “scopes trial” fame http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/hunt196.htm which states the Negro race is the lowest and the Caucasian the highest. What other nonsense are we teaching today that 50-100 years from now will make us appear to be barbaric?
Huck Finn has ugly parts but they are supposed to be ugly. It was ugly. Sanitizing it makes it appear that everyone was much nicer back then.
Isn’t this just one version of the book though? Not that I’m condoning what they’ve done, but surely there are alternative versions that are available that are true to the writer’s version.
I haven’t read all the comments yet, but I’m looking forward to the “slippery slope we are all switching to newspeak soon” posts.
Good thing I can download all the n words I want from Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/ No PC there
I hate that word. I will say a lot of nasty things and curse like a sailor but despise the use of that word. However this book should not be censored. The use of the word is important for the context of the book. And censoring it is just plain wrong.
Ahhh, revisionist history. It’s what’s for dinner.
Going back and editing things to fit the current worldview seems pretty Orwellian to me.
Next, I hope they FINALLY put pants on Michelangelo’s David in all the history and art books used in the classroom!
writers have a way to give their books the touch of realism. during the period that this book was written the verbiage was the language of the day. Mark Twain did a very good job of writing in this book. very authentic. The people who want to change the classics to reflect the changes in verbiage should look at themselves and cry, What next the bible? Censorship in any form is still censorship. Should these changes take place then History will not be history but the reflections of a few misguided individuals that believe that classics and history can be changed to give themselves a pat on the back to sooth their ego’s They are in my own opinion are misguided fools that cannot accept that the world is not exactly what they want it to be.
Institute a ESRB for books. Just slap an “M” rating on Huck Finn and other books and call it good.