Hmm, this post is random. But bear with me, I'm a writer and therefore an avid reader. So certain things about words, irk the hell outta me. And I have to say, I found it extremely disturbing to learn that publishers have decided to remove all instances of the 'n -word' and the word, 'Injun' from upcoming editions of Mark Twain's classic novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huh???
According to CNN.com: The effort is spearheaded by Twain expert Alan Gribben, who says his PC-ified version is not an attempt to neuter the classic but rather to update it. “Race matters in these books,” Gribben told PW. “It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”
BLANK STARE
Okay, first of all, what the hell kind of Twain expert would actually believe that censoring the author's work was the right thing to do?? The words that Twain used were selected ON PURPOSE and it was well written.
The novel takes place during SLAVERY. White people referred to slaves as niggers back then (and a whole bunch still do). Jim is a slave. Huck refers to him a nigga. AND??
What's the confusion here? Why are folks pussy-footing around reality?? Because parents and adults don't want to have honest conversations about this country's embarrassing history of race with children??
But you'll let them listen to hip-hop??
COME ON.
*sucks the back of teeth clean*
I think he said he did this because he kept hearing from teachers that they were unable to teach the books in public schools because it was A) difficult for white teachers to read the word out loud to classes and B) parents complained. My solution instead of censoring is that maybe it's a book that gets read in college instead of middle or high school, when people are mature enough to handle the content, not censoring the N word out because it makes us uncomfortable. Hell, it's supposed to make you uncomfortable. That is the beauty of the book.
ReplyDeleteHmm, maybe people are taking this "post-racial" thing a bit too far. If Twain didn't want the words 'nigger' and 'injun' in the book, he wouldn't have put them there.
ReplyDeleteThe book takes place during the days of slavery; people were not politically correct back then. I don't understand how anyone can feel comfortable changing the way someone else wrote a classic book. Essentially, this is changing history. Reading a book like that reminds us of the way whites treated and talked about non-whites; once the words change, so will our history. smh
mz.jonezy