Debate Rages Over Sanitized Version Of Huckleberry Finn

Before the holidays, there was much debate about the appropriateness of giving elementary school kids poetry with references to crackheads performing oral sex. City Councilman Charles Barron argued that 'Huckleberry Finn' was more offensive, since it included over 200 uses of the N-word. While nobody may want Barron to be their Governor, it seems as though the publishing industry was listening: Publishers Weekly announced the release of a new edition of the Mark Twain classic, which will leave out the N-word entirely. And that hasn't gotten anybody riled up at all.

The new edition of the book will substitute "slave" for the N-word, and "Indian" for "injun," and will be released in February. The changes have gotten a lot of bad press and inspired a lot of nasty e-mails so far, but the book's editor, Professor Alan Gribben, who teaches English at Auburn University, argued to the Birmingham News that critics were proving his point: “One thing that has amused me about it is that in the e-mails that take me to task for substituting the word ‘slave,’ not one of these hotly worded e-mails has mentioned the n-word...They won’t say the word, and they won’t write the word.”

While some have argued that Gribbens has committed literary rape, bandying words such as “censorship” and “political correctness,” Gribbens maintained to the Times that he suggested the changes in order to save the book, which he feared had fallen off school reading lists: I’m by no means sanitizing Mark Twain. The sharp social critiques are in there. The humor is intact. I just had the idea to get us away from obsessing about this one word, and just let the stories stand alone.”

The larger problem for some is trying to figure out if and where to draw the line on this sort of literary rewording, and how far this could (or should) be taken. Novelist, poet and critic Ishmael Reed, whose new book is “Barack Obama and The Jim Crow Media, The Return of the Nigger Breakers,” wrote about the conflict in the Observer: "And where would such an enterprise end? Do we censor music lyrics next? Musicals like “Showboat?” Hip hop as we know it would end. Every other song depends upon words that the word patrollers wish to ban. If one censors Mark Twain’s use of the word, why not censor the black writers who use the term? Whose characters use the term?"

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By Ben Yakas in Arts & Entertainment on January 5, 2011 5:02 PM

Comments [rss]

secretsex.6te.net/

Sounds interesting .... I do not know how good it is.

Guest

I showed this to a friend last night and her reply was:
"The 'controversial' word was common vocabulary back then and I hear it on a daily basis now. I'm sure kids do too. You can't shelter them forever."

Seriously... you can't throw around a word on a daily basis when it's to your liking, and then claim it offends you and is derogatory when it's not to your liking.

whitecastlerock

Easy E is rolling over in his grave...

monarda

Excellent article in Guardian UK:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/book...

However, I don't think abridged and edited versions are so bad for beginning readers, as long as they know there is another and more authentic version available for them to read later on.

Peanut_Butter

The new version's silly. But it's something for some people to get very alarmed about, and for the publisher to exploit the "uproar" and make some bucks. Ignore stupidity - it goes away.

Paul_MD

Is there really any debate? Does anyone support this guy or is this just one person who went out and did something controversial to get some attention, and everyone assumes he is part of some larger conspiracy? Kinda like how the "war on Christmas" only existed in the minds of media who were trying to get people riled up?

Politburo

Exactly. No one owns the rights to Huck Finn. Any other publisher can choose to put out the original version. There really isn't any censorship occurring. Don't like it? Don't buy it.

ANGRYGOD11

I just can't wait for the politically correct version of Mein Kampf.

smorrebrod

Since censoring books through alteration, removal, or substitution and burning books are practically one and the same, and I am against both of them and thus we cannot go take these to the bonfire, how about finding these books and putting stickers like TRAVESTY, CENSORSHIP, etc on these in book stores and adding comments in online shops.

xXxMExXx

If they want to make the story more contemporary, why not change it to “nigga?"

Merf Derf

heard howard stern say that this morning

smorrebrod

Professor Gribben is going to get a hotly worded email and it will prominently feature the word NIGGER because the word NIGGER is a horrible word but a word nonetheless. NIGGER is a part of the dialect that these Southerners have and it is quintessential to understanding Mark Twain's ideas. To not be aware of the existence of the word NIGGER in 19th Century America is to not be aware of slavery. Not including NIGGER reduces the severity of the word NIGGER leading to a harsher return of the word NIGGER among future generations who will not be aware of potent hate of the word NIGGER.

Merf Derf

“This is not an effort to render “Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Huckleberry Finn’ colorblind,” he said. “Race matters in these books. It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”

-Alan Gribben

Does anyone else realize how tremendously ignorant this makes "professor" Gribben sound? No professor worth a dime would make such an utterly ridiculous statement. I would love to have a chat with him.

snickerdoodlegoth

Will political correctness finally come to an end? The stupidity of it all is destroying our culture, our common sense, and now it's destroying classic literary works. Mark Twain would be incredulous and then rightly incensed.

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." –Mark Twain

nicemarmot

I can only imagine what Mark Twain himself would have to say about this.

Guest

Ridiculous. Political correctness gone to far.
The magic of Twain is that he wrote using dialect like "injun," preserving the time and place's dialect for future generations.
All of our children are doomed to be walking clones, never saying a harsh word to anyone, never having a real opinion. Sad world.

xXxMExXx

We don’t need to burn books… We will just edit their content!

PaulaNYC

Oh, GROW UP!!! I am so sick and tired of this politically correct speech, it makes me sick to my stomach. So, are we to "clean up" all the art and literature that uses disparaging terms for every group that's "offended"?

Imagine "The Godfather" without Jack Woltz tirade against Tom Hagen?
Or M*A*S*H when one of the black players tells "Spearchucker" Jones he lost his temper during the football game and incurred a penalty becuase the opposing lineman called him a "nigger"?Or "To Kill a Mockingbird" or virtually ANY war movie ("Krauts", "Japs", "Dinks", "Slopes", etc. etc. etc.)

Do we give exceptions for historical context or do we ban the word, Councilman? When we show videos of Bull Connor loosing the dogs, shall we dub the old videotape so that he says, "African Americans", or will future generations be able to hear hiis ugly, racist, tirade against "niggers" and then see the video of his cruelty against men, women, and children that outraged millions of Americans?

Or, if we're NOT banning the word altogther, who is to judge, Mr. Barron? YOU? (Setting up a lifeboat when term limits force you from office, perhaps?)

Charlie Barron must have gotten a HUGE donation from the AMPAS additional dialogue recorders' unions. This is going to give them work for the next 30 years!

chuzzlewit

the trick is to start censoring and act like it's FUN. muse to yourself out loud things like" Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like censorin' these works. does a boy get a chance to censor works every day??" sooner than you know it people will be clamoring to do the censoring for you, even trading you apples, slingshots, etc. for the privilege!