What do you think of the Huck Finn drama?
Here's the story if you don't know (via LA Times)
This week, NewSouth Books, a publisher based in Montgomery, Ala., announced plans to release an omnibus edition of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" with a couple of offensive words removed. Most prominent, of course, is "nigger," which appears 219 times in "Huckleberry Finn" and has been the source of repeated efforts to ban or restrict the novel since it was published 125 years ago. In this new edition, the word in question has been replaced by "slave."
To give their project credibility, NewSouth teamed with Alan Gribben, chair of the English department at Alabama's Auburn University, to do the clean-up job. According to Publishers Weekly, Gribben was motivated by his own deep discomfort over the novel's language and by the reactions of younger readers. "After a number of talks," he told PW, "I was sought out by local teachers, and to a person, they said we would love to teach ... 'Huckleberry Finn,' but we feel we can't do it anymore. In the new classroom, it's really not acceptable."
I think it's crazy! You can't change history but you can learn from it
ReplyDeleteNo, in the context of the story it is appropriate.
ReplyDeleteAre they calling him "nigra jim" atleast?
Unfortunately, it needs to stay, so people don't ever forget where we have came from. We need context now more than ever. To erase that ugly word, that ugly truth, would be to erase the trauma, the suffering, the struggle, and the eventual triumph of all those who have been and will be oppressed.
ReplyDeleteI like the concept. If making a simple change like this will allow the book to be taught in school, then I'm all for it.
ReplyDeleteNo censorship or changing a classic. I agree with Kyle who expressed this so well.
ReplyDeleteLeave it alone. It's correct within the story and the history it represents. So I guess it's safe to assume that viewing Roots is out of the question for the kids of today?
ReplyDelete