Yeah, it's a stupid idea. The End.
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No, really. Here's why. Mark Twain wasn't a skinhead. Contrary to what Dr. Alan Gribben might have thought, Twain's usage of the "N" word in Huckleberry Finn had very little to do with the modern usage of the word itself. We live in an era where kids start to forget that African American people used to be slaves to the white folk, why, oh why, would you remind them for 200 pages in a mandatory reading. Twain didn't refer them as slaves he just called them...
You Know!
Huckleberry Finn is not only a great novel, it's also a piece of American history. There was a racial problem back then and there's still one today. It's not as bad (nobody OWNS African-Americans anymore) and it surely take another form, but it's still going on. It's important that the "N" word remains, because it's important to remember we used to consider African-Americans as sub-human. We did it, it's a part of history and it's TO NEVER BE REPEATED. Twain understood that and chronicled it through his fiction, in the struggle of Jim. He uses the "N" word as an EXAMPLE.
Also, the term of "slave" is a pretty stupid replacement. It's a direct admission that African-Americans were slaves. Yes, it's OK to remember it, but fiction vehicles ideas through masses, so pound the word "slave" two hundred times in a mandatory reading in high school and white kids are going to call black kids "slave" two hundred times before the end of the day. It's going to confuse a new generation about the racial conflict in the U.S. Things happened for a reason and it's important to remember.
That said, that's what happens when you let an Academic Egghead take a decision with such social reach. These people are disconnected from everything, but their mind.
7 comments:
Great explanation, Ben. I couldn't agree with you more.
That pretty much covers it, yep. An academic white-washing of history.
Not to mention, a complete lack of respect for Mark Twain as an artist and and insult to his own social consciousness.
Good point heath. It IS an insult to Twain also. But that's Academy for you. The guy probably thinks he's so fuckin' brilliant that he doesn't even get that it was written to humanize people we thought were objects.
To sanitize history to this extent is to say that it is meaningless, that it doesn't matter. What an insult. Not only to the people who were degraded and mistreated, but to ourselves and our children.
The censorship is so stupid and I agree that slave is a stupid replacement, though I disagree with it more because "slave" doesn't have the same meaning or the same history of the n-word. As has been pointed out a number of times, Twain used the words he used for a very particular reason.
This is all about limiting Free Speech. After all, censorship is everywhere. The gov’t (and their big business cronies) censor free speech, shut down dissent and ban the book “America Deceived II”. Free speech for all, especially Mark Twain.
Last link (before Google Books bans it also]:
http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000190526
How is the word "slave" less dehumanizing than the "n" word or "injun"? Changing words doesn't change the fact that it happened. Are we going pretend the slave trade didn't happen? or the systematic extermination or Native Americans? What's next? We pretend the Holocaust didn't happen? Oh, wait, there are people who actually believe that.
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