Outrage Over New Edition of "Huckleberry Finn"

reply to post by TXRabbit


If they took all the cuss words out of rap music,
it would be an instrumental only.
I hate rap,my kid drove me nuts listening to 2live crew!

Originally posted by Erongaricuaro
I am going to go against the crowd here. I have not seen the movie so have to take that into consideration.

It may not be Twain's words but movies are most often not. Read the book! That said, I don't think it is such a bad change. I grew up in the 50's and that is the way we talked then but that has changed and most people think that is for the better. In the 50's we were a bunch of bigoted idiots not so much because it was in our hearts but that it was in our speech and therefore in our minds.

I am quite sure the movie, though I have not seen it yet, can still tell this epic story quite well without the the use of racial epitaphs. The speech in the movie can reflect the times and feelings of those days without speaking verbatim words used but words that reflect the feeling. As a kid in the 50's I used the n-word as did most of us but that was without feeling animosity toward the people it was referring to. We can drop the use of the word today and still reflect what was in the hearts and minds of the people then. Most of us now can speak our hearts and still be kind. Those words mean something different today than they did then.

The media is a reflection of our times. If you want Twain's words, read the book.

edit on 5-1-2011 by Erongaricuaro because: (no reason given)

What movie are you talking about?

They aren't talking about a movie... they are talking about changing his words in the book....

from 'n-word' to slave

This is ludicrous.. You cannot just "clean up" the classics... What's next!?! To kill a mockingbird?!?!

Anabelle lee didn't die by the sea!?!

reply to post by DaMod


We have a front row seat to how revisionist history operates in this example, yet so many still cling to a belief that historical records and sacred texts are immune to human corruption based upon political correctness or cultural agenda.

Mind you, I in no way support the ideaology of racism and the negative emotions the "n-word" can be a catalyst for to so many people. However, this is a work of literature, many years old now. A work that represents a culture and a time that is different from ours. It is a gateway into our past not a handbook for our present and any reader possessing even minimum intelligence can see it as such.

Once again, rewriting the past to be acceptable to our present is nothing new and this should be an eye-opening experience to so many on how civilization really works...but sadly it won't be.

And so it begins. . . .
Not with a bang, but with a simple bottle of "white-out".

Errant Edit...

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Over-reach and a disservice to Sam Clemens' legacy. Racism has always been about context and motivation...and to deny folks the chance to figure that out for themselves is never right.

It denies the reader the chance to think...and that is as ugly and edit as any author should have to endure.

A couple of Twain quotes..

•I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can't be any worse.

•There are many humorous things in the world: among them the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.

Have we all become so politically correct that even the mention of the "N" word would cause irreparable harm?

That is unless you listen to rap music. Then the "N" word flies around like a swam of killer bees.

So, if we have to edit Huck Finn to be politically correct, I think that the music industry needs to edit the "N" word out of all music.

When you change literature to kowtow to political correctness, you are trying to erase history. That is wrong. History exists and it's not always pleasant to read the actual words that were written but that doesn't mean that we should change them.

It seems to me that each generation of African Americans comes up with a new term with which to designate themselves. In my lifetime, it started with the word Negro. In the sixties, the term became Black. How many people still remember the Black Power salute from the 1968 olympics? Black Power Image

Being the respectful person that I am, I then referred to African Americans as Black. Fast forward a generation and if one uses the term "Black" then they are racist. So now I use the term African American. Many of you will find yourselves being called racist in another generation when you use the term African American.

Now, we have a lawsuit about the use of the "N" word by a white newscaster. He was fired for using the actual word. Here is a short quote from the article . "Tom Burlington claims he was a victim of reverse discrimination, in being terminated for asking whether it was okay to use “'n-word'” on the air in a story about the NAACP in Philadelphia holding a symbolic burial for the word. His co-anchor, Joyce Evans, who is African-American, confronted Burlington after the meeting, allegedly telling him he was being insensitive about trying to use the n-word. Evans was not actually present at the meeting. Link to word use article

Will this get reported correctly in the MSM or will they have to use euphmisims to describe the "N" word. This is just so much silly political correctiness.

I never understood why people would willingly want to keep a word in based solely on some principle of free speech.

You know the power of the word, you know the negativity of the word. You know how the word was used in the past, and what it's connection is... yet you still defend it.

The quote "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" is BS in this case.

People need to learn balance and stop working in absolutes.


P.S. Why is this being re-issued anyway? Come up with something new to fit this era. Jeez

reply to post by mamabeth


No it wouldn't. Stop exaggerating.

the book is 290 pages long, the n-word is said over 200 times. come on, they're other names to call a black guy. mark twain could have kept the n-word under 10 times and still have made the same point.

i bet that's why the book was so popular in his day. the toothless hillbilly hicks in the south couldn't get enough of the n-word.

Originally posted by randomname
the book is 290 pages long, the n-word is said over 200 times. come on, they're other names to call a black guy. mark twain could have kept the n-word under 10 times and still have made the same point.

i bet that's why the book was so popular in his day. the toothless hillbilly hicks in the south couldn't get enough of the n-word.

you put far too much stock in the real impact of a single word. Really.

I am not a toothless hillbilly. Not by any stretch. I loved those two books. It helped me understand the world that our industrialized nation is coming from, and helped me connect with the mindset of our ancestors.

Is the racism disgusting? Sure....we are a disgusting species. No matter how much you try to hide that ugly toe, while at the beach everyone will still see it.

reply to post by Q2IN2Y


Ridding ourselves of the word would not do away with racism or hatred, it would only leave us a word short.
I have no doubt it would take little time to make up a brand new one. The issue you should worry about is racism, not the words we use to describe or explain it.

This is simply stupid. The word itself doesn't contain the offence, but the power behind it and the intention of the user. These books don't support slavery at all, in fact the opposite is true.

But allowing the powers in control to change books based upon their "enlightened" points of view opens doors to revisions in all kinds of literature.

So what is the line that we shouldn't cross here? What books are they going to go after next? When will we say enough is enough?

Originally posted by Q2IN2Y
I never understood why people would willingly want to keep a word in based solely on some principle of free speech.

You know the power of the word, you know the negativity of the word. You know how the word was used in the past, and what it's connection is... yet you still defend it.

The use of it in Huck Finn is because of what you pointed out... it's to show how horrible it was...

Twain was not a racist, and used the word only when referring to Southerners who used it...

He did so to show how dehumanizing we humans can be....

This is all of our history.... and his book was commentary on that history... thus it should stay.. unwashed...

reply to post by HunkaHunka

Oh good grief - this sort of thing has been going on since time immemorial. There' are even terms for it: bowdlerization or expurgation. In the early 1820s in England Thomas Bowdler got the bright idea to make Shakespeare more appropriate for reading by children and women (!), by removing or rewritting the vulgar parts. I believe he also redid Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I don't like the idea of messing with the classics and think that this is silly, but every year you hear about parents, some conservative religious nut cases and others liberal, who throw fits because their precious little children might sully their eyes and ears with a bad word. Several upthread posters are indeed correct. People in Twain's times spoke like this and thought like this. Who is to say what expressions we use today will be considered vulgar or offensive 50 or 60 years from now?

Already a thread from yesterday:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Whereweheaded
Already a thread from yesterday:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

.... IN ANOTHER FORUM!!!

Please read the T&C....

Originally posted by HunkaHunka

Outrage Over New Edition of "Huckleberry Finn"

ac360.blogs.cnn.com

New editions of the American classics "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" are in the works with all the N-words taken out. Is it censorship? Our panel weighs in on the controversy. Plus, an inside look at the Falcon Lake murder. John Walsh weighs in on the cold case along the Texas-Mexico border. Was the victim killed by Mexican pirates? His body has never been found.

(visit the link for the full news article)

ATS'rs who voted for Obama -- this is what you get. You deserve it! What does this have to do with Obama? Everything.

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Negative! Regardless of forums T & C Rules suggest moderators to remove any " repeat " topics.