The Adventures ofHuckleberry FinnThe Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn
Mark TwainMark Twain
“A new edition of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of TomSawyer and Huckleberry Finn, forthcoming from NewSouth Books inmid-February, does more than unite the companion boy books in onevolume, as the author had intended. It does more even than restorea passage from the Huckleberry Finn manuscript that first appearedin Twain’s Life on the Mississippi and was subsequently cut from thework upon publication.
“In a bold move compassionately advocated by Twain scholarDr. Alan Gribben and embraced by NewSouth, Mark Twain’sAdventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn also replaces twohurtful epithets that appear hundreds of times in the texts with lessoffensive words, this intended to counter the “preemptivecensorship” that Dr. Gribben observes has caused these importantworks of literature to fall off curriculum lists nationwide.
Should we change Huck Finn?Should we change Huck Finn?
“In presenting his rationale for publication, eloquentlydeveloped in the book’s introduction, Dr. Gribben discusses thecontext of the racial slurs Twain used in these books. He alsoremarks on the irony of the fact that use of such language hascaused Twain’s books to join the ranks of outdated literary classicsTwain once humorously defined as works “which people praise anddon’t read.”
“At NewSouth, we saw the value in an edition that wouldhelp the works find new readers. If the publication sparks gooddebate about how language impacts learning or about the natureof censorship or the way in which racial slurs exercise their banefulinfluence, then our mission in publishing this new edition ofTwain’s works will be more emphatically fulfilled.”
Should we change Huck Finn?Should we change Huck Finn?
“Twain was a man who started out life as a natural, enculturated racistand gradually grew out of it, or as out of it as his time and culturepermitted. Twain was the son of a slave owner, in a town of slaveowners. As a boy he saw his father administer beatings and floggingsand once saw a fellow townsman crush a slave’s head with an iron bar…. As a child, young Clemens found the disemboweled body of amurdered slave, and at fourteen he witnessed the lynching of a blackman accused of raping a white woman.”
He was even known to tell long jokes that were disparaging towardAfrican Americans.
“But by the 1800s Twain had changed; he made impassioned speechesagainst race brutality, paid the Yale tuition of several black students,became friends with Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. Inshort, his natural clearheadedness asserted itself on the issue of racialequality, and it was out of this spirit that Huck Finn came.”
Was Mark Twain a Racist?Was Mark Twain a Racist?
The Roger Ebert ControversyThe Roger Ebert Controversy
“Twitter claims another victim. The chalk outline of film critic Roger Ebertdecorates the expanse of the information superhighway; a painfulreminder of the internet roadkill struck down by the speedingblogosphere.
….
Proponents of the update have argued the original language was (amongother things) antiquated, inflammatory and inconsistent with the countryin which we live today. Opinions from opponents ranged from it being aform of censorship to something borne out of sheer stupidity.
….
Ebert's argument fails because he blithely omits the inextricable linkbetween the two in this case. No slavery... no N-word. See how thatworks? They explicitly reference one another.
Morris W. O’Kelly RespondsMorris W. O’Kelly Responds
“Roger Ebert Misses the Boat”“Roger Ebert Misses the Boat”
The easy part is to simply criticize and lambaste Ebert for not knowinghis "editorial place," for commenting outside the bounds of his personalknowledge or professional expertise. Ebert's history is clear -- he haslong celebrated African-Americans and culture, irrespective of him datingAfrican-American women such as Oprah or eventual wife Chaz. There willbe plenty of negativity directed Ebert's way for "getting too comfortable"and commenting on that which he had no business commenting.
That's the easy part and easy way out.
The hard part is getting America to fall out of love with the idea that sheis a "post-racial" nation. We cannot and should not deny the history thatbrought us to this moment in time in a political, social and eveneconomic disparity sense.
When we look at America's urban communities, its inferior educationsystem and the impenetrable cycles involved in both, "slave" and the N-word are not merely historical footnotes as to how African Americans aretreated in a contemporary sense. Don't let the discussion end with justquips about Roger Ebert.”
Ebert Responds…Ebert Responds…
“Much Ado about the N-thing”“Much Ado about the N-thing”
“My love of Huckleberry Finn is great. I wouldsacrifice every video game in existence rather than loseMark Twain's novel. I've defended Huck Finn for yearsagainst the tone-deaf Puritans who have banned it fromschools for its use of the N-Word. Anyone offended by theuse of that word the way it is used in Huckleberry Finncannot read and possibly cannot think.
The word is spoken by an illiterate 11-year-old runaway on theMississippi River of the mid-19th Century. He has been schooled by hissociety to regard the runaway slave Jim as a Nigger and a thief. Jim's crime:Stealing himself from his owner. Huck reasons his way out of ignorant racismand into enlightenment and grace. He makes that journey far in advance ofmany of his "educated" contemporaries. Part of reading the novel is learningto be alert about how the N-Word is used in that process.
In an outbreak of mealy-minded Political Correctness, an editionof Huckleberry Finn has now been published which meticulously replacesthe word nigger with the word slave. The argument is often put forwardthat a young reader might be traumatized by finding a word in a 19thcentury novel that he hears a hundred times a day. If I were that youngreader, I would be more disturbed by the notion that I was incapable oflearning how and why it was used. But then I am not that young reader,as I was about to be reminded.”
