Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
I read with alarm about the upcoming publication of a new version of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in which all instances of the 'n' word will be removed. Political correctness run amok is nothing new, but this is a particularly upsetting example.
Denuding Huckleberry Finn of the 'n' word is a truly vile act, distorting the artist's depiction of the time and depriving students of the ability to talk about why a respectable and iconic American author would, in 1884, deploy the word freely, or why the word would be used by the characters—who exist in antebellum America—in the manner depicted.
The small risk of students reading this 126 year old book and missing the point of the exercise is a poor reason for vandalizing a novel. I feel sorry for the students on whom the new version is foisted (by cowardly school boards, no doubt) who will now miss the point about Twain, about Missouri in the 19th century, and about the book's impact on society. They won't even have the opportunity to confront and discuss the controversy that has long followed the book because the controversy—and therefore part of our own ugly history on race—will be hidden in the attic, like the crazy aunt about whom we dare not speak.
This edition will drop "Injun" too, making clear that capitulating to the demands of political correctness is a slippery slope leading directly into an abyss in which the only currency is umbrage and competitive victimhood. What book is next up in having its sensibilities reshaped to comply with the mores of the censorious left or the censorious right? Will The Catcher in the Rye be stripped of its now-unacceptable homophobia?
Morally, publishing this edition is worst than banishing the book outright from the school library. If they banned the book, students might at least seek it out and read it themselves (any young person worth his or her salt will seek out whatever their overseers don't want them to see or read—banning a book is like hiring a phalanx of publicists). Before reading this book, students will be able to correctly answer the question "Have you read Huckleberry Finn?" After reading it, they will not.
Some people will be too stupid to get that Huckleberry Finn is descriptive, not prescriptive. A rubber-cornered world made safe for dullards is a world made dim and dismal for all.
Maybe next these defacers of prose can set to work on a version of The Merchant of Venice purged of anti-Semitism, in which Shylock is a Brobdingnagian. Or an elf.
"Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot." —Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884
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Nov '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
On the other hand, kids quickly pick up on the fact that there's something being hidden and will use it to embarrass teachers to no end. I remember my own high school years of discovering the Reeve's Tale and the Miller's Tale in the unexpurgated Chaucer, and digging for double entendre in Shakespeare. It opened the door to literary enjoyment. Bowdlerization only works when authorities can censor all copies of a book, not just the ones they distribute.
Jul '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
Kids can sniff out certain types of manipulation from miles away.
Aug '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
Having read through local newspapers on the microfiche in libraries for research I have noticed thst the "n" word was used frequently in reportage up to the fifties . As they fail to change all instances of this so-called "hateful word" then they prove themselves to be the idiots that messed with the Great American Novel but neglected the rest . Some justice in that . Thankfully I have old versions in print , in Kindle , and in memory . Huck damned near died but for Jim, he loved him and that will remain. Their efforts weaken the story.
Edited on Jan 5, 2011 at 7:18amMay '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
It would be a travesty to do that to Twain's masterpiece.
Jul '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
I'm generally an opponent of the ever-lengthening duration of copyrights—bringing up the Bono copyright extension bill is a surefire way to send me into a righteous rant—so this may be the first time I've wished an old book was still under copyright, so some heir to Twain's estate could sue to prevent this bowdlerization.
I'm still against copyright extensions, but a boy can dream, right?
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
What a great post, A Murder of Cows (I feel strange calling you that!). I believe that in the new edition, the "n-word" is going to be replaced with "slave" throughout.
The question--in the eyes of the media and academic establishment--is whether this is a necessary update to the book. Of course, the media and the academics will cheerlead that it is (and say that that is a good thing), but undoubtedly, the facts and censorship history of the book indicate that this is merely a PC rewrite.
Jun '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
I believe then, Huck, and Jim (the escaped Walmart employee,) become stowaways on a Carnival Cruise ship that just happens to be hosting a gay singles event. Other than that, and the language, it's exactly the same as the original.
Dec '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
"A rubber-cornered world made safe for dullards is a world made dim and dismal for all."
Except, of course, for the rubber-corner salesman who must constantly be on alert for corners that need covering! We've covered many current and future corners, but the past is an untapped market!
Editing Twain for political correctness is disgraceful. And stupid.
Dec '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised ... they apparently are not allowing comments on the New South blog post announcing this "improved" edition.
Nov '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
It is worth noting that Twain tackled racism and bigotry head-on in Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), a lesser-known novel that deserves a lot more attention. That book contains one of the most trenchant passages ever written about slavery:
"To all intents and purposes Roxy was as white as anybody, but the one sixteenth of her which was black outvoted the other fifteen parts and made her a Negro. She was a slave, and salable as such. Her child was thirty-one parts white, and he, too, was a slave, and by a fiction of law and custom a Negro."
Also, why are we being such hypocrites with all this precious talk about the "n-word"? Anyone who reveres English literature must eventually encounter Joseph Conrad's The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' (1897). Conrad was a Pole who did not become fluent in English until he was a young man. Yet today he is recognized as a supreme master of English prose. If the word nigger is good enough for him, it is good enough for all of us. What is the point of condemning the censorship if we are too politically correct to name the word being condemned?
Nov '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
That blurb is so prissy and self-righteous that reading it made my teeth hurt.
May '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
Vandals! Philistines! Fools! As Ambrose Bierce said, "They should be whipped with scorpions naked through the world."
Twain puts the objectionable noun into the mouths of the white characters to make a point about how degraded they are. The runaway slave Jim is such a noble man that he is beyond the insult of the ignorant white overclass. That these stupid nannies can't see that is a testament to our collective national block-headedness and intellectual dishonesty.
This is on par with the bully boys of the protestant reformation smashing every sacred and beautiful image in pursuit of novel ideology. Comes a new era of darkness.
Jun '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
If a school were to stage a play of Huckleberry Finn I would likely insist such changes be made. Change things in such circumstances is usually standard procedure. I see no problem in adapting an original work for a different audience so long as it's presented as an adaptation. It's done with Shakespeare all the time.
Changing the original, however, would be a huge mistake. Original means just that. Any changes, for any reason, to the original violates historical accuracy. The original is written in the context of it's time and changing it would be worse than simply rewriting a book, it would be rewriting history.
If schools want to adapt Twain's work for a modern audience, and I can see where doing so might make some sense given the grade level of the students and the depth of discussion the class might be capable of, then the text should be clearly labeled as an adaptation.
Jun '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
And of course the "N" word can be found in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and The Autobiography of Malcom X and a great deal of literature written by black authors. Is purging the word from Huckleberry Finn really an example of reverse racism because Twain was white? Are only black authors permitted to use it? I mean to be completely politically correct should all usages be removed everywhere?
The word was originally used in Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein's Show Boat in the song Ol' Man River...but removed when the film was made in the 50's. Given the subject matter of Show Boat and Oscar Hammerstein's heroic efforts to bring the issue of racism front and center in Show Boat and later in South Pacific it's a travesty to tamper with these works of art because it gives young people the impression that writers like Twain, Hammerstein must have been racist when they were precisely the opposite.
Perhaps like the Soviet Union and China which should also begin to airbrush out images of black slaves from the Civil War era photographs because they are so offensive - arguable more offensive than a mere word?
Edited on Jan 5, 2011 at 10:25amNov '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
At a certain point, censorship becomes unintentional parody. From the Wiki:
"A bowdlerised edition [of The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'] was issued in 2009 by WordBridge Publishing under the title The N-word of the Narcissus in an effort 'to remove this offence to modern sensibilities': in this version, all occurrences of the word 'nigger' throughout the text have been replaced by 'n-word.'"
http://www.wordbridge.net/reprint/narcissus.htm
As unintentional parodies go, this one is hilarious. Everytime the reader stumbles over the term "n-word" in the text, he is forcefully reminded of the word he is not supposed to be thinking about. So the censorship is not only pointless, but downright counterproductive. It also creates linguistic "speed bumps" that completely destroy the rhythm and momentum of the prose. The whole misguided project is an aesthetic travesty and a perfect demonstration of the basic insanity of political correctness.
Edited on Jan 5, 2011 at 8:31amJul '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
They are "moderating" the comments. I expect to see a neat balance of pro and con when this process has concluded. I had the pleasure of googling Alan Gribben and expressing my opinion of him in a manner that I felt suited the occasion, and I recommend you do likewise.
Jun '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
I spent some time thinking on this, putting my thoughts down elsewhere yesterday, trying to determine what level of outrage I should feel about the alteration of an artist's original content. I eventually came down as a textual purist. I did have a weak moment, when I compared my thinking on this to the practice of dubbing movies so they can be broadcast on television. I've been able to enjoy many a movie on TV with my kids, movies that ordinarily I would prohibit them from watching due to language. Undoubtedly, it is the controversial nature of Finn that necessitates its inclusion in the classroom, because the debate it engenders forces a hard look at the values of yesterday, against which the values of today can be compared (or contrasted). If we whitewash the fence (ahem) that is Finn, we risk doing to Twain the same thing that has happened to Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Still, if the end result of this revision is that Finn finds itself in the hands of a greater number of students than before, I'll find it difficult to grieve over such a perpetuation of a classic of American literature.
Nov '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
Lady Kurobara: At a certain point, censorship becomes unintentional parody. From the Wiki:
"A bowdlerised edition [of The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'] was issued in 2009 by WordBridge Publishing under the title The N-word of the Narcissus in an effort 'to remove this offence to modern sensibilities': in this version, all occurrences of the word 'nigger' throughout the text have been replaced by 'n-word.'"
http://www.wordbridge.net/reprint/narcissus.htm
This travesty was created by Ruben Alvarado, who says: "My motivation for making the change was my own aversion to its profuse use of the n-word, which hindered me from ever getting around to reading it."
What a pansy. Personally, I would be ashamed to admit that my sensibilities were so tender that I was unable to read something written in plain English.
When I was quite young, I managed (through devious means) to get my hands on a copy of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. After reading it, I decided that the book was very dirty and very boring. In my innocence, I think I was much more perceptive than many self-styled "literary critics."
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
This is the most depressing thing I've read in ages. What a desecration! What a totally unacceptable pillaging of the greatest American novel. As someone who loves Twain -- and Huckleberry Finn especially -- this is nothing short of a wholesale trashing of American culture. The people involved, the people publishing, and the editors responsible, should be whipped in the public square -- whipped -- and I'm only 20% kidding.
It robs the novel of its greatest moral moment, when the narrator -- despite being raised in a slave state in a slave time, despite prevailing 19th century American attitudes towards black people, nevertheless chooses loyalty to his friend Jim over the social and legal code.
This is an outrage. The lowest moment of the politically correct culture. Utterly indefensible. They should be ashamed of themselves. Better the book is unread and forgotten than altered and neutered by a bunch of academic know-nothings and cowards.
May '10
Re: Misadventures of Huckleberry Finn
"You can't pray a lie - I found that out." -Huckleberry Finn