Speaking Volumes

lf you know me, you might call me a peace keeper, one of those people who hate controversy and will do anything to avoid an altercation. I absolutely hate to debate subjects about religion, money or race. But the subject a new edition of Huck Finn which cleans up Mark Twain's classic by substituting slave for nigger, and indian for injun has me riled. What were they thinking? Would Mark Twain be rolling over in his grave or would he welcome the conversation?

l'm so mad I shouldn't even credit the new edition's writer or its' publisher but perhaps they deserve their just due. Twain scholar Alan Gribben and NewSouth Books. Justification for this new edition? Gribben states “After a number of talks, I was sought out by local teachers, and to a person they said we would love to teach this novel, and Huckleberry Finn, but we feel we can’t do it anymore. In the new classroom, it’s really not acceptable.” For a single word to form a barrier, it seems such an unnecessary state of affairs,” he said. The "N" word keeps the original Huck Finn out of many middle and high school classrooms.

What happened to teachers who would actually look at this as a teaching opportunity, discussing the history of the term, talking about language and the way it changes? You know, actually "Talk About It"! How can our young people know who we are and how we got here if our history is tidied up or swept under a rug?

Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is fine just the way it is written for me. Many other s agree as supporters came to Twain's defense this past week, including many librarians across the country.

Tom Cooper, director of Webster Groves Public Library seems right on target when he states:

"And this is horrendous because kids who have not otherwise encountered it will now see the censored version, and there will be the tendency to think 'what's all the talk about racism about, it doesn't seem like it's so bad to me . My grandmother was a proud, capable Southern woman, but also a terrible racist, something I often forgot, except it would come rushing back to me whenever she would glibly use the 'n word' to describe her Black neighbors. I shudder even now to remember. Words have power. That's what literature is about. You change the words, you change its essence. Period. "

Hurray for author, Neil Gaiman, who states:

"People asking about [the altered Huck Finn]. It's public domain, so you can make Huck a Klingon if you want, but it's not Mark Twain's book."

Any controversial subject worth its' salt should prompt loads of discussion and almost always, some humorous commentary. I got the biggest kick out of these Naughty Novels as depicted in Nate Beeler's 'Toons published in the Washington Examiner:
 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/nate-beelers-toons/2011/01/naughty-novels
 

You can read an excerpt of the new, and not so improved edition here. Perhaps you disagree with me and have a different point of view about this finagling with Huck Finn. If so, I'd really like to hear it and promise to listen with an open mind.