Post
by Margaret » Wed January 5th, 2011, 12:07 am
Huckleberry Finn is one of the great books of all time. I wouldn't want to read an edited version, myself. However, if many students (or their parents) simply can't get over the frequent use of the n-word in it but would read an edited version when they wouldn't read it otherwise, I say, put out an edited version - provided the cover copy makes it crystal clear it is an edited version, and there's a preface or something that explains how and why it was edited. I would absolutely hate to have the edited version be the first version I read, just because it happened to be handy and I didn't realize it was the edited version.
For example, I was mystified by the Tony Curtis character in the movie version of Spartacus (not even remotely in the class of Huck Finn), because the version I saw was the 1950s censored version which eliminated the reference to Cassius making homosexual overtures to his slave (Tony Curtis). I didn't understand why the slave suddenly ran off and joined the Spartacan rebellion. A non-censored later cut of the film made perfect sense. I'm afraid a version of Huck Finn with all the N-words eliminated might have a similarly weird effect. The whole point Twain was making was that slavery and the pervasive racism in not just Southern society but the whole U.S. was not OK - and the use of the n-word was part of the point he was making about how pervasive the racism was. But it's not the only way he builds his case - the book won't fail to make its case because the n-words are all edited out.
I grew up in Texas at a time when many white people still used the N-word in an offhand, unembarrassed way (in some places, older Texans still do). It was necessary, I think, to totally banish the word from acceptable discourse in order to get people to stop using it. Any use of it is offensive, really - the supreme irony is that this is part of the very point Twain makes in Huck Finn - he used the word in the novel to make people see that it was offensive. I don't think Twain, actually, would be nearly as bothered by the people who want to edit it out of his novel so more people will read it as he would be by the fact that there are still people in this country today who use the word in a casually racist manner. Thank goodness their number is rapidly diminishing.
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