PC Revisionists Go After Mark Twain's Books

[Ayatollahgondola]

And they complain about those who deny the holocaust,

A publisher wants to remove all the offensive words from Mark Twain's popular books so more people will be able to enjoy them. I guess the bible will be next...

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/04/329...rk-twains.html

In addition to replacing the N-word, Gribben changes the villain in "Tom Sawyer" from "Injun Joe" to "Indian Joe" and "half-breed" becomes "half-blood."

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/04/329...#ixzz1A8WeQ1eT

[rs232c]

Interesting. The past never existed and who can claim the right to say what was intended for us, the future generation?

And sadly, the Bible was already hit years ago.

Revisionist Politics:

1. Teaching your children what you don't want them to know so they can repeat it like it never happened.

2. Doing it for the children, i.e., to protect them from the past of others at the expense of what was learned from the past.

3. To shape the truth, language, character, and essense of all our heritages to further one man's ambitions over another by abandoning hope of ever understaning where we all came from through the termination of self-determination, independant thinking, and free speech.

I have one thing to say to these people: Keep telling yourselves, the Sun revolves around the Earth...the Sun revolves around the Earth...

[Patriotic Army Mom]

It's like peeling an onion, soon the onion will be gone.

[Twoller]

Changing those words are not going to change the actual characters. And the characters are what matters as far as the words go. This whole effort is feeble and vain. We know that these are not acceptable words to use, but we also should know that they were acceptable to many people at one time.

I don't recall the usage in the books when I read them long ago, but I don't think that their usage flattered the people who used the words. If these are to be books honored by the history of American literature, then we need to place them in the context of their times, that's all.

It's OK that somebody wants to release a PC version of Mark Twain's works as long as they have a legal right to do that and distinguish themselves in print from the originals. Abridged novels are acceptable, but we can identify them when they are published.

But actually replacing all editions with a PC version would be a gross violation of the freedom of speech and maybe the legal rights of those who have a right to publish the works.

[Twoller]

The beeb has something to say about this assault on American English literature.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12126700

From that link:

....

"The book is an anti-racist book and to change the language changes the power of the book," said Cindy Lovell, executive director of The Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, Missouri.

"He wrote to make us squirm and to poke us with a sharp stick. That was the purpose," she told Reuters news agency.

The novel has often been criticised for its language and characterisations and it is reported to be the fourth most banned book in US schools.

The "N-word" appears 219 times in the story.

....

"Trying to erase the word from our culture is profoundly, profoundly wrong," said Randall Kennedy, a Harvard Law School professor.

Dr Sarah Churchwell, a lecturer on American literature, told the BBC that it made a mockery of the story.

"It's about a boy growing up a racist in a racist society who learns to reject that racism, and it makes no sense if the book isn't racist," she told BBC World Service's Newshour programme. "You can't make the history of racism in America go away."

....

Twain himself was very particular about his words.

Mark Twain did not take kindly to editing He is quoted as saying that "the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter".

And when a printer made punctuation changes to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Twain wrote later that he had "given orders for the typesetter to be shot without giving him time to pray".

....

[Don]

The right of blacks to use a word denied to white people is simply the use of race to determine the exercise of a constitutional right, i.e. free speech. Weren't the civil rights laws supposed to eliminate this?

Check out this California case where a black "educator" tried to change his name to "Mr. Nigger."

http://www.lawlink.com/research/CaseLevel3/69751

[ilbegone]

Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are master classics, and Samuel Clemens was no racist.

Edit Twain to "protect" kids while ignoring the enormous sexual "message" contained in present entertainment. I don't get it.

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Originally Posted by ilbegone

Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are master classics, and Samuel Clemens was no racist.

Edit Twain to "protect" kids while ignoring the enormous sexual "message" contained in present entertainment. I don't get it.

That is one of the best posts I've ever read!!! What the media shoves in our face is fine in their view, but not the classics. This crap has really gone too far.

[Patriotic Army Mom]

It doesn't matter what channel anymore. My teenagers will be watching something and they are humping, getting ready to hump, the language is bad, etc. etc. The girls say they are older now and they see the messages that are being sent to them, but I've told them if it's watched long enough, they will turn into the trash that they are seeing. It's beyond bad.