Censored Huck Finn to be published: Pub. Weekly

[Admiral Shran]

^ QFT!

I just love how we have to be so politically correct in order to protect someone else's differing viewpoints, but once a differing viewpoint is actually offered, we'll just drop the Sword of Damocles on your ass.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Dear god. This is deplorable.

Even worse, I hate how the author of the article tries to justify the action:

On the other hand, if this puts the book into the hands of kids who would not otherwise be allowed to read it due to forces beyond their control (overprotective parents and the school boards they frighten), then maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to judge.

That should never, ever be a reason for censorship.

 

[Nowhere Man]

This is so RETARTED!

 

[Aragorn]

This is so RETARTED!

You mean this is so developmentally delayed?

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

But then again, people don't have a problem with classic films being censored when shown on TV. The Exorcist is a pretty important film from a cultural standpoint, but no one cares when TV stations edit out the line about what Father Karras' mother is currently doing in hell.

This is pretty much the same thing. If the original book is freely available and kids can ask their parents to buy it for them, who cares? And as was pointed out upthread, this is hardly the first time Huck Finn has been censored to make it more acceptable for kids.

 

[scotpens]

This is so RETARTED!

You mean this is so developmentally delayed?

No, I mean it’s so “mentally challenged”!

A master chess player competing in a championship game is mentally challenged. A retard is a retard.

 

[Nowhere Man]

What gets me is this idea came from a cracker ass honkey.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

But then again, people don't have a problem with classic films being censored when shown on TV. The Exorcist is a pretty important film from a cultural standpoint, but no one cares when TV stations edit out the line about what Father Karras' mother is currently doing in hell.

That's because the original theatrical versions of those films usually are still available. Will that be the case here? Will the original, non-censored, non-abridged, non-PC-pussified version of this novel still be available?

This is all a bunch of horseshit. When did people suddenly develop the right not to be offended?

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

That's because the original theatrical versions of those films usually are still available. Will that be the case here? Will the original, non-censored, non-abridged, non-PC-pussified version of this novel still be available?

Yes.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Okay. Fine. It's still there. For now.

How long until the censors get ahold of that as well? There is a very real danger that the original version will one day be lost, and all that we will ever be able to read is this watered down pile of CRAP. Especially if, when this version is discussed in schools, it is presented AS the original version. Don't even try to tell me that teachers won't attempt that. The students will believe whatever the teacher says. If they are told this is the original, they'll have no choice but to believe it (assuming they have not already read the *real* original). And a classic work of literature will be forever lost.

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

^ Okay. Fine. It's still there. For now.

How long until the censors get ahold of that as well? There is a very real danger that the original version will one day be lost, and all that we will ever be able to read is this watered down pile of CRAP.

There's about as much chance of Huck Finn being lost as there is of Hamlet being lost, but if you're that worried about the PC nazis taking away your Huck Finn, just download it now. It's in the public domain and completely free. But surely someone who's as passionate about this novel as you must already own a copy, right?

Look at how the NAACP kept Song of the South from ever being seen again, for example.

Try that again, but this time, read the article you linked to.

 

[the G-man]

Jesus friggin' Christ. What's next -- Moby Dick without any references to the killing of whales? It's environmentally wrong and immoral, you know!

No, but the title is being changed to "Moby Male Genitalia"

I think David Letterperson already told that joke.

Good for him. But if I watch anything at that hour it's Conan or Adult Swim.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

"Nobody cares that we're republishing Huck Finn. How can we get people talking about it?"

"I have an idea...."

Jesus friggin' Christ. What's next -- Moby Dick without any references to the killing of whales? It's environmentally wrong and immoral, you know!

No, but the title is being changed to "Moby Male Genitalia"

I think David Letterperson already told that joke.

And George Carlin already told that one.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

"Nobody cares that we're republishing Huck Finn. How can we get people talking about it?"

"I have an idea...."

PC is so last decade, though. The hip thing is to rewrite a classic work within the context of a popular modern genre.

Clearly, it should be redone as Huck Finn and the Aliens from Altair.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

There's also the money issue. The publishers stand to make a ton of dough if the book makes it into classrooms. If it takes flat-out censorship to do it, they'll do it, as we have just seen.

And while I did drop the ball on the Song of the South thing, I stand by my position on what unscrupulous teachers could do with this. They can, and in some cases will, teach this censored version as if it was the original. Their students will believe them. And that is indeed very dangerous.

Of course the N-word is horribly racist. It offends people. Its use in a classic work of literature is intended to offend people. Then let them be offended. That's the whole POINT of using this word - not to cause pain, but to throw blatant racism into sharp relief so it can be exposed and eliminated. People are going to be offended in the process. Fine. We get that. As I said, there is no guaranteed right not to be.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

It's also an opportunity to teach the evolution of language, not just regarding that word but English vernacular in general. Words fall into use and then disuse, phrases and colloquialisms come and go, and what was perfectly acceptable in everyday conversation yesterday raises the hackles of any reasonable person today.

It's a valuable teaching opportunity and I think it would be a shame to waste it by instructing with a bowdlerized version of the book. It is, in a sense, rewriting history.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

"Nobody cares that we're republishing Huck Finn. How can we get people talking about it?"

"I have an idea...."

PC is so last decade, though. The hip thing is to rewrite a classic work within the context of a popular modern genre.

Clearly, it should be redone as Huck Finn and the Aliens from Altair.

They've already done The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

"Nobody cares that we're republishing Huck Finn. How can we get people talking about it?"

"I have an idea...."

PC is so last decade, though. The hip thing is to rewrite a classic work within the context of a popular modern genre.

Clearly, it should be redone as Huck Finn and the Aliens from Altair.

They've already done The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead.

Surprised, I am not.

 

[scotpens]

This is all a bunch of horseshit. When did people suddenly develop the right not to be offended?

Sometime around 1990.

"Nobody cares that we're republishing Huck Finn. How can we get people talking about it?"

"I have an idea...."

PC is so last decade, though. The hip thing is to rewrite a classic work within the context of a popular modern genre.

Clearly, it should be redone as Huck Finn and the Aliens from Altair.

Or rewritten from the slave Jim's point of view, assuming it hasn't already been done.

There have already been been such revisionist versions of Robinson Crusoe and Gone With the Wind.

 

[CorporalClegg]

How long before the "suggested" public lexicon is reduced to 100 words--where most of which are cute acronyms?