Good find, OP. You should read the comments of the Auburn prof carefully. He's agonized about the decision, but he just found more and more high schools who wouldn't teach the real version. He talked to a LOT of African Americans who simply said they wouldn't read it -- why would they want to read the N-word 219 times? The sad irony is that the book is one of the strongest and most widely anti-racist works in American History. To take the N-word out, you can't then watch Huck, a budding little racist with a decent heart, slowly start to figure it out and use the word less and less. But to me, if this strange step means a lot more people read it and discuss the book, while acknowledging what the real book contains, it could be good. It's certainly better than letting one of America's best writers rot on the shelf, unread. Good Fresh Air interview on Twain, podcastable from December 1.
For those that are saying it is hard to teach... why? How hard is it to preface the book with, "African American's used to be enslaved and called ... Obviously, that word is unacceptable in this day in age, but 150 years ago it was very common." Problem solved. I'm Jewish and I absolutely hate looking at pictures from the Holocaust. But I would be livid if they ever stopped teaching about it in schools "just because some people might find it uncomfortable."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/drader/detail?entry_id=80194 This is an interesting take from an academic who writes a column for the SF Chronicle. It has some interesting quotations anyway. Not sure I agree with the conclusion, but time will tell.
I don't believe that the n-word is the reason black people don't care anything about that book. It's only because they don't care anything about that book. It is the same reason that the majority of black people haven't read Invisible Man, either, because despite the greatness of that book it doesn't speak to them like a Nikki Giovanni poem does or take langston hughes vs say Jean Toomer or Countee Cullen. It seems to me that the editor seems to feel that he can get someone to appreciate a book that he finds valuable. Here is a clue: black people are well capable of reading a book with the n-word in it and distinguishing the authors' intent. Huckleberry Finn doesn't speak to black kids or white kids for that matter because he is a relic of the past, maybe if huck had an x-box and played GTA he might be more relatable. If you want to change the book start with that first.
Can't be as bad a butchery as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. And that was a pretty good idea. I can understand the desire the edit the book so that schools will teach it. But, I don't think schools should be avoiding it because of the racial slurs. I wish they had a little more strength of conviction. what?
Mark Twain would be rolling in his grave -- if he wasn't a smart enough man to expect something of this sort to occur.
I would hesitate reading the original to my 6 or 8yo. Because of the n-word (a word we're all strongly defending, yet none of us is willing to write out!). Too early to get into a discussion over the appropriateness of the word. Too many connotations. And, I think, it would force me to get into the book at well beyond the adventure level that appeals to them at this age. So this gives me one version I can read to them without going to the totally abridged and dumbed down kiddie versions. "slave", however is a weird substitution. I think. Remember -- the other versions are not being discontinued. (and with the renewed interest, their sales will probably go up). This just allows people who might otherwise avoid the book -- rightly in rare cases, or wrongly in most -- access to it. Schools should be teaching the unedited version.
What I was saying was that removing the n-word doesn't make the book anymore appealing to black kids than it did if you left it there. Kids these days don't care about that stuff, so might point is, if you wanted to make it relate-able so to speak you'd have to make huck an x-box player os something.
Huckleberry Finn, as it stands, could be an excellent teaching tool to get students to realize that morality and social standards are historically-mediated and subject to the context of their times - a lesson that everyone should learn before they're allowed to voice their opinion on anything.
I think Huck Finn is one of the more easily accessible books that get assigned in middle/upper school English classes. It's a whole lot easier to concentrate on than Wuthering Heights or Absalom! Absalom! If kids don't want to read Huck Finn because they can't relate to the characters, they're pretty much screwed in English class.
"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." Don't know who said it, but it's brilliant.
The book itself was about racism during that period of time and how people were treated.. the words were meant to be in the book.. I read that book in middle school and thought it was the most racist thing I ever read.. but now that I'm older I appreciate it. It makes you think about how things were back then and how they have changed. Younger generations need to understand the same thing. They don't need to be sheltered from the truth. I just think it takes something away from Mark Twain's work.
We aren't talking about difficult of the text, obviously huck finn is written beautifully. As far as lit class is concerned the teacher/school board should be tailoring the curriculum to suit kids and not the other way around. Forcing a kid to read huck finn because you belief that they should read it is a terrible approach. The only students that really need to read huck finn, or heart of darkness or Frankenstein or TS Elliot, are lit majors. If you are not a lit major, then give them enders game or harry potter or something that they want to read. It is the same difference, if you can read harry potter and understand it then you have basic reading comprehension and you don't need to read toni morrision or john Widmen to prove it. I was a lit major in college and so I deserve to have to read dos passos or Joyce and the rest of modern fiction.
