"A new effort to sanitize “Huckleberry Finn” comes from Alan Gribben, a professor of English at Auburn University, at Montgomery, Ala., who has produced a new edition of Twain’s novel that replaces the word “nigger” with “slave.” Nigger, which appears in the book more than 200 times, was a common racial epithet in the antebellum South, used by Twain as part of his characters’ vernacular speech and as a reflection of mid-19th-century social attitudes along the Mississippi River."
source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/books/07huck.html
Other than ruining the authenticity of the characters' dialect, I don't see what this will accomplish. If anything, it will just give the word more power.
Comments
People should stop being butthurt and realize that people said nigger in the 1800s. It's fact. It happened.
The other thing that makes me mad is that "making a new edition" of the book by Ctrl+F is fucking retarded.
Find: nigger
Replace with: slave
Look. I made a new edition.
Is it any good?
It is. However it requires you to pay attention and sit still for elongated periods of time sos it is, sadly, not for everyone.
Oh and I think black people would be offended by this fucking assault on our freedom to write damn fine books. Any black people here? No? Wow shouldve seen that coming. That prof. is def a fame seeker and a lil bitch for hiding behind the wave of political corrected-ness DirtyShanchez associates with progressivism
Now I'm pissed I never thought of Ctrl F throughout huck fin. I could be rich and famous now for doing absolutely nothing.
Let's start a new publishing company called Censored Books. We can ctrl+f controversial books.
Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22, and more.
My ancestors never owned a slave and even if they did I'm not going to feel guilty about it. This idea that we should be sorry for what happened so many years ago is ridiculous.
P.S. fucking niggers
If I were a teacher I would use Twains use of the word as an instructional tool, editing it denies anyone this opportunity.
C/O
"The n word, fuck me, thats what I get for listening to public radio"
What next? Shall we re-write the bible and the works of Shakespear into modern day language to cater for 'tards?
Shall we remove all reference of Odyseus being short from the Illyad and the Oddesy for fear of upseting short people?
Shall we burn the speaches of great leaders of the past for fear of them being used for nationalism?
The editing of historical text to suit what we feel is appropriate to todays society is akin to Nazi book burning. No difference at all.
Perhaps satirizing would be a more apt description but yes, essentially he was making fun of them to some extent in order to shine a light in the dark.