New edition of 'Huckleberry Finn' to lose the 'n' word

[Andy9o8 0]

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"Curious George" the monkey.

That's so racist.



Having said that, I admit that while Dubya was president I sometimes referred to that George as "Chimp Boy".

[winsor 187]

Orwell was an optimist.

[kelpdiver 2]

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Remster:

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Now, the question is: who owns the rights to the work?

It's an old book. The copyright is expired, it's in the public domain. Fair game.

I would hope, however, that the book is properly labeled as the *edited* work of Mark Twain. I don't know that anyone has authority to enforce that, though.

But at least there will always be the Gutenberg edition freely available. Take in contrast, the Lucas and Spielberg mutilations of their own movies. You have to look long and hard to find that Han really shot first, or that the FBI agents chasing ET were carrying guns, not walkee talkees.

[wildcard451 0]

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Apparently it will fall in line with moderation here.

By that I assume you mean "some" and not all.

Of course. Thank you.

[turtlespeed 212]

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Apparently it will fall in line with moderation here.

By that I assume you mean "some" and not all.

Of course. Thank you.

More accurate, me thinks, to say "At least a few"

I'm not usually into the whole 3-way thing, but you got me a little excited with that. - Skymama
BTR #1 / OTB^5 Official #2 / Hellfish #408 / VSCR #108/Tortuga/Orfun

[DocPop 1]

It is not the word in isolation that does any harm - it is the willful desire to be offended that causes problems. Some people are just looking for reasons to be outraged.

Personally I think being forced to replace "nigger" with "the 'n' word" is a quite preposterous over reaction. I mean nobody would be up in arms if someone called me a "cracker" or a "honky", would they?

Everyone should just settle down and look for reasons to calm down rather than excuses to be upset.

"The ground does not care who you are. It will always be tougher than the human behind the controls."

~ CanuckInUSA

[billvon 2,421]

>Personally I think being forced to replace "nigger" with "the 'n' word" is
>a quite preposterous over reaction.

Agreed. Fortunately not the case here.

[wmw999 2,141]

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it is the willful desire to be offended

That goes both ways. It's the wilful lack of desire to invest enough in a dialog to either understand if something was intended to be offensive, or to understand if a choice of words is likely to be offensive.

To say it's all on the offended is bullshit.

And I agree that bowdlerizing Huck Finn is one of the stupidest things I ever heard of. However, the dialog is going to mostly get them made fun of, which is a good thing

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[DocPop 1]

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it is the willful desire to be offended

That goes both ways. It's the wilful lack of desire to invest enough in a dialog to either understand if something was intended to be offensive, or to understand if a choice of words is likely to be offensive.

To say it's all on the offended is bullshit.

And I agree that bowdlerizing Huck Finn is one of the stupidest things I ever heard of. However, the dialog is going to mostly get them made fun of, which is a good thing

Wendy P.

Wendy -

I quite agree that there are people who willfully try to offend, which is why I said "It is not the word in isolation that does any harm.".

It is also possible to use quite innocuous words to deliberately cause offense, and that is not OK either.

"The ground does not care who you are. It will always be tougher than the human behind the controls."

~ CanuckInUSA

[quade 3]

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it is the willful desire to be offended

That goes both ways. It's the wilful lack of desire to invest enough in a dialog to either understand if something was intended to be offensive, or to understand if a choice of words is likely to be offensive.

The thing is, in Huck Finn, it's both and neither.

Part of the power of Huck Finn comes from the nonchalance the word is tossed around by the characters. It's not meant to be offensive, but rather a reflection of what some people at the time, including the young Huck Finn, considered to be "normal." To our modern ears it's offensive and should be. Even in Twain's time, as it is used by his characters, would have been offensive in its casual use and intentionally so by the author.

It's only much, much later in the book when Huck finally figures out Jim is a man just like him that he comes to the conclusion he does and we forgive him for all the previous indiscretions.

They're butchering the book's meaning.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[lawrocket 3]

[Reply]t's only much, much later in the book when Huck finally figures out Jim is a man just like him that he comes to the conclusion he does and we forgive him for all the previous indiscretions.

They're butchering the book's meaning.

[champu 1]

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p.s. I find the term "the 'n' word" to be as bigoted as saying or writing "nigger." This is because the speaker or writer KNOWS what the word "nigger" is and the full context of the meaning but chooses to say "the 'n' word" instead, thus saying the same thing. Or, a person may say, "Joe called him the 'n' word." Really? Did he use the term "the 'n' word?" Or did he use the other word but you don't want to paint Joe as such a bad guy so you'll edit what Joe said so we don't think badly of the guy?

google or youtube search "louis ck the n word"

[david3 0]

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p.s. I find the term "the 'n' word" to be as bigoted as saying or writing "nigger." This is because the speaker or writer KNOWS what the word "nigger" is and the full context of the meaning but chooses to say "the 'n' word" instead, thus saying the same thing. Or, a person may say, "Joe called him the 'n' word." Really? Did he use the term "the 'n' word?" Or did he use the other word but you don't want to paint Joe as such a bad guy so you'll edit what Joe said so we don't think badly of the guy?

google or youtube search "louis ck the n word"

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=louis+ck+the+n+word

[champu 1]

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http://lmgtfy.com/?q=louis+ck+the+n+word

If I recognize the acronym "lmgtfy" without clicking the link does that mean we can laugh together about my laziness?

/edited to add: you're supposed to at least mask the url as seen here

[JohnRich 4]

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They'll just have to be satisfied with "Curious George" the monkey

Oh, hell no. The animal rights activists will need to change George's story, too. Remember that the Man with the Yellow Hat captured George in the wild in Africa and brought him to the big city to live in a zoo. A zoo! So inhumane. We'll need to change that one. Perhaps the Man With the Yellow Hat will find George as an infant after George's mother is killed by a predator animal and instead of capturing him, takes him to a rehab center so that George can live out his life in a natural environment without cages.

You remember WAY more about Curious George than I do...

[wildcard451 0]

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They'll just have to be satisfied with "Curious George" the monkey

Oh, hell no. The animal rights activists will need to change George's story, too. Remember that the Man with the Yellow Hat captured George in the wild in Africa and brought him to the big city to live in a zoo. A zoo! So inhumane. We'll need to change that one. Perhaps the Man With the Yellow Hat will find George as an infant after George's mother is killed by a predator animal and instead of capturing him, takes him to a rehab center so that George can live out his life in a natural environment without cages.

You remember WAY more about Curious George than I do...

She kinda has a weird obsession with monkeys.

[skyrider 0]

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They'll just have to be satisfied with "Curious George" the monkey

Oh, hell no. The animal rights activists will need to change George's story, too. Remember that the Man with the Yellow Hat captured George in the wild in Africa and brought him to the big city to live in a zoo. A zoo! So inhumane. We'll need to change that one. Perhaps the Man With the Yellow Hat will find George as an infant after George's mother is killed by a predator animal and instead of capturing him, takes him to a rehab center so that George can live out his life in a natural environment without cages.

You remember WAY more about Curious George than I do...

She kinda has a weird obsession with monkeys.

You say that like it is a bad thing!

[Remster 24]

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She kinda has a weird obsession with monkeys.

Yes... It's unfortunately lead to some poor decision making for her...

Remster

[vanair 0]

With a black man in the White House, Who's the crackers now?

[NWFlyer 2]

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She kinda has a weird obsession with monkeys.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[DSE 3]

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it is the willful desire to be offended

That goes both ways. It's the wilful lack of desire to invest enough in a dialog to either understand if something was intended to be offensive, or to understand if a choice of words is likely to be offensive.

The thing is, in Huck Finn, it's both and neither.

Part of the power of Huck Finn comes from the nonchalance the word is tossed around by the characters. It's not meant to be offensive, but rather a reflection of what some people at the time, including the young Huck Finn, considered to be "normal." To our modern ears it's offensive and should be. Even in Twain's time, as it is used by his characters, would have been offensive in its casual use and intentionally so by the author.

It's only much, much later in the book when Huck finally figures out Jim is a man just like him that he comes to the conclusion he does and we forgive him for all the previous indiscretions.

They're butchering the book's meaning.

To us, it's a big deal because we understand the meaning.
The meaning will not only be lost on future generations, but they'll also never know of the controversies that caused this sort of PC stupidity in the first place.

I'm trying to imagine my most favorite book in the world, "To Kill A Mockingbird" minus the "n-word."
Without it, the book has no value.
Remove Christ from the Bible. It would be no less outrageous.

[winsor 187]

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With a black man in the White House, Who's the crackers now?

He is a mulatto - neither black nor white.

[quade 3]

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With a black man in the White House, Who's the crackers now?

He is a mulatto - neither black nor white.

Sadly, some people can only see black or white.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[DocPop 1]

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With a black man in the White House, Who's the crackers now?

He's not the only black person to be living in government housing.

"The ground does not care who you are. It will always be tougher than the human behind the controls."

~ CanuckInUSA

[david3 0]

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With a black man in the White House, Who's the crackers now?

He's not the only black person to be living in government housing.

He's not the only white person to be living in government housing.