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Huckleberry Finn
Jan. 12th, 2011 06:35 pmA lot has been said about one publisher's new version of Huckleberry Finn where the n-word has been changed to "slave" throughout.
Like many of the commenters on the issue, I think this is generally a bad idea. The word originally used is crude, offensive, and dehumanizing. And that is exactly the point. It's not a good word, but it is part of the history and the culture described in the book. We can't and shouldn't just pretend that history never existed.
In the original Star Trek, in the episode The Savage Curtain, there is an exchange in which Abraham Lincoln is pulled out of the 19th century by aliens and, upon meeting the crew, refers to Uhura as a "Charming Negress." He then apologizes when he realizes she's a full member of the crew, equal to any other of her rank. She responds by telling him that it's alright, he's a product of his time, and they have long since moved beyond a time where such words were harmful.
Note she didn't say that they no longer use the word. Only that it's no longer harmful. That's the place where we need to reach. I don't think we're there yet, and I couldn't tell you for sure how to get there (except maybe "stop being such bigoted yutzes"), but I don't think that editing the word out of historic literature is the right path.
Like many of the commenters on the issue, I think this is generally a bad idea. The word originally used is crude, offensive, and dehumanizing. And that is exactly the point. It's not a good word, but it is part of the history and the culture described in the book. We can't and shouldn't just pretend that history never existed.
In the original Star Trek, in the episode The Savage Curtain, there is an exchange in which Abraham Lincoln is pulled out of the 19th century by aliens and, upon meeting the crew, refers to Uhura as a "Charming Negress." He then apologizes when he realizes she's a full member of the crew, equal to any other of her rank. She responds by telling him that it's alright, he's a product of his time, and they have long since moved beyond a time where such words were harmful.
Note she didn't say that they no longer use the word. Only that it's no longer harmful. That's the place where we need to reach. I don't think we're there yet, and I couldn't tell you for sure how to get there (except maybe "stop being such bigoted yutzes"), but I don't think that editing the word out of historic literature is the right path.
