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By MetaxaCunningham, Sunday, January 16, 2011, 5 commentsThe impending censorship of Mark Twain’s classics, Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn does not sit well with me. Some people are saying that altering the text of these books is a “bastardization of classics”, but to me it is more than that. It is a sin against the writer.
Rewriting any of the text of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is indeed censorship and grossly unnecessary. It blemishes what Mark Twain created, stories beloved by generations of people that were not meant to promote racism but reflect the atmosphere of the era in which they were written. Twain uses satire to depict the attitude of the time when slavery was a reality, and in the case of Huck Finn to show a boy’s struggle against the values society deemed correct and following what he knew in his heart to be right: helping Jim escape the shackles of slavery.
Is it really so simple to omit the n-word, to wash away what is considered offensive in these books? For some critics that may not be enough to make Tom and Huck acceptable for children to study in school. Well, so be it. I would rather that these books not be embraced by a wider audience if they have to be altered. Keep in mind by no means am I suggesting racism and racist language be promoted or accepted in today’s society. I am only suggesting that this literature be allowed to exist without being censored. Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were not written for today’s society. They were written for a bygone era and have become a part of what is relevant to some historical views and not relevant to what is acceptable today.
I think the classics should be left alone and remain available to those who wish to experience them. In my heart I think Mark Twain would agree with me and not appreciate his work being censored, but perhaps he wouldn’t agree with me at all. Mark Twain did say that a “Classic [is] A book which people praise and don’t read.” He may not have approved of Tom and Huck being considered classics.
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5 Comments
Great blog! This upsets me
Great blog! This upsets me also. These classics are a part of American History. They should leave history alone and let our children and grandchildren learn from the past so it won't be repeated.
I was shocked when the movie, "Song of the South" was banned a few years back. I loved that movie as a child. It was a great classic.
What's next? Will the words of some of the great writer's of literature be changed because a certain word was used in their stories. For example; Frederick Douglass's stories of slavery, "Uncle Tom's Cabin", by Harriet Stowe, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl", by Harriet Jacobs, just to name a few.
I hope someone puts an end to this nonsense before our history becomes false.
Great read and thanks for the reminder,
Babs
Great post! I agree
Great post! I agree completely! You make excellent points on such an important subject matter:-)
Anderson Cooper interviewed a
Anderson Cooper interviewed a man who is proposing to alter Mark Twain's work to make it less offensive in order to give his classics a wider readership. I believe the idea is to clean up the language so Tom and Huck can be studied by kids at school.
The original version will still be available, but what does it say about our society that we feel the need to censor literature over a century after it was written?
Let the kids read something else at school then. It's not like we can get Mark Twain's opinion on this matter. They can't get his permission either;I know that I am unhappy with the thought that if I write something that endures, that in a hundred years from now someone could change my words to suit their purposes.That would be a violation.
I love what Ray Bradbury
I love what Ray Bradbury explained at the end of his book on this issue - that censorship as altered words, etc. is the real book burning. And are the people offended by this the same parents who buy their children laptops allowing them free reign to the uncensored internet?
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