The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are widely viewed as an American classic. However, the editors of NewSouth Books have decided that they need to do some editing. The editors have decided to remove the “n” word from the book and replace it with “slave.” The editing of a classic raises very troubling questions from the right of an author to have his works remain unchanged to the integrity of literary and historical works. Like all great works, the book must be read with an understanding of the mores and lexicon of its time.
This offense against the original work is being lead by Alan Gribben, who insists that he is merely updating the work. Classic works, however, do not need updating. Gribben decision to improve on Twain’s work for contemporary readers is a breathtaking act of hubris. A vast array of classic and contemporary works use the n-word and other offensive language. If Gribben wants a work without offensive language, he should write The Adventures of Alan Gribben.
Gribben appears to think the following quote from Huckleberry Finn was something of an invitation by Twain:
“Please take it,” says I, “and don’t ask me nothing – then I won’t have to tell no lies.”
Replacing this word with “slave” can change the meaning and certainly the intent of Twain. Consider the following line:
“Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful. Why, looky here. There was a free nigger slave there from Ohio – a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see…
The difference may be subtle but Twain clearly could have used slave. The word existed at the time. Twain chose the n-word to convey something beyond captive status. It was a word used widely. It is still used in literary works to say something about the people who use it.
Other authors like William Faulkner used this word in capturing the culture of the South. Consider the following passage from Go Down, Moses (1940):
This delta, he thought: This Delta. This land which man has deswamped and denuded and derivered in two generations so that white men can own plantations and commute every night to Memphis and black men own plantations and ride in jim crow cars to Chicago to live in millionaires’ mansions on Lakeshore Drive, where white men rent farms and live like niggers and niggers crop on shares and live like animals, where cotton is planted and grows man-tall in the very cracks of the sidewalks, and ursury and mortgage and bankcruptcy and measureless wealth, Chinese and African and Aryan and Jew, all breed and spawn together until no man has time to say which is which nor cares…. No wonder the ruined woods I used to know don’t cry for retribution! He thought: The people who have destroyed it will accomplish its revenge.
Would we rewrite Faulkner as well? How about all of the modern movies and books using this term as part of modern urban speech? Authors write to capture characters who are often racist or living in racist times. This publisher may billed itself as the “NewSouth” but this book was written about the Old South. To sanitize history or literature is an act of violence against the artistic work of these authors.
I find the editing of a great literary work to be nothing short of shameful and shocking, but views can differ on such a question. I would be interested in the views of others on the blog.
Jonathan Turley
Jonathan:
Yeah. Right. You deleted the ones with substantive argument and left the rest.
And you did so on a thread devoted to so-called censorship and ignorant whining about “political correctness.”
Acoording to you, I have to subject my students to the n-word but your precious commenters don’t have to be subjected to the f-bomb.
I must say, however, I’m honored to have captured your attention.
“you don’t want to waste the week you have slotted for Faulkner or half the two weeks you have for Twain arguing about the whys and wherefores of the n-word.”
Then as the adult and, more importantly, the instructor, you should control the conversation.
That IS your job.
Otherwise, you should just let the students teach themselves, because right now, you are letting them control the dialog.
By the way, go on and assume you’re the only one here with teaching experience.
Because you know what they say about assumptions.
I don’t suppose you’ve thought about addressing the “time” problem with supplemental materials or teaching aids either. Because that too would require you to be doing your job.
But please . . . make some more excuses for you not controlling your own classroom.
It’s funny.
I’ll have mine with lettuce, olives and vinegar and oil.
Blouise,
No. It’s not your wit that is dull in this instance, but your target. I got the sarcasm just fine.
“jfxgillis 1, January 4, 2011 at 2:48 pm
Funny. I’ve just been all over the web looking at the blogposts on this topic”
I been surfing the web my self and this was the only site that I came across that was talking about this particular subject.
Not even Fox,CNN. CBS,MSNBC,WWOR,WABC I could go on and on.
“EVERYBODY is full of shit, including EVERYBODY on this thread, including Jonathan Turley.”
Out there all alone eh?
I’m not sure but I think jfxgillis missed my point … oh well, sometimes it’s dull.
Just another reason I fill my library with first editions.
jfxgillis: All I can say is that I am glad I am not you. It would be terrible to go through life with such a sour outlook. As for the rest of your rant, I will go with what BIL said; who as usual, is spot-on.
By the way, if anything else is a “hassle” to teach?
Go work at Subway.
And you being a lazy ass is the equivalent of you being a lazy ass.
Thanks for fucking playing.
Blouise:
Thank you. I don’t care for NewSouth’s particular editorial choice–there’s no need to insert a word that Twain (or Faulkner) did not write and that strips the connotation. And I’d use the unexpurgated text for college sophomore and above (i.e. American Lit classes as such rather than freshman surveys or high school).
Buddha:
You being full of shit isn’t the equivalent of everyone being full shit.
No. Wait. Yes it is.
jfxgillis,
Interesting fucking perspective and one that should be fucking considered ….
jfxgillis,
You being a lazy teacher isn’t the equivalent of everyone else being an asshole. Just yourself.
JFXGILLES,
You are new to this blog and may not be aware of its civility policy. The regulars on this site strive for civil, if passionate, discussion with little rancor or profanity. I rarely delete comments. Indeed, I do not regularly monitor the comments due to my day job. However, I have deleted a couple of your comments under our civility policy.
Jonathan Turley
Mahtso,
Not spelling the word out was JT’s choice.
I fail to see how that has any bearing on the publisher deciding for Twain to remove the word.
Societies change; that doesn’t mean we should pretend that what they changed from never existed.
I assume the owners of the rap music agreed to put sanitized versions on iTunes (money trumps art) so I don’t see that as a good analogy. I note that Prof. Turley was unwilling to actually spell out the word at issue in his own writing, which, to me, is part of the reason Frank’s comment is on point.
I’ll just leave this here… Ain’t technology grand?
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/76/76-h/76-h.htm
And because It’s one of my favorites by Mr. Twain, On the Decay in the Art of Lying
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2572/pg2572.html
eniobob,
I looked at Auburn Montgomery and at New South … what in the hell is going on?!
Bluoise,
It seems to be same Teapublicans who are involved in this constant struggle to rewrite history. This beginning to remind me of Fahrenheit 454.
You like to know about “change makers”:
Dr. Alan Gribben has been nationally recognized with an honorary lifetime membership in the Mark Twain Circle of America and other awards. Dr. Gribben co-edited MARK TWAIN ON THE MOVE: A TRAVEL READER (2009) and wrote the biography of a major library-builder, HARRY HUNTT RANSOM: INTELLECT IN MOTION (2008). From 1991 until 2010 he served as head of the Department of English and Philosophy at Auburn Montgomery, where he received the Dr. Guinevera A. Nance Alumni Professorship in 2006.