The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a classic by Mark Twain is in the news again. This time, because they've censored out the words "nigger" and "injun", replacing "nigger" with "slave". Huck ranks 5th on the American Library Association's all time most banned books list. What the Huck?!
Mark Twain's writing depicts a time in history. A time when such words were what these people were called. At no point in time is Huck ever derogatory in his usage of the word. But the argument is that it is the word in and of itself that is derogatory and offensive. In many instances, editing out these words simply render passages empty, or diminishing the meaning intended by the author. The "N"-word, is not a synonym for slave! Editing out these words is nothing more than revisionist history. People USED those words back then. As literature giving us a picture into the past, changing the words would simply change the way you view the past. And if it bothers you that much?! Don't read it! Don't stop others from forming a proper literary picture of the past.
Furthermore, editing out these words is a slippery slope. Where do you draw the line? And are you going to completely eliminate these words from the English language? What's next? "Nazi"? "Chink"? Or how about "fuck" and "shit"? Then what? Some people think "stupid" is a pretty hurtful thing to say too. Forget about offending people and say what you mean. Euphemisms are for hypocrites who are too scared to speak their mind. Free your minds people!
"It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers." ~Judy Blume
"Art made tongue-tied by authority." -William Shakespeare
ReplyDeleteI know this is an old post, but I just read it.
We live in a era which is increasingly becoming a nannied state. The government tells us what is good/bad for us which has an opposite long-term effect than what was intended - the population not knowing how to think for themselves. Books like Catcher in the Rye that I read in high school are now banned...c'mon, seriously?? Our education system has/is failing our youth. Banning/censoring books is only the beginning. The whole idea of political correctness has gone way overboard.
In the near future, Nazis will have never existed and the holocaust never happened.