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Huckleberry Finn to be censored in new printing

evolutia: Maybe I presumed incorrectly that you avoided reading Mark Twain based on the fact that you avoided it in the classroom, so you're free to correct me if I am wrong on this. I guess that I can understand that kids might take it the wrong way and such. I also didn't say that not reading Mark Twain was "harmful"; I explicitly mentioned "hurt" and "Mark Twain" separately. As an analogy, suppose someone was allergic to your favourite food; I'm sure you'd feel a little bit sorry for him/her.

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IMO it's the education system that needs to adapt to the art, not the other way around... at least ideally. I suppose practically it will never work out that way, which is a crying shame. As far as kids not really appreciating books goes, honestly, if they're not dealing with awkwardness over an offensive word in a classroom setting, where else will they deal with it?
 
capefeather said:
evolutia: Maybe I presumed incorrectly that you avoided reading Mark Twain based on the fact that you avoided it in the classroom, so you're free to correct me if I am wrong on this. I guess that I can understand that kids might take it the wrong way and such. I also didn't say that not reading Mark Twain was "harmful"; I explicitly mentioned "hurt" and "Mark Twain" separately. As an analogy, suppose someone was allergic to your favourite food; I'm sure you'd feel a little bit sorry for him/her.

Yes, that was one of the reasons. Kids do not have the proper capacity to discuss certain books in the classroom. That should be reserved University. It would have been a complete disaster overall.

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IMO it's the education system that needs to adapt to the art, not the other way around... at least ideally. I suppose practically it will never work out that way, which is a crying shame. As far as kids not really appreciating books goes, honestly, if they're not dealing with awkwardness over an offensive word in a classroom setting, where else will they deal with it?
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The United States public education system is not going adapt and improve itself, at least not in my life time. Parents are not going to become better parents and teach their children important life lessons. The N-word and works of literature will never be able to be properly discussed in the classroom.

Huckleberry Finn in question...I just think it would be best to have that book left out of the classroom altogether, or offer it as an individual endeavor for extra credit or something. Because group discussions pertaining to that book are completely awful.

Perhaps in the future I'll feel like reading the book, however at this point in time, with my current mindset, I'm not in the mood.
 
I think most children, except English geeks, are going to dislike their set texts. Most people - child or adult - want to read a book not analyze it, and want to read their choice of book not someone else's. Making a book a set text is a great way to kill people's interest in it. I fear that when I have children, they'll be forced to study Harry Potter.
 
Given the fact that 90% of the civilized world doesn't even recognize satire anymore, I suppose leaving Twain completely out of any classroom before college would be a wise move. It just upsets me that each generation continues to tumble down this brain-rotting path, getting dumber and dumber on average every year...
 
dont worry kids

the students being taught by teachers and schools worth a damn will never have to read this version of the book
 
WaterBomb said:
Given the fact that 90% of the civilized world doesn't even recognize satire anymore, I suppose leaving Twain completely out of any classroom before college would be a wise move. It just upsets me that each generation continues to tumble down this brain-rotting path, getting dumber and dumber on average every year...
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Generations actually appear to be getting smarter, look up the Flynn effect.
 
WaterBomb said:
Smarter in what context? Because it sure feels like there are more dumb people today than there were 10 years ago...
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and what makes you think you are able to judge that? do you observe society the same way as 10 years ago? have you not grown over 10 years, which would change your relative views of intelligence? have you heard about the past through ways other than the rose colored glasses everyone views it from?
 
Chris is me said:
and what makes you think you are able to judge that? do you observe society the same way as 10 years ago? have you not grown over 10 years, which would change your relative views of intelligence? have you heard about the past through ways other than the rose colored glasses everyone views it from?
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I think it's more an emotional reaction to the fact that grown adults with masters degrees can't spell the words "business", "personnel", or "please" properly. Admittedly, my views of the world have been greatly cynicized and skewed by working for so many years in Customer Service and being bludgeoned half to death by the most inane stupidity you can possibly fathom.

I apologize for my sweeping generalization about society. I am sure there are plenty of intelligent people out there, and maybe we ARE more intelligent, on average, than we were 10 years ago. I still get the distinct feeling, through the things I see daily, that people are getting dumber....

It's just a feeling though, I really have no physical research or stats to support it. So feel free to discard my theory.
 
Maybe you got smarter in that time?

I really dont like this sort of censorship, but it happens a lot, just not usually this blatantly.

Things like, I am not 100% about this, as I havent read the book, but my understanding is that in gone with the wind, the scene where they go clear the (BAN ME PLEASE)s out of the woods after scarlet is attacked, they changed it from the book to remove any mention of this being a KKK thing.

Which is actually kinda a frighteningly racist thing to do. I mean, are you trying to make a vigilante group punishment against (BAN ME PLEASE)s appear more sympathetic?

If you remove mentions of the word (BAN ME PLEASE) from the book to avoid causing offense, you also avoid teaching the context that makes the word (BAN ME PLEASE) offensive. It seems kinda patronising and selfdefeating to me.

Have a nice day.
 
WaterBomb said:
Admittedly, my views of the world have been greatly cynicized and skewed by working for so many years in Customer Service and being bludgeoned half to death by the most inane stupidity you can possibly fathom.
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It's your job. I work in retail, I see the world's dumbest people doing the world's dumbest things for 42 hours a week. It makes you feel like the lone intelligent being in a sea of drooling idiots who couldn't find their asses with both hands and a flashlight. I actually had someone tell me yesterday that customer's can't be expected to have to read.
 
They can't erase that word from history. Huckleberry Finn is a poignant piece of American and Black history, and by removing that word they diminish that.
 
I think we're missing the fact that he's not forcing us to read it. Yes, he did change the book, but if changing that one word that, apparently, occurs less than a few hundred times, lets more students read it , then how can it be a bad thing?

Honestly, only a small fraction of high school students would even touch Huck Finn. It's just not that popular. For the rest, the only way they would ever read it is if the schoolwork demanded it. But because of the few people that are offended by that word, they can't read the original version. Surely reading a slightly edited version is better than never reading it at all?

Also, unless I'm wrong, older editions and other publishers should still have the original. The only thing I'd want about the situation is for the book to be identified as "edited" (since putting "censored version" on the front cover isn't a great idea).
 
Sharpteeth said:
I think we're missing the fact that he's not forcing us to read it. Yes, he did change the book, but if changing that one word that, apparently, occurs less than a few hundred times, lets more students read it , then how can it be a bad thing?
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They're essentially burying their head in the sand and taking Huck Finn, and the use of (BAN ME PLEASE) in the book, out of context. I feel like it is very important for us as Americans to remember our roots, because, as George Santayana once said, "If we do not remember history, we are doomed to repeat it."

I'm not implying that slavery will return if Huck Finn is censored, but it certainly doesn't help racial tensions to act like whites never subjugated blacks based on skin color.

As for people who act like the rising generations are stupid, I resent that statement. You are only serving to propagate the xenophobia that was once directed at you by your predecessor. People didn't suddenly start taking stupid pills, in fact, schools are working at more accelerated rates, with children learning more at earlier ages. Example being my brother who took AP Physics B when they were juniors (they're about 7 years older than me) were about 3 chapters behind me at this point in the year, which is quite a lot. People just see the younger generation as ignorant because they are looking through they're own rose-colored glasses and not realizing that they were just as stupid when they were young.

That being said, I really hate having standardized English classes because they tend to just teach towards the standardized test, and English has a lot to do with the way something is stated rather than what is actually stated. That's why I'm in AP Literature.

And Huck Finn is a great book, (BAN ME PLEASE) and all.
 
I think it's pathetic really. Mark Twain wrote "(BAN ME PLEASE)" in this book, the book should read "(BAN ME PLEASE)". If he didn't want it in there, he wouldn't have wrote it in. Black people say it every single day, so I don't see why it can't be in an old book. Probably because it was written by the evil white man and it's against their civil rights for a white man to say "(BAN ME PLEASE)"

And seriously, Injuin? While the NFL's Washington Redskins is still okay? And their motto is "Hail Victory" as if they weren't ethnically insensitive enough
What the HELL
 
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