The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain

“A new edition of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, forthcoming from NewSouth Books in mid-February, does more than unite the companion boy books in one volume, as the author had intended. It does more even than restore a passage from the Huckleberry Finn manuscript that first appeared in Twain’s Life on the Mississippi and was subsequently cut from the work upon publication. “In a bold move compassionately advocated by Twain scholar Dr. Alan Gribben and embraced by NewSouth, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn also replaces two hurtful epithets that appear hundreds of times in the texts with less offensive words, this intended to counter the “preemptive censorship” that Dr. Gribben observes has caused these important works of literature to fall off curriculum lists nationwide. Should we change Huck Finn?

“In presenting his rationale for publication, eloquently developed in the book’s introduction, Dr. Gribben discusses the context of the racial slurs Twain used in these books. He also remarks on the irony of the fact that use of such language has caused Twain’s books to join the ranks of outdated literary classics Twain once humorously defined as works “which people praise and don’t read.” “At NewSouth, we saw the value in an edition that would help the works find new readers. If the publication sparks good debate about how language impacts learning or about the nature of censorship or the way in which racial slurs exercise their baneful influence, then our mission in publishing this new edition of Twain’s works will be more emphatically fulfilled.” Should we change Huck Finn?

“Twain was a man who started out life as a natural, enculturated racist and gradually grew out of it, or as out of it as his time and culture permitted. Twain was the son of a slave owner, in a town of slave owners. As a boy he saw his father administer beatings and floggings and once saw a fellow townsman crush a slave’s head with an iron bar …. As a child, young Clemens found the disemboweled body of a murdered slave, and at fourteen he witnessed the lynching of a black man accused of raping a white woman.” He was even known to tell long jokes that were disparaging toward African Americans. “But by the 1800s Twain had changed; he made impassioned speeches against race brutality, paid the Yale tuition of several black students, became friends with Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. In short, his natural clearheadedness asserted itself on the issue of racial equality, and it was out of this spirit that Huck Finn came.” Was Mark Twain a Racist?

The Roger Ebert Controversy 

“Twitter claims another victim. The chalk outline of film critic Roger Ebert decorates the expanse of the information superhighway; a painful reminder of the internet roadkill struck down by the speeding blogosphere. …. Proponents of the update have argued the original language was (among other things) antiquated, inflammatory and inconsistent with the country in which we live today. Opinions from opponents ranged from it being a form of censorship to something borne out of sheer stupidity. …. Ebert's argument fails because he blithely omits the inextricable link between the two in this case. No slavery... no N-word. See how that works? They explicitly reference one another. Morris W. O’Kelly Responds “Roger Ebert Misses the Boat”

The easy part is to simply criticize and lambaste Ebert for not knowing his "editorial place," for commenting outside the bounds of his personal knowledge or professional expertise. Ebert's history is clear -- he has long celebrated African-Americans and culture, irrespective of him dating African-American women such as Oprah or eventual wife Chaz. There will be plenty of negativity directed Ebert's way for "getting too comfortable" and commenting on that which he had no business commenting. That's the easy part and easy way out. The hard part is getting America to fall out of love with the idea that she is a "post-racial" nation. We cannot and should not deny the history that brought us to this moment in time in a political, social and even economic disparity sense. When we look at America's urban communities, its inferior education system and the impenetrable cycles involved in both, "slave" and the N- word are not merely historical footnotes as to how African Americans are treated in a contemporary sense. Don't let the discussion end with just quips about Roger Ebert.”

Ebert Responds… “Much Ado about the N-thing” “My love of Huckleberry Finn is great. I would sacrifice every video game in existence rather than lose Mark Twain's novel. I've defended Huck Finn for years against the tone-deaf Puritans who have banned it from schools for its use of the N-Word. Anyone offended by the use of that word the way it is used in Huckleberry Finn cannot read and possibly cannot think. The word is spoken by an illiterate 11-year-old runaway on the Mississippi River of the mid-19th Century. He has been schooled by his society to regard the runaway slave Jim as a Nigger and a thief. Jim's crime: Stealing himself from his owner. Huck reasons his way out of ignorant racism and into enlightenment and grace. He makes that journey far in advance of many of his "educated" contemporaries. Part of reading the novel is learning to be alert about how the N-Word is used in that process.

In an outbreak of mealy-minded Political Correctness, an edition of Huckleberry Finn has now been published which meticulously replaces the word nigger with the word slave. The argument is often put forward that a young reader might be traumatized by finding a word in a 19th century novel that he hears a hundred times a day. If I were that young reader, I would be more disturbed by the notion that I was incapable of learning how and why it was used. But then I am not that young reader, as I was about to be reminded.”