Schools edit texts of historical books

[Cecilie1200]

How are they different? What is the problem with the way an illiterate 11 year old runaway on the Mississippi in the 19th century who had been trained by his society to think of Jim not only as a ******, but as a thief? Why shouldn't the original language be preserved so that modern children cannot only enjoy a classic as it was written, but grow with Huck as he learns that his attitude about Jim is wrong. Huckleberry Finn, as it was written, is a story that tells us about the fight against bigotry and hatred in the heart of an individual. It is a story of enlightenment and the triumph of friendship and honor over hatred and bias. The only people who could read that book and be offended by the use of ****** in it are those who cannot think.

Can you think, or are you going to prove yourself to be one of the people with small minds?

You ask "how are they different", and then you go on to answer your own question: editing is changing the words, and banning is simply refusing to allow the book to be available.

The OP said that schools are BANNING the book - which he hasn't demonstrated - not that they're changing the words - which he also hasn't demonstrated.

Neither is a good thing, and they ARE different.

The book is considered "unteachable" in its original form.

I don't call that little speech rocket science. Yet NewSouth Books would seem to be creating a baby-food version of Huckleberry Finn, with the n-word replaced by "slave" because of feedback from teachers who claim the book has become "unteachable."

I see. Eighth-graders are too unformed to understand the difference between someone calling someone else the n-word and an author using the word in an ancient book to reveal characters as ignorant. Interesting, given that the same eighth-graders hear the same word used by rappers daily and understand the difference between that usage — as a term of endearment — and the epithet one.

The Root: Students Cheated By Censored 'Huck Finn' : NPR

I am not debating whether the intent is to directly ban the book, I am pointing out that by teaching a censored version of the book in schools the effect is the same as banning it. It deprives students of the insights that have made Huckleberry Finn one of the great classics. Do you really think students are too stupid to understand, and appreciate, the historical context of a word they here every day? The only thing that makes it unteachable is the lack of teaching skills demonstrated by teachers who are afraid of words.

The Root? Really? See, this sort of half-assed sourcing is why I refuse to get all in a fuffle over stuff until I see specifics.

The linked story, and every other reference I can find to it - all of which, by the way, come from opinion columns and not hard news reports - make only vague references to "teachers say it's unteachable". Nowhere do they cite any specific teachers or school districts planning to use this PC edition being published by New South Books. The only hard fact I can locate is that a book publisher is planning to issue a "modernized" (their word) version of "Huckleberry Finn".

Am I up in arms about this? No. Would I purchase such a copy? No, no more than I would purchase a copy of the works of William Shakespeare "translated" into modern English. On the other hand, I DO own several different translations of the Holy Bible, and absolutely none written in the original languages, since I don't read any of them.

Bottom line: I will get worked up over teachers teaching sanitized versions of "Huckleberry Finn" just as soon as someone shows me proof that teachers are planning to do so.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

You ask "how are they different", and then you go on to answer your own question: editing is changing the words, and banning is simply refusing to allow the book to be available.

The OP said that schools are BANNING the book - which he hasn't demonstrated - not that they're changing the words - which he also hasn't demonstrated.

Neither is a good thing, and they ARE different.

The book is considered "unteachable" in its original form.

I don't call that little speech rocket science. Yet NewSouth Books would seem to be creating a baby-food version of Huckleberry Finn, with the n-word replaced by "slave" because of feedback from teachers who claim the book has become "unteachable."

I see. Eighth-graders are too unformed to understand the difference between someone calling someone else the n-word and an author using the word in an ancient book to reveal characters as ignorant. Interesting, given that the same eighth-graders hear the same word used by rappers daily and understand the difference between that usage — as a term of endearment — and the epithet one.

The Root: Students Cheated By Censored 'Huck Finn' : NPR

I am not debating whether the intent is to directly ban the book, I am pointing out that by teaching a censored version of the book in schools the effect is the same as banning it. It deprives students of the insights that have made Huckleberry Finn one of the great classics. Do you really think students are too stupid to understand, and appreciate, the historical context of a word they here every day? The only thing that makes it unteachable is the lack of teaching skills demonstrated by teachers who are afraid of words.

The Root? Really? See, this sort of half-assed sourcing is why I refuse to get all in a fuffle over stuff until I see specifics.

The linked story, and every other reference I can find to it - all of which, by the way, come from opinion columns and not hard news reports - make only vague references to "teachers say it's unteachable". Nowhere do they cite any specific teachers or school districts planning to use this PC edition being published by New South Books. The only hard fact I can locate is that a book publisher is planning to issue a "modernized" (their word) version of "Huckleberry Finn".

Am I up in arms about this? No. Would I purchase such a copy? No, no more than I would purchase a copy of the works of William Shakespeare "translated" into modern English. On the other hand, I DO own several different translations of the Holy Bible, and absolutely none written in the original languages, since I don't read any of them.

Bottom line: I will get worked up over teachers teaching sanitized versions of "Huckleberry Finn" just as soon as someone shows me proof that teachers are planning to do so.

Google it. It all started with a book of essays, and the movement is growing.

The third section, "Issues of Race", contains essays by John Wallace, Richard Barksdale, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Eric Lott, and Jane Smiley. Wallace's oft-quoted essay, in which he describes Huckleberry Finn as "racist trash," raises several valid concerns regarding the use of the novel in American high schools, but lacks strength in its textual analysis. Nevertheless, his major concern is taken up effectively by Barksdale, who places the novel within its historical context to show both the ironic intentions of Twain and the difficulty of learning and teaching those ironies in the classroom. Fishkin then explains not only the indebtedness that Twain had toward African American sources, including "Sociable Jimmy," black spirituals, and personal acquaintances, but also the impact Twain had on subsequent American writers. Exploring this further, Lott discusses how Twain's reliance upon blackface minstrelsy both allowed the complex achievement of Huckleberry Finn while simultaneously making it "perhaps unteachable to our own time." In the final essay of this chapter, Smiley compares "Twain's moral failure" in his characterization of Jim to Harriet Beecher Stowe's unequivocal anti-racism in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Overall, this section is the strongest.

REVIEW - Readings on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Or did you think I was making this stuff up?

REVIEW - Readings on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

 

[Cecilie1200]

The book is considered "unteachable" in its original form.

The Root: Students Cheated By Censored 'Huck Finn' : NPR

I am not debating whether the intent is to directly ban the book, I am pointing out that by teaching a censored version of the book in schools the effect is the same as banning it. It deprives students of the insights that have made Huckleberry Finn one of the great classics. Do you really think students are too stupid to understand, and appreciate, the historical context of a word they here every day? The only thing that makes it unteachable is the lack of teaching skills demonstrated by teachers who are afraid of words.

The Root? Really? See, this sort of half-assed sourcing is why I refuse to get all in a fuffle over stuff until I see specifics.

The linked story, and every other reference I can find to it - all of which, by the way, come from opinion columns and not hard news reports - make only vague references to "teachers say it's unteachable". Nowhere do they cite any specific teachers or school districts planning to use this PC edition being published by New South Books. The only hard fact I can locate is that a book publisher is planning to issue a "modernized" (their word) version of "Huckleberry Finn".

Am I up in arms about this? No. Would I purchase such a copy? No, no more than I would purchase a copy of the works of William Shakespeare "translated" into modern English. On the other hand, I DO own several different translations of the Holy Bible, and absolutely none written in the original languages, since I don't read any of them.

Bottom line: I will get worked up over teachers teaching sanitized versions of "Huckleberry Finn" just as soon as someone shows me proof that teachers are planning to do so.

Google it. It all started with a book of essays, and the movement is growing.

The third section, "Issues of Race", contains essays by John Wallace, Richard Barksdale, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Eric Lott, and Jane Smiley. Wallace's oft-quoted essay, in which he describes Huckleberry Finn as "racist trash," raises several valid concerns regarding the use of the novel in American high schools, but lacks strength in its textual analysis. Nevertheless, his major concern is taken up effectively by Barksdale, who places the novel within its historical context to show both the ironic intentions of Twain and the difficulty of learning and teaching those ironies in the classroom. Fishkin then explains not only the indebtedness that Twain had toward African American sources, including "Sociable Jimmy," black spirituals, and personal acquaintances, but also the impact Twain had on subsequent American writers. Exploring this further, Lott discusses how Twain's reliance upon blackface minstrelsy both allowed the complex achievement of Huckleberry Finn while simultaneously making it "perhaps unteachable to our own time." In the final essay of this chapter, Smiley compares "Twain's moral failure" in his characterization of Jim to Harriet Beecher Stowe's unequivocal anti-racism in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Overall, this section is the strongest.

REVIEW - Readings on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Or did you think I was making this stuff up?

REVIEW - Readings on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

I DID Google it, which is how I know this is nothing but a handful of opinion writers having conniptions about what "might" happen, with absolutely no evidence that any ACTUAL teachers or districts intend to use the new version. And you know what? Your collection of essays and reviews ALSO don't provide that proof, which means I don't give a damn about them, either.

I'm still waiting for someone to prove to me that some real, actual students are really, actually going to be "cheated" at some point in time.

 

[psikeyhackr]

The original version has been banned

The original version is FREE on the Internet.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Strangers and Wayfarers, by Sarah Orne Jewett

LOL, Gutenberg got their HTML title wrong.

Keep kids off the Internet because they might find Mark Twain.

That dirty old man.

I think the entire issue is really dumb but the schools can't find more meaningful stuff than Mark Twain? The word classic just really means OLD. Supposedly old but good but we now live in a world with lasers, computers and genetic engineering.

Try:

Ultima Thule by Dallas McCord Reynolds
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ultima Thule by Dallas McCord Reynolds

psik

 

[JBeukema]

 

[Woyzeck]

Schools throughout the country have begun to ban the use of Huckleberry Finn because of the use of the word ******. If schools and government can edit the text of historical text then what prevents the limiting modern free speech? Did the Nazi's not do this as well?

Except the edition of Huckleberry Finn that removes '******' and 'injun' is being published by a publishing company, not a school board or the government. It's just one edition of the story, among hundreds if not thousands already available.

People have been taking issue with Huckleberry Finn for decades over its usage of racial slurs, which is increasingly ironic given the themes and message of the book. That being said, I disagree with the creation of the expurgated version, but on the whole am not to worried about it in general. It's one minor publishing company's decision to do so, and what they do does not effect all other further editions from this point in time.

 

[NoBama93]

editing and banning the use of are two different things.

Though they are different the ultimate point is that to change a book which reflects historical content can easily lead to editing historical fact. What's to stop editing out other historical content?

I despise censorship but what about the Thanksgiving with the Indians bullshit? And the Founders were all fine Christian men and this nation was "founded on Christianity" bullshit?
That was all made up shit.
BTW, Huck Finn is a fictional character. How is he "historical"?

It was a historical fiction. The book is historically accurate and people cannot change the fact that history was history. Black people were referred to as derogatory. This book can be used as a learning tool. Instead of editing it, we should keep it as it is and learn from the past. Down with the left and progressivism

 

[DinoCrisisFan]

editing and banning the use of are two different things.

You say that now, but once you edit something enough times...
1984