Here's an excellent commentary that appeared on the Minnesota Public Radio website today. I posted a comment on the piece.N-word in 'Huck Finn' Starts a Conversation We Need to Have
by David Cazares
Minnesota Public Radio
January 12, 2011
I sat with my daughter last weekend to discuss a book I thought she hadn't yet read, with no intention of choosing my words delicately.
Though she's only in middle school, I wanted her to know all about a controversial plan to remove the word "nigger" from Mark Twain's novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" -- and that she should read the unchanged work. Click here to read the whole commentary.
My posted comment:
You're so right. It's ludicrous to think that we should rewrite historic books and documents in order to make them more accessible to contemporary readers. Better to have the conversations and work through the ugly realities than to cover them up.
I would add that this is as important for young people of all races. I don't want my white grandchildren to be "protected" from learning and understanding the racist and hateful attitudes, words, and experiences of American history. Better for them to read with discomfort, dismay, and even shock at how things have been in the past. Integrity and character for today is best served by an honest view of history.
Thank you so much for sharing your perspective.
I've been noticing the same thing in reading Nietszche, regarding gender relations. Relative to other German writers of the late 1800s, he was remarkably conscientious of using gender unspecific pronouns; but then he has entire sections in which it's implied that women serve as pleasant distractions in man's drive towards enlightenment; that women are only enlightened by proxy.
ReplyDeleteOmitting that would be unfair to Nietszche, but it does't mean I have to operate under the same assumptions.