My old friend Randall Williams of New South Books is on the hot seat on CBS’s “60 Minutes” for publishing a version of Mark Twain’s classic book Huckleberry Finn — with the word “slave” substituted for the word “nigger.”
Censorship? Or a great way to get the book taught in public schools again?
© 2011, Glynn Wilson. All rights reserved. The Locust Fork News-Journal, LocustFork.Net
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This is an issue that’s hard, for me, to weigh in about. On the one hand, Twain’s choice of words accurately reflect 19th century American colloquialism. On the other, the N-word is offensive.
And it just might be a clever strategy to get the book taught in schools again. Twain is arguably one of the greatest American writers and humorists, maybe *the* greatest, and not teaching his books because of offensive language seems counterproductive to me.
There – I just came down on both sides of the issue. Nothing new for politicians, difficult for this writer who likes to take sides.
I can see both sides of this one too, so I take no editorial position on it.
Besides, the book is out now, and some teachers are obviously using it. And hey, it made “60 Minutes,” so it is obviously sparking a discussion.