Censoring Mark Twain

I don't even know where to start with this one.  Via Memeorandum, there's a new edition of Huck Finn coming out with the n-word completely excised and replaced with "slave":

"...Twain scholar Alan Gribben and NewSouth Books plan to release a version of Huckleberry Finn, in a single volume with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, that does away with the "n" word (as well as the "in" word, "Injun") by replacing it with the word "slave."

"This is not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colorblind," said Gribben, speaking from his office at Auburn University at Montgomery, where he's spent most of the past 20 years heading the English department. "Race matters in these books. It's a matter of how you express that in the 21st century."

This is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard.  Are we now going to go back and rewrite every classic text in which there is some term that offends some group?  Talk about political correctness gone amok!  A commenter at Joe.My.God said:

Hey, if this works out, they could do a little cleanup on Anne Frank's diary. Like make the whole thing a big understanding about the Nazis rounding up "juice" instead of "jews" and everybody laughs at the crazy mixup. Zany hijinks ensue from there.  

I couldn't agree more.  How about Gone With The Wind?  Can we clean that one up, too? 

I've been teaching To Kill a Mockingbird for eleven years.  Each time, before we read, we have the discussion about the language.  I explain to students the context of the word, the setting of the novel, and they learn that Atticus finds the term offensive:

"Don't say nigger Scout.  That's common."  (Chapter 9).  

Scout learns that Atticus views racism and prejudice as a "disease" that takes over normally clear headed people. 

There's a context. 

If you go back and start censoring the language in classic novels you'll remove certain potential for critical thinking from our curriculum.  Just tell the kids what to think; don't let them figure anything out for themselves!  Let's clean up Shakespeare while we're at it; it's certainly bawdy enough.  Is that the next target?

Until we clean up the degrading and offensive language in hip-hop, I don't think there's a leg to stand on here.

Is it Censorship?

So let's talk about that exhibit at The Smithsonian.  You can go here to see the picture at the heart of the controversy, and read the story; I'm not going to post it just because I don't want to have to look at it every time I open my own blog.  But, is it censorship?

The exhibit is offensive to many, yes.  But, is it "art"?  Even though the exhibit is supposedly funded by private donations, it's in the public Smithsonian.  Is it right to demand that it be taken down?

Are we on a slippery slope, here?

Banning Books

In my sophomore English class we read a wide variety of material, both fiction and non-fiction. The first novel we read each year is Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. I always have to lay a little groundwork before reading and do some preparation. The story is classic and timeless and, in the end, quite positive. The whole theme of the novel is to not judge someone before you know all the facts. As Atticus says, you have to put yourself in their skin and walk around in it. Atticus was all about getting Tom Robinson judged fairly. I also love all the symbolism in the novel and love to see the "lightbulbs" go off when the kids start thinking about that snowman as more than just a snowman, or the rabid dog, the dog with a "disease" as more than just a mad dog.

By the end of the novel, the kids have gotten so far past Mr. Ewell's hate and anger and profane name-calling that they "get" the message Atticus is selling and end up loving the novel.

Below is the list of books on the list most requested to be banned from school libraries. This just blows my mind. This list almost always includes all the Harry Potter books and usually Of Mice and Men. How many of them have YOU read?!

Top 10 requests

American Library Association officials say they know of 420 requests to remove books from schools and libraries in 2007. Here are the top 10, along with the reasons cited.

1. "And Tango Makes Three" by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. Reasons: anti-ethnic, sexism, homosexuality, anti-family, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group.
2. "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier. Reasons: sexually explicit, offensive language, violence.
3. "Olive's Ocean" by Kevin Henkes. Reasons: sexually explicit, offensive language.
4. "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman. Reasons: religious viewpoint.
5. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. Reasons: racism.
6. "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker. Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language.
7. "TTYL" by Lauren Myracle. Reasons: sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuitable for age group.
8. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou. Reasons: sexually explicit.
9. "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris. Reasons: sex education, sexually explicit.
10. "The Perks of Being A Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky. Reasons: homosexuality, sexually explicit, offensive language, unsuitable for age group.

Knowing my students, just looking at this list, they'd make a beeline for the library just to get their hands on one of these! Nothing makes a teenager want to do something more than telling them they can't or that it is bad for them!