Making classical literature politically correct

[Faithfree]

Publisher defends Huck Finn censorship

A publisher in Alabama has caused controversy by cutting the word "nigger" from a new edition of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.

The word nigger appears more than 200 times in the original Hucklebury Finn alone, but the new edition ........ *SNIP*

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011 ... 107338.htm

So, should classical literature be sanitised to fit modern ideals? Is this justified to get such literature into schools, or should schools or their curriculum advisory boards stop trying to rewrite history by sugar-coating our past?

[devogue]

What next?

Guy Gibson's dog in Dambusters to be called Afro-Caribbean?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I was once ordered to change the word "collaborationist" to something else in Cross-channel Attack. I very politely told the person to fuck right off.

[Bella Fortuna]

I think it's abysmal - why not keep the work intact and teach about context and history? Because that would be too much work... far easier to pretend nothing controversial has ever happened...

[Atheist-Lite]

Happy could be replaced with doubleplusgood? It sounds better?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Patrick and I go to great pains to get the original text in any book or document onto the websites intact and unaltered. The rule is a person should lay down a hard copy next to our material and not find any differences. I don't think any book should be changed to mollify a group or because of political pressure.

[Faithfree]

What next?

Guy Gibson's dog in Dambusters to be called Afro-Caribbean?

I believe that one's next on the list.

[Atheist-Lite]

What next?

Guy Gibson's dog in Dambusters to be called Afro-Caribbean?

I think they've renamed it Niggsy for the remake.

[devogue]

What next?

Guy Gibson's dog in Dambusters to be called Afro-Caribbean?

I think they've renamed it Niggsy for the remake.

That's a joke, right?

[devogue]

Paddy Ashdown should be called Proud Irishman Ashdown.

[Trolldor]

Fuck political correctness or anti-political correctness, fuck preservation of classics, fuck updating for the modern audience.

Books are changed, constantly, by their authors, and sometimes by the publishers before the book has even been released.

The only thing that matters here is will the word change impact on the original story.

The answer? Yes. You lose a part of the character that helped shaped the book, you lose the context of the time and the story.
The only reason this shouldn't be done is because it changes the story in a very dramatic way, a way not sanctioned or intended by the original author after publication. He's dead.

So fuck off, you're changing somebody else's story to suit your perspective, go fuck yourself you disrespectful cunt.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Paddy Ashdown should be called Proud Irishman Ashdown.

So, Mick Fleetwood would become ... ?

[Atheist-Lite]

What next?

Guy Gibson's dog in Dambusters to be called Afro-Caribbean?

I think they've renamed it Niggsy for the remake.

That's a joke, right?

It was going to be called Trigger at first, they wanted to stay accurate and occasionaly Nigsy was called Nigsy.

[Faithfree]

I think it's abysmal - why not keep the work intact and teach about context and history? Because that would be too much work... far easier to pretend nothing controversial has ever happened...

Couldn't agree more. The whole point of history, and studying it, is that it was different from now. The future will be different from us now too, but I hope they will be able to see us exactly as we were, un-sanitised, and understand why we were what we were (even though rolling on the floor in fits of laughter).

[maiforpeace]

I think it's abysmal - why not keep the work intact and teach about context and history? Because that would be too much work... far easier to pretend nothing controversial has ever happened...

History? What history...it's fucking Alabama! People STILL think and speak this way about black people there.