Improved

Alan Gribben, who pretends to be a scholar of Mark Twain, has edited new versions of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer with the word “nigger” removed:
The idea of a more politically correct Finn came to the 69-year-old English professor over years of teaching and outreach, during which he habitually replaced the word with "slave" when reading aloud. Gribben grew up without ever hearing the "n" word ("My mother said it's only useful to identify [those who use it as] the wrong kind of people") and became increasingly aware of its jarring effect as he moved South and started a family. "My daughter went to a magnet school and one of her best friends was an African-American girl. She loathed the book, could barely read it."
Instead of sanitizing books written in more civilized eras, liberals should do what other cults have done to handle taboos, and devise some sort of purification ritual adherents can perform after reading or hearing “nigger,” or any other “unclean” words. A little self flagellation with a stalk of organically grown bok choy, followed by a bottled spring water ablution, would do the trick.

Comments

  1. Censorship can be a threat to free-speech, but this is self-censorship.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In my personal copy of Huck Finn I substituted the word "nigger" with the name Alain Robbe Grillet. I found it gives new meaning and depth to the, er, text.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Interesting. I sometimes wonder if some of Grillet's work wasn't written with the help of a hair ball oracle.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I watched Last Year at Marienbad (scripted by Grillet) prior to adding that comment. An excellent movie that you can enjoy both for itself and as a parody of that kind of movie from that era.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The reason I'm going on about Alain Robb Grillet is: Alan Gribbet/Alain Robbe Grillet, I couldn't let the similarity pass.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've watched the beginning of Marienbad. I've watched the beginning of Marienbad.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "My daughter went to a magnet school and one of her best friends was an African-American girl. SHE LOATHED THE BOOK, COULD BARELY READ IT."

    It's not clear who loathes the book; the Afro-American or the daughter. Either way, I don't see why the rest of us should revise our reading lists on the advice of illiterates.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Some of his daughter's best friends are blacks who can't read.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More Brief Reviews of Movies I haven’t Seen