New edition removes Mark Twain's 'offensive' words

[la bombe]

Also, Christmas Eve, I grabbed breakfast at a joint owned by a Muslim before heading to my mother's place, because that was what was open. He also said "Merry Christmas" to me when I paid for my meal and left.

Minorities don't care. They don't understand this whole PC nonsense and why we don't celebrate our own culture.

LOL, that reminds me, I actually got bitched at for saying "Merry Christmas" this year. By guess what... white people from Christian backgrounds. I thought it was lulzy, but if I'm celebrating Christmas, I will say "MERRY CHRISTMAS" regardless of who I'm speaking to. If it's what I celebrate, why would I change what I say to suit someone else?

[Bloodeagle]

Not really for minorities. In my experience, it's only the social democrat (I had to find a good word because I hate calling them "liberal") type white people (usually Anglos with too much spare time and money) who get bent out of shape by it. Most minorities know that those words in Mark Twain's writings are not meant in a hurtful manner, but part of the storyline.

I can imagine there are a lot of minorities who think this is stupid. Hell, I'm a minority, technically (and legally by the Nova Scotia Charter of Human Rights and the Civil Rights Act in the US), and I don't care.

It's the same with the whole Christmas thing. It just makes the social democrats happy. I work with a lot of Hindus, Muslims, and Jews, and want to know what the last thing they said to me before I walked out of the office on December 23rd was?

"Merry Christmas".

Also, Christmas Eve, I grabbed breakfast at a joint owned by a Muslim before heading to my mother's place, because that was what was open. He also said "Merry Christmas" to me when I paid for my meal and left.

Minorities don't care. They don't understand this whole PC nonsense and why we don't celebrate our own culture.

I see what you mean. It is up to these pc extremists to shield the poor minorities from that mealy mouthed Twain and his 19th century crassness.

[Grumpy Cat]

LOL, that reminds me, I actually got bitched at for saying "Merry Christmas" this year. By guess what... white people from Christian backgrounds. I thought it was lulzy, but if I'm celebrating Christmas, I will say "MERRY CHRISTMAS" regardless of who I'm speaking to. If it's what I celebrate, why would I change what I say to suit someone else?

It's stupid. If someone says "Merry Christmas" to you, they have good intentions. Minorities realize that.

I think I strattle a good line here, being Acadian I am both defined as a "minority" but I am also "white", so I see both sides. Minorities don't respect political correctness... AT ALL. Noone does. Even psychiatrists think PC is bad on a solely medical/psychological level.

[Grumpy Cat]

I see what you mean. It is up to these pc extremists to shield the poor minorities from that mealy mouthed Twain and his 19th century crassness.

Yeah, these people actually think minorities have as much time on their hands as they do. Most of them don't.

They're not shielding the poor minorities, they're doing a disservice to them (and to non-minorities) by altering a literary classic... so readers of this revised edition will probably end up being confused as to what the book was about.

[Debaser11]

I said "Merry Christmas" twice to this customer from New Zealand. Both times I got "okay, thanks." Fucker.

[Sword of the Morning]

The irony of this censorship, of course, is that one of the driving forces in Twain's life was alleviating (what he saw as) the unjust way Negroes were treated at the time. As has been noted, use of the word "nigger" was not only accurate dialogue for the period, but also carefully employed in such a way as to generate sympathy for the Black characters.

[Point of interest: While Twain worked tirelessly toward equality for Negroes, he was far from an anti-racist. He regarded American Indians with something approaching a limitless revulsion, and considered them in effect a type of subhuman. Personally, I think he has his racist priorities a bit jumbled, but what do I know? ]

[Magister Eckhart]

I thought this was old news; didn't they come out with a PC version of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer in the 90s?

While tampering with books (which is just blatant censorship, I'd like to point out) is not only wrong, but completely hypocritical of the antira crowd, to be honest I never thought much of the books to begin with; I hardly think they deserve the designation of "classic" that is bestowed on them. I prefer Twain's short stories and satirical essays like Letters from Earth.

[2DREZQ]

I re-read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn just this last summer. Absolutely delightful. I was surprised to read that "nigger" was used 219 times, though.

Agrippa is right, it's time to start editing the sacred texts of the world to remove any hint of offensive language from them as well.

BTW: I have a copy of "Little Black Sambo" in my collection. I wonder how I can edit that to be inoffensive?

[Sword of the Morning]

BTW: I have a copy of "Little Black Sambo" in my collection. I wonder how I can edit that to be inoffensive?

Easy: Make Sambo into a gentle-souled, morally upright gentleman with a genius-level IQ who happens to be a victim of institutional racism, like all other fictional Negroes.



"Ah ibs gwine solb dat diffarenshul kalkalus prollum fo' yoo, massa YT."

[Osweo]

social democrat (I had to find a good word because I hate calling them "liberal")

Good usage. SDy is all about 'fairness' being alloted to social groups, and the ignoring of the plight of the individual in the process of restructuring society to fit an abstract model. PC bollocks like changing old books is exactly such a matter of catering to an abstract social class that doesn't really have any existence in real life. Just as SD can only be arranged by a self-appointed elite, these do-gooders have taken upon themselves to decide FOR the 'minorities' what they need. Paternalism in its most patronising form, if you'll forgive the tautology.