Censors & Censures

Forgive me if the title of this post sounds like a title of a Freaks & Geeks episode, but we've been rewatching the series over the last couple weeks so it's been on my mind. The 1st half of the title refers to the hotly debated publication of a new edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn & The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The two books are being published together in an attempt to reconcile the narrative structure & bring together Tom Sawyer & its prequel. When Coppola did this w/ the Godfather films, it went over like a lead balloon. The problem w/ the Twain texts isn't so much w/ the chronology (since they're pretty linear anyway), but w/ New South's decision to expunge the "offensive" language. The rationale behind this is that schools are banning the books because of the use of the word "Nigger" (& to a lesser extent, "Injun"), & so w/o these words, kids will have more access to the texts. The flaws in this argument are obvious, but it also leads to the possibility of this occurring in other texts. We can remove all images of violence against animals from Moby Dick, Hamlet can serve cake to his uncle rather than plot to kill him. The names in 19th century Russian epics can be simplified to Bob & Sally.

Of course, the irony here is that, while everyone in the media is upset about this, no one is using the word. They're saying things like "The 'N-Word' is being replaced w/ the word 'slave'." If the media can't use the word in what is supposed to be a frank discussion of the word, maybe New South is actually on to something. However, the fact of the matter is that the word is part of the language, certainly part of the culture in which the books take place, & the violence inherent in this history shouldn't be erased. Furthermore, we should be as offended by the attempt to dislocate the history from the texts as we are by that history of violence or by the attempt to censor the language.

I read Huck Finn in high school, & I really didn't like it. It was only when I was in grad school that I was able to understand why it's such a big deal. The idea that removing a couple racist words (while no violent or sexist imagery is being removed) will make it a more fulfilling book for kids is ridiculous. If they are to read the book, let them read the actual text. They're going to struggle w/ most of it anyway. It's a tough book to read. Tom Sawyer is easier to read, but then again, it's not being taught as often, probably because it's simply seen as an inferior text. Be that as it may, they're both being censored by New South, but you should do yourself a favor & reread a full, uncensored version this winter... you won't be sorry.

Along with the news of this censorship, there's been a lot of talk over the last couple of days about censuring Sarah Palin in response to the shootings in Arizona. I've even seen on web-sites & on Facebook people suggesting that she should be brought to trial. First of all, who would be doing the censuring? Fox News? TLC (home of Sarah Palin's Alaska)? Harper Collins (the publisher of her less than stellar new book, America By Heart)? Not bloody likely. More to the point, it isn't fair to be blaming her. Sure, she's not that bright & she's been one of the leaders of this ridiculous right-wing agenda, but even if the shooter did it because he was influenced by her, that's obviously not what she had in mind when she suggested people should not retreat, they should reload. She was speaking metaphorically, & she can't be held accountable when one crazy guy takes her literally. sure, she had a picture w/ targets on specific Congressional districts, but she didn't really want those people shot. If we can blame her for this type of thing, we can probably blame Huck Finn for the racism common among today's youth. We can blame Iron Maiden when a kid kills himself. We can blame a video game when a couple kids flip out like this guy in Tucson. On the other hand, we don't even know that he was really influenced by her. He claims that The Communist Manifesto was one of his favorite books. Does The Communist Manifesto make people do these things? I've read it a few times but never went on a killing spree. In fact, many of you have read it too. He also claims to love The Wizard of Oz & that we should return to the gold standard. Can we then blame L. Frank Baum.

Certainly, the tenor of the political dialogue has gotten heated & Palin has been a major contributing factor, but if we start these kinds of witch-hunts, we'll be just as bad as the people who censor Huck Finn or just as bad as Palin, herself. Besides, if it really comes down to a 22 year old's inability to distinguish a literal reading from a metaphorical reading, maybe we need to blame English teachers... uh-oh.