NewSouth’s “Cleaner” Edition of Twain
Quick announcement: Hey, guess who’s going to be Guest of Honor at Constellation in Nebraska this April!
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Publishers Weekly recently reported on NewSouth, a small publisher which will be releasing a new edition of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in which all uses of the word “nigger” and “injun” have been changed. It’s not the first time this sort of thing has happened. John Wallace released a similarly “cleansed” edition of Huck Finn two decades ago.
There’s a lot to unpack here. Twain scholar Dr. Alan Gribben, who edited the NewSouth edition, lays out his rationale in the introduction (available online):
Far more controversial than this reuniting of Twain’s boy books will be the editor’s decision to eliminate two racial slurs that have increasingly formed a barrier to these works for teachers, students, and general readers. The editor thus hopes to introduce both books to a wider readership than they can currently enjoy.
In other words, he was worried because the books were already being banned from schools and elsewhere. His primary goal isn’t necessarily to censor the book, but to circumvent banning by removing the primary point of contention. He goes on to talk about his personal experiences reading the book, and the pain caused by the repeated and casual use of the word “nigger.” (Side note: I’ve seen zero discussion of the word “injun” in this context, which bothers me.)
I sympathize with Gribben’s intentions. And I think the discussion as to whether or not these stories are appropriate for the classroom is a good debate to have. We can argue that the book provides an opportunity to have a painfully honest discussion about history and race and racism, but how many teachers are truly qualified to moderate such a discussion and make it a positive experience for all students? I would trust very few of my high school English teachers to do a decent job.
That said, I don’t believe a “cleansed” edition of the book is the answer. As an author, I don’t want someone else rewriting my books to make them more acceptable. And Mark Twain isn’t just literature; he’s history. I have strong misgivings about the way we revise history. To learn from the past, we have to be willing to look at our flaws and failures, not erase them.
Gribben is passionate about Twain’s work. My question for him is whether he believes the challenges to this book are appropriate. If not, then why is he giving in to them? If so — if schools are teaching these books to students who aren’t ready for them, or are presenting them in ways which are hurtful to students — then is the solution to present a bastardized edition of the text?
We don’t teach Ulysses to fifth graders because they’re not ready for it. I don’t know exactly when students are ready to tackle the raw and painful racial issues in Twain, but I don’t believe glossing those issues over or pretending they don’t exist is the way to go. There are so many wonderful, beautiful, powerful books out there … why is it so important that this one be pushed upon students before they’re ready? Maybe this is a book better taught at the college level instead of high school or junior high.
As a writer, a parent, and a former teacher, I obviously have some strong feelings about all of this. But like Gribben, I’m a white man up on my soap box about the use of “nigger” and “injun,” which is problematic for a number of reasons. It’s easy for me to say we should keep those words in the book — neither I nor my family are the ones who’ve been hurt by them. So if you’ve read this rather long post, then thank you … but please make sure my voice isn’t the only one you’re listening to.
Here are a few of the articles I read as I was trying to sort out my own thoughts and reaction:
- Taking the History Out of Huck Finn, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. (Including the comments.)
- Didn’t Huckleberry Finn Have the N-word in it?
- Should Mark Twain be Allowed to Use the N-word?
- My Nigger Story. (Including comments.)
Nick Matthews
January 6, 2011 @ 10:00 am
Another interesting viewpoint. The appropriate age group for a novel is a very interesting point. Ulysses is an interesting example. Although even if you’re “ready” for it, I’m not sure everyone can necessarily understand it. Joyce is a little hard to follow at the best of times.
I also wrote a blog post about the NewSouth Books edition of Huckleberry Finn. It’s certainly an interesting edition, and is obviously stirring up some controversy, which will definitely get the new edition some publicity.
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Deirdre Saoirse Moen
January 6, 2011 @ 4:51 pm
As a child, I had an illustrated “classics” edition that, while not this one, was similar in concept. Clearly, that edition was aiming the book at kids.
I probably read all of Mark Twain when I was around ten. I re-read a lot of it, too.
At the end of Clarion, Karen Joy Fowler and Tim Powers gave each writer an assignment: to read a particular book a year after Clarion. (This turned out to be difficult for me, as I didn’t lose my ability to write after Clarion, I lost my ability to read. I’m still a fidgety reader even 8 years later.)
Each book was geared toward our writing tastes and interests and in tune with what they thought our personalities as writers were. My assignment was Huck Finn.
And, I admit, I found it challenging reading precisely because the N word (in particular, though the I word also bugged me) threw me out, and kept throwing me out.
Anyhow, since I’ve recently finally been to Mississippi and all, maybe it’s time to re-read the book.
David Y
January 6, 2011 @ 11:20 pm
There are a lot of non-problematic books that can be taught. And a lot of books that can cause problems for teachers. My father had to teach one (King Solomon’s Mines?) that had the phrase “the nipples on Julia’s breasts” which I think referred to a landscape feature. Try reading that to a class full of adolescent boys (and girls). Mind, this was almost 50 years ago.
I am surprised by a lot of the books that are taught nowadays. I would put them in the libraries but not actively assign or teach them.
One of my English teachers commented about Ulysses that he wouldn’t worry about the obscenities in it — very few high schoolers would plough through all that dense and obscure prose just for a few dirty words.
Deirdre Saoirse Moen
January 6, 2011 @ 11:25 pm
Yes, well, The Diary of Anne Frank has the mention of her beginning her period. We read the book aloud and naturally my teacher (who was gay and living with another similarly-minded teacher) picked a boy to read that part. It seemed unnecessarily cruel of the teacher. Unfortunately, it’s the thing I most associate with the book, too.
Deirdre Saoirse Moen
January 6, 2011 @ 11:28 pm
To clarify, it felt like the teacher, who was gender non-conforming himself (rather effeminate) picked on a student that he felt was also gender non-conforming. This was 9th grade, so many of the students were going through puberty at the time.
That shouldn’t be what I remember most about the book. Just sayin’.
Lorne Marr
January 8, 2011 @ 5:28 pm
No matter which word they will use they’ll have to explain to students that the word was part of a particular historical period and its usage then was not considered inappropriate as it is today and that’s why it should be avoided. But changing the words of our classic novels seems unacceptable to me.
Anke
January 16, 2011 @ 11:54 am
This is so baffling seen from my point of view. It causes a knee-jerk assumption in me that it’s an attempt to white-wash US history by keeping the bad parts from pupils, but objectively, well, I don’t know their whole curriculum.
My point of view is informed by my school here in Germany covering in the 9th-12th grade bracket various aspects of the 3rd Reich in History, German, Biology, and Geography classes, including reading and discussion of Nazi speeches as well as descriptions of medical experiments done to Jews or other groups defined as “subhuman” at the time.
Big on the whole “teach how bad it was so it doesn’t happen again”.
Jim C. Hines
January 17, 2011 @ 4:49 pm
Big on the whole “teach how bad it was so it doesn’t happen again”.
No argument here. I also came across an article today talking about how some groups want to remove any evidence that America’s Founding Fathers were at all racist or owned slaves or any of that — the same sort of whitewashing, pretend-it-never-happened approach. It makes me shudder.