Dear Forum,

After reading several hundred comments on a variety of blogs and news sites
about the new edition of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," I can honestly
say that my eyes hurt.  Also, I am deeply impressed that so many people care
about the integrity of the written word and about the written words of Mark
Twain.  It is a testament to his importance.

While I have yet to formulate fully my own opinion on Dr. Gribben's book, I
do have two thoughts:
1) censorship--As a concept, censorship has many historical and theoretical
manifestations.  I do believe that the book will continue to exist in its
unchanged form and that calling this censorship without examining the
context might be needlessly provocative.
2) Intention--my favorite and least favorite topic of literary conversation.
 I found Dr. Gribben's introduction to the book, posted on the publisher's
website, to raise interesting questions worth serious thought and
discussion.

http://www.newsouthbooks.com/twain/introduction-alan-gribben-mark-twain-tom-sawyer-huckleberry-finn-newsouth-books.html

Best,

Tracy Wuster
Ph.D. Candidate
American Studies
UT Austin


On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 1:53 PM, Michael Patrick Hearn <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

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> http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/45645-upcoming-newsouth-huck-finn-eliminates-the-n-word.html?utm_source=Publishers+Weekly's+PW+Daily&utm_campaign=74671e6e20-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=email
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> http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/01/04/132652272/new-edition-of-huckleberry-finn-will-eliminate-offensive-words?sc=emaf
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