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Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 14:42:58 -0500
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From: Wes Britton <[log in to unmask]>
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While I'm a rare poster here these days, I have to admit complete 
astonishment to hear this news. First, I forget the gentleman's name-Henry 
Wallace?-who put out a similar edition of the expurgated HF years ago with 
the N word deleted. He didn't earn much respect for it. Second, if memory 
serves, the new editor lost a job years ago in a PC conflict at one 
university-now an obvious capitulation to these forces? I can understand 
someone with minimal Twain credentials crafting this sort of edition 
designed for grade schools, but not a name that would lend credibility to 
this version. I hope this is not the launch of future assaults on 
controversial texts. If Thou Shalt Not Offend is the new 11th Commandment, 
then all literature is under fire.




Dr. Wesley Britton
www.spywise.net

Co-host, Dave White Presents
www.audioentertainment.org/dwp



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Woodhouse" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: a new Adventures of Huckleberry Finn


> Good lord.
>
> I didn't know Alan was doing this but I guess it doesn't surprise me. It
> generates a lot of talk though doesn't it? Seems like it would make a good
> classroom discussion.
> (Although, I tried to get my CORE class to discuss the violence over the
> Danish cartoons of Muhammed and I got a lot of shrugging - like, what's 
> the
> big deal? So maybe I'm not a judge of what makes for a good classroom
> discussion. It seemed like Worlds Colliding to me.)
>
> I tried to look at all the comments to see if we knew anyone but I ran out
> of steam.
>
> On purely aesthetic grounds the thought of this sort of thing makes me
> cringe. I can hear the dialogue in my head and I know I'd be mumbling and
> swearing to myself as I went along, mentally re-inserting the original.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 1:28 PM, Michael Kiskis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> A former student sent me this link to a story about a new edition of Huck
>> --
>> to be edited by Alan Gribben.  If you read the story, scroll down to read
>> the variety of comments.
>>
>>
>> http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/01/03/huckleberry-finn-n-word-censor-edit/?hpt=T2
>>
>> --
>> Michael J. Kiskis
>> Leonard Tydings Grant Professor of American Literature
>> Elmira College
>> One Park Place
>> Elmira, NY  14901
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Mark Woodhouse
> Head of Technical Services
> College and Mark Twain Archivist
> Elmira College
> One Park Place
> Elmira NY 14901
> 607 735 1869


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