I’ve just learned from a recent Entertainment Weekly article that a new edition of ‘Huckleberry Finn’ is being published in which all usages of the “n” word are removed. They’re being replaced with the word “slave”, if you’re curious. Many people have already jumped to call this an act of censorship and/or have rolled their eyes at this obvious attempt to cater to those who value “political correctness”. I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with both of these assessments. This is an act of censorship because I would be willing to bet that Mark Twain is rolling over in his grave at this version of his classic. The fact is that if he wanted to call black people slaves, he would’ve done so in the book’s original publication. Changing his language in the name of “updating” the book is not in keeping with the author’s wishes, and I don’t care if that author is alive or dead. In truth, he called black people “niggers” because that was the language used in that time period.
Yes, I did just type that. I almost can’t believe it myself, because I hate the “n” word. It is just as degrading, downright awful and simply unacceptable as any other racial slur. One of the worst things in high school was going around the room and reading passages of Huck Finn out loud, so that we were all forced to actually verbalize the word. It was offensive and it kind of burned your throat to say it, and of course this is still true today. Now, in the name of being politically correct, this edition of the book is being published so that the offensive word can be avoided, and I believe that nothing good can come of this. As terrible as it is, the word has to stay in the book and its meaning must be addressed.
How else will students learn about life in the South long before the civil rights movement? How else will students be able to fully realize the asinine point of view of the white slave owners who considered themselves far superior to any other race? Furthermore, once we start editing books in this way, aren’t we looking at a slippery slope? What would be next – editing Hitler’s speeches to Nazi Germany in which he called the Jews “vermin”, among other things?
This hateful speech has to remain in its original format and its historical context must be fully explained to modern readers. To me, history must be portrayed truthfully and realistically if it is to be meaningful. How are students to understand women fighting for suffrage and factory workers fighting for their rights and any other movement for change unless they know the conditions that led to that movement? Otherwise, we risk students memorizing a date and a few key terms in a textbook and forgetting it a week after the exam, bereft of any meaning.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the relevance that this novel still holds today. A friend of a friend had some wonderfully-phrased thoughts on this: “…All because some privileged people think their kids shouldn't be subjected to the word "nigger" when in reality the parents should not only be making sure the book stays around (it's considered one of the principle works of American literature for crying out loud), but making their kids get out in the world and see how that word is used today. The idea behind the word, the sentiment it carries forth, is still very alive today. This edited book shouldn't exist because it eliminates the learning about that sentiment and how it still affects America and the world - that's the point of the book that hasn't lost an iota of meaning since Twain put it to paper….We're nutering this book - it will no longer give birth to an understanding of American racism.” Indeed, I couldn’t have said it better myself, and I thank Daniel Edward Onley for articulating this thinking so well.
Here’s a related example based on my experience: In my sophomore year of high school, in a very small North Carolina town, we spent about 5 minutes discussing the Holocaust in my history class. (Not exaggerating, I timed the teacher). Then we simply moved on to the next event, as we were behind schedule and had to get through the Second World War before the next test…Now I ask, isn’t that ridiculous? Doesn’t that make you angry? “Oh by the way, millions of people were brutally killed and tortured because they were viewed as sub-human. Now on to the next item on the agenda!” Anyway, it sure angers me. The only way that any of my peers truly understood the Holocaust was through my English teacher in that same year. For her class, one of the assigned books was Elie Weisel’s ‘Night’, still one of those that I count as amazingly influential to me. By reading and analyzing this book, along with its historical context, the full meaning of the Holocaust and its relevance in the past and present became clear.
As soon as we start taking a red pen to history, eliminating those words and photos and events that make us squirm, we drain it of its meaning. How are we to learn from our mistakes and avoid repeating them in the future if we don’t truly know and understand our history? Let me end by quoting Mark Twain himself, “A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t”. It’s so true – if we won’t read the stark truth of our history, we have no advantage whatsoever over an illiterate person.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Review of 'Tunneling to the Center of the Earth'
New year, new books to read! :D Here’s a review I did for my Young Adult Literature class on a book of short stories, 'Tunneling to the Center of the Earth'. Since there are so many stories, I’ve decided to just discuss on here the stories I found most compelling. I will issue the disclaimer that this book isn’t for the faint of heart. All sorts of real-life issues are brought up and (as in real-life) not usually resolved. On the whole, the book has a very “Southern gothic” flair a la Flannery O’Conner. Hope you enjoy, and I know you’ll be interested. :)
1. Title: Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson, ISBN: 9780061579028, New York, New York, 2009, $13.99, 208 pp.
2. Genre: Short Story/Fiction Grades 10-12.
3. Characters: The characters in each of these short stories are such that they stick in the reader’s memory, unlikely to be forgotten anytime soon. They are all unique and disturbingly true-to-life characters. Since they are impossible to describe separate from each story’s plot, I will discuss them in tandem.
4. Plot: First, we meet an older woman who is hired by families seeking a grandmother figure for their children. In many cases, the real grandmother is dead, dying, sickly, or just not a nice person. Our protagonist pretends to be the biological grandmother of the children, and puts on the act very well, complete with stories to tell the kids, photos of them on display in her house, and favorite foods to cook for them. After some fond memories are made her job is done, and she is “killed off”, in an effort to teach the children about death. At first she finds it easy to “disconnect” from each of her “grandchildren”, but when a unique family situation presents itself, she soon decides to quit the business. Next, we meet a young man who works at a Scrabble factory, sorting letters all day long in search of the elusive letter “Q”. He lives with his suicidal brother, he is in love with his neighbor’s daughter, Joan, and he is obsessed with the prospect of dying as his parents did, by spontaneous combustion. He quits his job in the end as well, determined to make a change in his life. In “birds in the house”, we meet a young boy who’s helping to carry out his dead grandmother’s last wishes. His father and three uncles are folding paper birds (a family tradition) as part of a contest to win the family mansion, and the boy watches as they all continue to fight with each other as they’ve always done. We never learn the winner of the contest, but the boy hopes that his grandmother is happy and at peace; we feel that this boy will break the pattern of his previous generations. Next, we meet three recent college graduates who are trying to delay entering the real world. They dig intricate tunnels underground and live there for months before finally surfacing and getting jobs. They always think fondly of their summer of digging, though, and feeling the soil makes them happy. In “the shooting man”, we meet a man who works at a noise factory and goes to see a magic show in which one man shoots himself in the forehead and supposedly lives. He is forced to sign up for the act himself, but wonders if he’ll make it out alive. Next, we meet a married man and woman who’ve just had a baby, born with a full set of teeth. The man is having an affair with another woman and finally leaves his family to travel to Europe with the mistress. Interestingly, this story is written in second-person, and it’s unclear if the “you” is meant to be a man or a woman. Next, we meet a sixteen year old cheerleader who feels very uncomfortable in her own skin. She starts a relationship with a boy four years younger then her who has obsessions with flying, fire, and this girl. After an accidental fire in which they both get burned, Penny discovers more about herself and learns to accept her uniqueness. In “the museum of whatnot”, we meet a woman who lives alone as curator of a museum filled with other people’s curious collections of junk. She doesn’t seem to want anything or anyone in her life, but by the end she has met a man who helps her realize that it’s okay to hang onto some things. Finally, we meet an insecure and slightly paranoid man who helps people determine the worst-case scenarios for their particular businesses or family lives. He is always the bearer of bad news with his job, but by the end he is willing to accept that other equally good outcomes are just as possible as the horrible ones. In sum, each story is tremendously unique and leaves the reader wanting more from this author.
5. Touchy Areas: There are so many different touchy areas in these stories that I wonder if I could get away with teaching this in a public school without lots of parents becoming very angry with me. Everything from suicide to drug use to homosexual scenes to extremely depressing family situations are all included. To avoid getting fired and/or scarring kids for life, I would only select a few of the more tame stories, such as “grand stand-in” (the story of the fake grandmother), to use in a classroom.
8. Evaluation: I greatly enjoyed this collection of short stories, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in some disturbing stories with a “Southern gothic” flair. The characters and their transformations are haunting, and leave you creeped out but wanting more. I see this as appropriate for people of all ages and backgrounds, and in a high school setting I believe that juniors and seniors would enjoy it the most.
As I said, in order to teach this book I would only select a few of the short stories, such as “grand stand-in” and “birds in the house”, to use in the classroom. I would teach them alongside other absurdist literature such as Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find (1955). I might also incorporate poems that go along with central themes in the stories, such as A Dream Deferred (1951) by Langston Hughes. Other works, such as absurdist artwork like The Fountain (1917) by Marcel Duchamp, would be perfectly applicable as well.
I would rate this book a 10 out of 10, and will be one of the first people to buy Kevin Wilson’s novel next summer.
1. Title: Tunneling to the Center of the Earth by Kevin Wilson, ISBN: 9780061579028, New York, New York, 2009, $13.99, 208 pp.
2. Genre: Short Story/Fiction Grades 10-12.
3. Characters: The characters in each of these short stories are such that they stick in the reader’s memory, unlikely to be forgotten anytime soon. They are all unique and disturbingly true-to-life characters. Since they are impossible to describe separate from each story’s plot, I will discuss them in tandem.
4. Plot: First, we meet an older woman who is hired by families seeking a grandmother figure for their children. In many cases, the real grandmother is dead, dying, sickly, or just not a nice person. Our protagonist pretends to be the biological grandmother of the children, and puts on the act very well, complete with stories to tell the kids, photos of them on display in her house, and favorite foods to cook for them. After some fond memories are made her job is done, and she is “killed off”, in an effort to teach the children about death. At first she finds it easy to “disconnect” from each of her “grandchildren”, but when a unique family situation presents itself, she soon decides to quit the business. Next, we meet a young man who works at a Scrabble factory, sorting letters all day long in search of the elusive letter “Q”. He lives with his suicidal brother, he is in love with his neighbor’s daughter, Joan, and he is obsessed with the prospect of dying as his parents did, by spontaneous combustion. He quits his job in the end as well, determined to make a change in his life. In “birds in the house”, we meet a young boy who’s helping to carry out his dead grandmother’s last wishes. His father and three uncles are folding paper birds (a family tradition) as part of a contest to win the family mansion, and the boy watches as they all continue to fight with each other as they’ve always done. We never learn the winner of the contest, but the boy hopes that his grandmother is happy and at peace; we feel that this boy will break the pattern of his previous generations. Next, we meet three recent college graduates who are trying to delay entering the real world. They dig intricate tunnels underground and live there for months before finally surfacing and getting jobs. They always think fondly of their summer of digging, though, and feeling the soil makes them happy. In “the shooting man”, we meet a man who works at a noise factory and goes to see a magic show in which one man shoots himself in the forehead and supposedly lives. He is forced to sign up for the act himself, but wonders if he’ll make it out alive. Next, we meet a married man and woman who’ve just had a baby, born with a full set of teeth. The man is having an affair with another woman and finally leaves his family to travel to Europe with the mistress. Interestingly, this story is written in second-person, and it’s unclear if the “you” is meant to be a man or a woman. Next, we meet a sixteen year old cheerleader who feels very uncomfortable in her own skin. She starts a relationship with a boy four years younger then her who has obsessions with flying, fire, and this girl. After an accidental fire in which they both get burned, Penny discovers more about herself and learns to accept her uniqueness. In “the museum of whatnot”, we meet a woman who lives alone as curator of a museum filled with other people’s curious collections of junk. She doesn’t seem to want anything or anyone in her life, but by the end she has met a man who helps her realize that it’s okay to hang onto some things. Finally, we meet an insecure and slightly paranoid man who helps people determine the worst-case scenarios for their particular businesses or family lives. He is always the bearer of bad news with his job, but by the end he is willing to accept that other equally good outcomes are just as possible as the horrible ones. In sum, each story is tremendously unique and leaves the reader wanting more from this author.
5. Touchy Areas: There are so many different touchy areas in these stories that I wonder if I could get away with teaching this in a public school without lots of parents becoming very angry with me. Everything from suicide to drug use to homosexual scenes to extremely depressing family situations are all included. To avoid getting fired and/or scarring kids for life, I would only select a few of the more tame stories, such as “grand stand-in” (the story of the fake grandmother), to use in a classroom.
8. Evaluation: I greatly enjoyed this collection of short stories, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in some disturbing stories with a “Southern gothic” flair. The characters and their transformations are haunting, and leave you creeped out but wanting more. I see this as appropriate for people of all ages and backgrounds, and in a high school setting I believe that juniors and seniors would enjoy it the most.
As I said, in order to teach this book I would only select a few of the short stories, such as “grand stand-in” and “birds in the house”, to use in the classroom. I would teach them alongside other absurdist literature such as Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find (1955). I might also incorporate poems that go along with central themes in the stories, such as A Dream Deferred (1951) by Langston Hughes. Other works, such as absurdist artwork like The Fountain (1917) by Marcel Duchamp, would be perfectly applicable as well.
I would rate this book a 10 out of 10, and will be one of the first people to buy Kevin Wilson’s novel next summer.
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