Comments on: Whitewashing History

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:57:52 +0000

One of the things that smokes my arse about the elimination of the n-word from the texts is that it actually undermines a central theme of both books. The black people portrayed in the novels, particularly Jim, are almost always positive characters. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the connotation word stands out in contrast to the portrayals.

It’s been too many years for me to cite a particular passage, but I recall quite clearly the impression that Twain used racist attitudes as a marker for bad character, regardless of the prevalence of the word “nigger” in dialog.

By: Robert Gaddis

Robert Gaddis — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 04:44:19 +0000

Dear Sir,

I completely agree with you. If we start whitewashing literary books, where will we be in ten years? Once you start whitewashing what has been said, in literature for 100’s of years, (maybe not that long) we lose some of the flavor of what author’s are saying, I don’l like what the guy has done. So, let’s BURN HIS books, and see how he likes that!

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 02:04:27 +0000

Max said, “Words only have the power that we give them, in my opinion, and the more you try to remove them from sight, the more powerful they become.”

My response to that – Get out of my brain!!

By: Max

Max — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:08:29 +0000

Oh, and Rebecca, Greg always gets responses. He’s Greg. Maybe you should ask him to write your letters from now on? 🙂

By: Max

Max — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:06:52 +0000

Well-written, insightful work as usual, Greg. I have to say that I ultimately do not condone the “editing” of classic works in this manner. Especially in this case, where the issue comes down one word in particular. Words only have the power that we give them, in my opinion, and the more you try to remove them from sight, the more powerful they become.

(That almost sounds like the basis for a “Yoda” quote, eh? Maybe your absolutely correct statement about Han Solo ended up trickling in to my brain.)

After all, any serious comic book fan should shudder to think of such a policy being applied to, say, the early works of Will Eisner. The character of “Ebony White” is surely a terribly misguided racial stereotype, and should be acknowledged as such. It would be a shame, however, to simply never reprint “The Spirit” in deference to averting our eyes from the sadly misguided mistakes of a man who later came to regret the error.

(Not that Twain and Eisner were doing the same thing, mind you. Twain was recreating what he saw and heard as honestly as possible, whereas Eisner was operating mainly out of ignorance in this case. Still, I think the example is relevant.)

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:44:55 +0000

Jeff you bring up an interesting example. In Professor Gribben’s introduction he pointed out that as Twain was in the midst of writing a piece, he would often read from his porch for fans and passers-by.

Gribben theorized that Twain, having an acute awareness of the political climate and acceptable social practices, would, if he were able to provide an opinion today, support using different language so the books remain approachable.

By: Jeff Kulen-SMith

Jeff Kulen-SMith — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:32:53 +0000

Hhen I teach a novel with words that my reading audience would find offensive ( eg here in Australia its mainly Aboriginals) , and in my class there are Aboriginals, I get the kids to place an asterix next to the the first occurence of the word and then we list an alternative for the word at the bottom of that page. The kids decide on the word change, but we do not remove the authors word from the book. Rather, when we read aloud and the offending authors word comes along, we just change it, orally. We all understand context. We don’t change the authors words in the book.The kids get it. We all feel comfortable. And the author doesn’t have to roll over in their grave.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:10:38 +0000

Dear Prof. Gribben,

Would you also place a cloth around the waist of David?