Comments on: norbert blei | mark twain revised

By: ed markowski

ed markowski — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 05:29:27 +0000

Twain employed the language and dialects of the time and
place to alter and sanatize that language serves only to blur
the emotional and physical butality african americans were
subjected to. why not alter passages in other books that
depict slaves being whipped …. as being whipped with
ribbons ? huck finn is an american masterpiece leave italone

By: Carol Bedford Hoffman

Carol Bedford Hoffman — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:11:52 +0000

Re “Publisher Tinkers With Twain” (The New York Times, Jan. 5):

I, too, am an English teacher and can sympathize with Gribben’s discomfort with saying such an ugly word in front of one’s students. Luckily, this novel is not a book I teach, and so I don’t have to wrestle with this question. But I dare say, I would sacrifice my discomfort to re-writing such a classic.

As a middle school writing teacher, I have posted on the bulletin board in my classroom an inspirational quote of Twain’s, which in the case of my response to this article ironically reads: ““The difference between the right word and the almost right word is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

I don’t see how “slave” is less ugly than the word it’s replacing.

By: Barbara Fitz Vroman

Barbara Fitz Vroman — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:08:01 +0000

It’s all been said above. The next storm will come when Twain’s work that even he thought was too strong for his contemporaries to stomach, is finally going to be released long after his death as he requested.

Should be interesting. He once villiafied Mary Baker Eddy founder of Christian
Science, and later apologized.

He was a moral man who did not believe in God. He made people laugh,
and that made him a God in his own way.

By: Ralph Murre

Ralph Murre — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 02:45:34 +0000

To hear the “N” word dozens, if not hundreds of times, one has only to attend an evening of slam poetry populated by African-Americans. They have, rightly, taken proprietary ownership of the word. It is part of their history, not to be denied, and when they sang “We Shall Overcome”, they claimed ownership of their history. To pretend either that that word was not used, did not hurt, cannot still hurt, or to pretend that the sanitizing of great works of literature does not hurt, is ridiculous. If I could find anything racist in the STORY TWAIN TOLD, I might be more than willing to ban or burn the book, but I can not. Certainly, when we read Huck Finn to our young sons, we had a discussion. Isn’t that how teaching and learning work?

By: David Levy

David Levy — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 01:58:25 +0000

As a longtime reader of your dispatches, I was stunned (overwhelmed?) by your sweet mention of my biography of Mark Twain. Praise is always welcome, of course, but when it comes from a pro like yourself, it is especially to be treasured. Many thanks! (And, by the way, I share in the general outrage about the new version of HUCKLEBERRY FINN—not only because we don’t tamper with classics, but also because it assumes that “slave” is somehow a nicer thing to call a person than “nigger.”)

By: Robert M. Zoschke

Robert M. Zoschke — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:08:26 +0000

This is a fabulously fabulous-as-always Blei post today.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:23:44 +0000

Well said everyone. My piano teeacher said it was okay to improvise a piano piece only AFTER I learned to play it the way the composer had written it. Taking away Twain’s language takes away all our learning about those times and what it takes to change the minds of the many.

By: Kris Thacher

Kris Thacher — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:12:59 +0000

An appropriate time for this subject with all that is being said in the media this week about freedom of speech. I support the First Amendment. I also don’t use all the words that I know or can use all the time. Writers spend hours, days choosing the right words. Do we think fast enough, to be as careful, and caring in our speech? I can’t excuse revisionist editing. If you can’t read the original disturbing words of Huckleberry Finn, from where will come the lesson on history,politics, language, and personal choice that these words evoke? And without these lessons, how will anyone learn to think critically and make their own choices?

By: Judith Wiker

Judith Wiker — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:31:07 +0000

Teach the children the truth. Make them think, do not think for them.

By: Steve Fortney

Steve Fortney — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:21:50 +0000

May Thor with his hammer save us from the politically correct.