Skip to main content

Then You Are Not


2011 is turning out to be a big year for Mark Twain. Go into any bookstore and you'll see his telephone book sized autobiography for sale. Twain cleverly left notice that it was not to be published until well after he and anyone mentioned were no longer around. It's not surprising that someone as perceptive as Mark Twain would take great care to insure that the truth would hold sway over anyone's attempt to alter anything he might have wanted us to know.
So it is with equal fascination that Twain's work has again come under scrutiny and truth is on trial. This week, New South Publishing announced a new version of Huck Finn which replaces the n word with slave. Some see no difference. I get that, but I beg to differ. School boards have already tried to censor writers who use the n word in historical context. Richard Wright's Native Son comes to mind. Is this being too PC. Are we that sensitive that we can't handle the truth?
I argue that we can have it both ways. No, I'm not referring to changing anything. We can (and should) avoid censoring or changing great literature while still being able to handle the context and time crucial to its understanding.
Is it a supreme irony that the U.S. Congress this week in it's opening session tried to censor the reading of the Constitution? The timing couldn't have been more perfect. How long before it takes that the majority of citizens are unaware of the 3/5 clause, relating to African Americans held as slaves, or the precise wording about who is and is not a citizen of this country. These are not minor issues. How long before someone decides that another novel needs word substitutions? Will that slope be sufficiently slippery to glide on over to history books. After all, gas chambers for human beings do not conjure up pleasant thoughts.
We really ought t protect ourselves from ourselves on these matters.
I would be the first one to line up in support of the power of the written word. Language matters, words do hurt. Read Toni Morrison on the power of language if you need a refresher course. But censorship hurts just as bad, and it comes in various disguises.

James Baldwin once said, "If I am not who you think I am, then you are not who you think you are."
Wonder what Mark Twain would say about that?

Comments

"Are we that sensitive that we can't handle the truth?"

I think we are, Bruce. We love war movies of astounding bloodiness, but we don't want to see even coffins coming back from The Wars. The other day a news story said that in Iran a man was publically hanged. I was shocked and horrified. Then I thought, if you are going to kill people as punishment--and we do in this country--then why shouldn't it be on public display so that people can witness it and, thereby, think about it in a significant way?

Popular posts from this blog

To a Tee

 I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt.  They are the foundational garment of my life.  My day starts with selecting a t-shirt and it ends with sleeping in one.  Once thought of as under garments, t-shirts are now original art and no doubt, a billion dollar business.   You can get a t-shirt with anybody's picture displayed.  You can commemorate an event, a birthday, a death, even a specular play in any sport.  Family reunions usually have a commemorative t-shirt.  Also, any organization that solicits your support in the form of a donation is likely to offer you a t-shirt. Where once I only had the basic white t-shirt, my drawers are filled with all manner of colorful choices.  Some recognize major events in my life, some, spectacular performances or plays I have witnessed, and some unforgettable places I have been.   I say I'm a sucker for a good t-shirt because I have taken the bait on what I perceived as a must-have only to be disappointed. ...

Body Language

I'm sitting there in a hospital gown, waiting for my doctor to complete my yearly physical.  This is when I look at everything on the walls, read the medical posters, the instructions on any equipment in the room, look in every corner and behind every chair.  I study the paper on the examination table, laugh out loud at the picture of a smiling child holding a bouquet of broccoli, and the note the placement of the computer in the room. Finally, wondering if the gown I'm wearing is on correctly, I focus on myself.  At this point in my life I'm fairly comfortable in a doctor's office.  But it always seems to take so long when waiting for the doc to enter.  So I fidget.  Then I begin a tour of myself.  Scars are tattoos.  I look at the one on my knee and see myself at 12.  Whittling a piece of wood with my Boy Scout jack knife.  The blade slips and I cut a crescent slash through my jeans and into my flesh for life.  50 years later ...

Sex, Religion, and Politics

Watching TV to keep up with the news is like going to a party.  Sex, religion and politics, in any order.  Those are the topics of choice.  We hear about "twerking," and are confronted with all manner of exhibitionism in local news.  Should women be wearing yoga pants in non-yoga areas.  The office, the workplace, school, church...and that's just the teachers! Religion encroaches in all the right places.  Christian Mingle, the online dating service pops up on the screen during the grisliest of crime shows, the politician's speeches and the sit-coms so full of sexual innuendo that every second of canned laughter barely hides the grins, the gasps, the outcries, or the mindless guffaws. So what's the message?  Are we a society and culture in decline or just rapidly changing?  Probably both.  I recall a student once coming to school with a most offensive tee shirt.  Offensive in that the cartoon image on the front made it impossible for hi...