Quote:
Originally Posted by Fastolfe
There's actually a perfectly acceptable 5th option: those who insist on cleaning up Huck Finn should create a new edition entitled "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - the corny edition" or something, add the revisionist's name on the cover alongside Mark Twain's, give the book a new ISBN number and market it to delicate people, the same way Cleanflicks sells sanitized movies, claiming they give added value. That way, it becomes a new literary work - an exegesis of Mark Twain's work as it were - that leave the original work untouched and available to those who want to read it as-is.
|
That's precisely what I meant by a "sanitised" version. I wasn't for a moment suggesting that it should be presented in any other way. I apologise for not making that clear.
You say that removing such books from school libraries is not an option in a free society, but I believe that it has in fact happened in more than one place already, and I have to say that I can understand why. I don't agree with it, but I do understand it.