Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
A question to the people who object to the editing of Mark Twain: do you also object to the editing of Agatha Christie? Do you think that "And Then There Were None" should be sold in the USA under the title "Ten Little Niggers", with an island called "Nigger Island" and a nursery rhyme about "Ten little niggers"?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WillAdams
The big difference between the two is that Ms. Christie only passed away in 1976 and was alive when said work was edited, exhibiting no objection to said changes --- indeed many of her portrayals of non-whites is sympathetic, esp. after World War II.
Samuel Clements is long dead, and _Huckleberry Finn_ is an artifact of a past time and needs to be studied as is, along w/ the historical context in order for the full meaning to be made of it.
No one would object to a children's edition, labeled as such --- the problem is the intellectual dishonesty of passing the bowdlerization off as the real thing.
I sympathise w/ NVash's position --- I grew up in a school which had the second-lowest tax base in the state and the worst educational standing which was 60% black, 40% white, save that it had one family of Amer-asians (myself and my sister). Ill-behaved trash comes in all colors and I am certain that Martin Luther King would include equal jail time in his dream that all men be judged by the content of their character.
William
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In addition, Harry, Christie's title wasn't of particular importance to her story. Twain was trying to make a point, and it was one that, while it perhaps could have been made another way, certainly wouldn't have been as forceful. The changing of Christie's offensive title is a vast improvement to the work.