Rewriting books is doubleplusungood

[Fastolfe]

I just came across this: Huckleberry Finn targeted for PC rewrite.
This is pathetic; Newsouth Books is one publisher I'll make extra sure never to buy anything from.

[Iphinome]

Originally Posted by Fastolfe

I just came across this: Huckleberry Finn targeted for PC rewrite.
This is pathetic; Newsouth Books is one publisher I'll make extra sure never to buy anything from.

I have to admit I don't really understand this, Huck Finn isn't just a story but also a description of a time and place. The attitudes on race are a reason why you teach the book, hey look we don't do this anymore and this is part of why.

[silasgreenback]

Originally Posted by Iphinome

I have to admit I don't really understand this, Huck Finn isn't just a story but also a description of a time and place. The attitudes on race are a reason why you teach the book, hey look we don't do this anymore and this is part of why.

The old bit about "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." applies to all of this old literature. If all the classics were to be sanitized, there'd be a lot less to learn, discuss, and compare.

[Sweetpea]

This is scary... Should we just forget the past? Is the next step to remove the history of slavery itself?

[Fastolfe]

Rewriting the past is a hallmark of dictatorships. What's scary is when private concerns or individuals, not governments, propose to do it: that means society is slowly internalizing the very idea that this sort of thing is okay.

Case in point, you'll notice that all the articles on the internet that lament this invasion of political correctness talk about "the N-word". How ironic...

[Iphinome]

Originally Posted by Fastolfe

Rewriting the past is a hallmark of dictatorships. What's scary is when private concerns or individuals, not governments, propose to do it: that means society is slowly internalizing the very idea that this sort of thing is okay.

Case in point, you'll notice that all the articles on the internet that lament this invasion of political correctness talk about "the N-word". How ironic...

There's nothing wrong with that part, they don't want to print out the word, the word is not used in polite society. No problem, one day that article will be looked at to show what our society was like. Finding a diplomatic way to express things in the present has little to do with the issue of censoring a slice of history.

There is nothing wrong with being politically correct now, it shows some manners. Don't try to confuse the absurdity of applying it retroactively with the ideal of not using hateful language in the now.

[Fastolfe]

Originally Posted by Iphinome

There's nothing wrong with that part, they don't want to print out the word, the word is not used in polite society. No problem, one day that article will be looked at to show what our society was like.

and we'll be looked at as a society of wusses and easily offended people.

It's just a word, and using it when it's needed isn't inappropriate. In an article dealing with the controversy surrounding the erasure of 219 instances of it in a famous book, calling a cat a cat is totally justifiable.

Originally Posted by Iphinome

There is nothing wrong with being politically correct now, it shows some manners. Don't try to confuse the absurdity of applying it retroactively with the ideal of not using hateful language in the now.

Look, if I say "this goshdarn n-word is effing mentally challenged", do you really think I'm being polite? don't you understand exactly what I said? aren't you offended (hint: you should be)? Don't I look stupid?

Political correctness is always silly for the following reasons:

- When people use the genuine word today, they're either trying to be offensive on purpose (think KKK or Aryan Nation) or they're referring to the usage of the word before it became hot, as we're doing here, and as the article should be doing.

- Everybody knows exactly what word you're trying to hide. All you're achieving by using a euphemism is asserting your conformance to the current groupthink, and if you genuinely can't stand to look at the real word, that you're lily-livered.

incidentally, notice how I carefully avoided using any word that could offend you to make my point in this post, since I care so much about people's feelings and all that. But I have absolutely no problem using this, or indeed any word, because words are tools and I use the right tool for the job when I need to.

[Iphinome]

And I don't really have a problem using a word in the right context, unlike you though I understand the desire to not use it. I also see it as a good thing to chose words that are meant to avoid conflict. To use neutral terms. To choose the less loaded, to choose the least offensive, to negative connotation.

There are people who object to any term that doesn't give a connotation that reinforces their own opinions. And there are people who want to discuss ideas without having to use loaded words to make their point. So it goes.

In the end people will look back and see and I can't tell you what they'll think because I cannot predict the future. I can only hope what's said here isn't censored for future generations so that whatever their society is like, they'll have a better understanding of ours.

[HarryT]

Many books have been rewritten over the years. A classic example is the "Hardy Boys" series of juvenile detective stories, which were originally issued in the early 20th century, but were re-written in the 1950s to remove the crude racial stereotypes which characterised the originals. Unfortunately, in the rewrites, they also completely "dumbed down" the plots and made the books about half their original length.

[nashira]

They also changed Noddy once upon a time...

If people disagree with something in a book, they don't need to change it, they need to either not read the book, or, if they're reading it to kids or something explain why they think it's wrong.

[Pookeysgirl]

This is ridiculous. Nobody should be able to re-write a book that they themselves didn't write in the first place, no matter what. If you don't like the book, don't read it!

There are plenty of books that are offensive to some people. Are they going to re-write all of those books too? This is scary.

[Fastolfe]

Well, and of course there's Agatha Christie's "Ten little n-words" that got renamed "And then there were none"

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by Iphinome

And I don't really have a problem using a word in the right context, unlike you though I understand the desire to not use it.

And if a discussion of a word isn't the right context to use it, what is>

[luqmaninbmore]

Originally Posted by Fastolfe

Rewriting the past is a hallmark of dictatorships. What's scary is when private concerns or individuals, not governments, propose to do it: that means society is slowly internalizing the very idea that this sort of thing is okay.

Case in point, you'll notice that all the articles on the internet that lament this invasion of political correctness talk about "the N-word". How ironic...

It's not ironic. It's a profane word and NSFW. Rewriting the past is not just a hallmark of dictatorships. It's a hallmark of modernity, especially of nationalistic ideologies that spring up as one component of modernity. For example, there's American wins the war or Israel made the deserts bloom. Of course, given that none of us have direct access to the past, only to the artifacts, records, and memories generated by it, we must all engage in a process of "rewriting the past" as we go about our lives. The question is how we deal with evidence that contradicts how we previously "wrote it." Do we ignore it? Do we abandon our own narrative entirely and adopt the new one? Or do we create a new synthesis?

That being said, altering documents is very distasteful. I don't mind adaptations provided they are explicitly identified as such, but if I buy a book that claims to have been written by Mark Twain, it damn sure better have been written by Mark Twain.

[andyh2000]

Originally Posted by Fastolfe

Well, and of course there's Agatha Christie's "Ten little n-words" that got renamed "And then there were none"

Via "Ten little Indians".

Andrew