They just HAVE to be kidding right?

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/2011-01-06-twain06_ST_N.htm

 

It is an ongoing battle, always has been. It was alive and well and old when I was a kid, still will be when I'm gone. Says a lot about a person what side they pick.

 

I say don't ban, burn or change books. Unless your Nazi Germany, Communist China or Stalin's Russia.

Thank goodness there's nothing offensive on the internet

 

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Revising history is a great way to get people to comply with "new views". It's been done by nearly every government. Read what some germans thought about WW II in that time, and compare it with what the "Official History" says, big difference.

In addition to "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world", the axiom is "Whoever controls history controls the future".

 

It was on the news in the radio all day, yesterday...

 

Many Twain scholars can't stand it. But Alan Gribben, professor of English at Auburn University.

Well, at least Auburn can be proud of it football team. (If you ignore a few irregularities and facts, of course.)

John

 

So, wait, the word "n-----" (darest I quote it, censor mine) is censored? In this country it is occasionally used on TV. It is almost always used against racism, in a comic or ironic situation, which seems similar to Twain's usage. Also, I think it appears in Of Mice and Men (describing "crooks", the poor black man who is abused by his fellow workers), which I studied for English GCSE, and it wasn't censored then...

 

As Mr. Orwell said - "Down the memory hole".

 

In Ye Olde English, "awful" didn't mean "bad", it meant "full of awe" or "inspiring one to feel awe".
When Mark Twain wrote, n_____ didn't mean what it does in the minds of todays'...

I can't even finish that sentence.

Point is, I can read Grapes of Wrath without being so emotional that I want to change the book. I regret that other people can't read about, and enjoy, a slice of time when things were very different, without displaying how much their emotional maturity is lacking and their sense of entitlement isn't.

 

I think I would like a copy of that book in my bookshelf. The original one.

 

So, wait, the word "n-----" (darest I quote it, censor mine) is censored? In this country it is occasionally used on TV. It is almost always used against racism, in a comic or ironic situation, which seems similar to Twain's usage. Also, I think it appears in Of Mice and Men (describing "crooks", the poor black man who is abused by his fellow workers), which I studied for English GCSE, and it wasn't censored then...

It's like fat people. Fat people can call themselves fat, and even other overweight people fat with no problem. If somebody that isn't fat uses the word "fat" when referring to an overweight person, then it is a very bad word.

Substitute any number of "politically corrected" words for "fat", and that way nobody get's their feelings hurt.

I think editing ANY book is wrong. If a reader doesn't like the content, they need to pick a different book, not change the content.

 

If a reader doesn't like the content, they need to pick a different book, not change the content.

I totally agree.

What's next?

 

It is just amazing that these kids that are offended by the word hear it a thousand times a day in their music.

 

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Uhhh, Injun started off as Indian. It is slang. Not the other way around.

 

Uhhh, Injun started off as Indian. It is slang. Not the other way around.

I am surprised they don't want to replace Injun with Native American. We don't want to offend anyone.

Of course if they replaced it with Native American then I would be offended. I was born here so I am native to America. I am a Native American.

 

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The English language contains about 600,000 words according to Wolframalpha. That is a terribly large number of words to learn. Maybe we should just replace all nouns with an appropriate substitute like aword, beword, seword, ...emword, enword, all the way to zeword. Verbs could be substituted with averb, bverb, efverb...etc.

Continued use of such abstractions as "N-word" promotes poor reading habits (i.e., reading letters, not words), is slow to type, impossible to spellcheck, and must be terribly offensive to people who read the "N" and think it means "Norwegian."

John

 

How did the idea that people have a right to NOT be offended get into such wide spread policy decisions.

Nothing in life guarantees that you will enjoy or like it. That is a personal reaction to life in general. How YOU are affected by the things we all encounter while living on this round rock, should not be the basis for telling other people how they MUST behave.

Would you stop breathing if I found that offensive?

Would ya? Please?