A plan to release new editions of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in which the word "nigger" has been replaced with "slave" (and "injun" with "Indian") has triggered "a firestorm of criticism." The "N-word" appears 219 times in Huck Finn, and so offends many readers that it makes it impossible for them to appreciate the book, says Auburn University English professor Alan Gribben, a noted Twain scholar who's collaborating on the new editions with NewSouth Books. Is this excessive censorship, or merely a sensitive attempt to make Twain more palatable to a wider audience?
Censoring Huck Finn is a mistake: The way Huckleberry Finn "captures, in a beautiful and heart-rending story, the racial hatred and poison that marred America's early days" is what makes it a classic, says Steffani Cameron in Books on the Radio. Censoring the language dilutes the significance of the "biracial friendship" between Huck and Jim, a slave trying to reach a free state. The "soul-crushing, race-dividing epithet" gives educators an opportunity to discuss with students "how powerful" words can be.
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