Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a book by Mark Twain, considered as one of the Great American Novels, it tells the story of a boys journey down the Mississippi River between 1835 and 1845, the novel is set in a racist society and the boy learns to reject that racism.
The new edition of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is causing controversy because of the removal of racially offensive words, the new edition replaces the word “nigger” with "slave" and "injun" to "Indian".
Dr Sarah Churchwell, a lecturer on American literature, told the BBC that it made a mockery of the story.
"It's about a boy growing up a racist in a racist society who learns to reject that racism, and it makes no sense if the book isn't racist," she told BBC World Service's Newshour programme. "You can't make the history of racism in America go away." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12126700)
"the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter"
Those are Mark Twain words himself, he spoke about the change to any words in his literature before it even happened, this quote states that every word he has written was for a specific reason and obviously this worked for his book to be recognised as one the Great American Novels.
This is when POLITICAL CORRECTNESS becomes the enemy, you cannot change AMERICAN HISTORY and as a black woman you cannot change BLACK HISTORY and as a lover of great literature, you cannot change great literature.
Where will it stop? Huckleberry Finn has been a trending topic on twitter worldwide for two days, here are just a few of the tweets I want to share:
While we're changing Huckleberry Finn, let's put a better smile on the Mona Lisa and castrate Michelangelo's David. @zachbussey
Welcome to the Brave New World. Where even Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is too much truth @AuthorNancyKell
They're "retooling" Huckleberry Finn and phasing out the "N" word? Outstanding. . . Can someone start "retooling" rap? @danof89
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