Comments (33) (Please sign in to comment)

1. 

   Ira Nayman said, over 2 years ago

   Actually, the person who suggested removing the word from Huckleberry Finn did so in the hopes that more children would read the book. As it stands, many school boards, at the behest of parents, refuse to allow the book to be taught in high schools; this seemed like a compromise that would get the book into more schools and, therefore, give it more readers. You don’t have to agree with his methods, but it would be nice to see some appreciation for his goal.
2. 

   BillThompson said, over 2 years ago

   The same people who protest the book’s use of the N-word will no doubt protest the absence of the word. It isn’t the word they find objectionable, it’s Huck’s ability to think for himself and his courage to do what is right. Those are two qualities the banners fear to see in anyone.

   This is one of those times when I realize how much I value Pab’s work.
3. 

   Samskara said, over 2 years ago

   I’d like to second Ira Nayman’s comment.
4. 

   cdward said, over 2 years ago

   BillThompson, that was my point exactly yesterday. The real reason Huck Finn has been challenged over the years is because he ultimately sees past society’s “norms,” – or sees them for what they are and challenges our assumptions about who is a real person.

   That’s still a challenging theme, and those who condemn the work have chosen this one word as their reason for condemning it. As I said yesterday, I think this version is calling their bluff.

   I don’t actually believe it was created just for the money - this professor is NOT going to get rich from the book. Still, such an approach would be in keeping with Twain’s general approach to life. He loved the money and freely admitted it.
5. 

   bibliotechnique said, over 2 years ago

   Dead to rights, Mr. Clemens!

   BTW, Ira and Samskara, the entire bible is a compromise. The books included were picked and chosen, by a select few who fought amongst themselves for their favorites, and the entire work has been proven to have been edited right, left and center for centuries.

   Compromise just means that no one ends up happy with the choice made.
6. 

   BillThompson said, over 2 years ago

   cdward, I hope you’re right about this edition of HF being a challenge to the book-banners. Publishers don’t usually print a book that they expect to fail, but someone might have decided that the publicity would repay the costs.
7. 

   pabsungenis said, over 2 years ago

   The comments in panel 3 are an edited (for length only) version of one of Twain’s own remarks.
8. 

   Sandfan said, over 2 years ago

   ^And those comments point out the idiocy of religious fanaticism.
9. 

   Wildcard24365 said, over 2 years ago

   I was going to ask where to find the unedited version of that quote, but Google came through, again.
10. 

    freeholder1 said, over 2 years ago

    So we substitute Jehovah or one of his other 127 names. And Christ said if it didn’t offend, it wasn’t working, much the same as Twain would say of his N_.

    By the way, believers would also say you’d have to excise Jesus and Holy Spirit as they’re the same thing as God.

    the trouble is that you are taking out a real name (German derivation) as opposed to a racial slur. If the critics were demanding you remove Huck from the book, then you’d have a fair comparison. As it is, it falls short.

    Bib, that would be the theologically liberal point of view, there are several million believers who are very happy with the choices made so your point falls well short also. And the usual slur is that it has no compromise in it, so thanks for expressing the other point of view there.
11. 

    freeholder1 said, over 2 years ago

    If folks had given it so much publicity during his life, Twain may well have made the fortune he needed to keep his personal publishing business alive and not have been so bitter when he wrote the books atheists now laud. Certainly his earlier work was more Christian in nature. I guess, like the aging Carlin, he lost his way.
12. 

    pabsungenis said, over 2 years ago

    The full, unedited, unexpurgated version of Twain’s quote, lest anyone accuse me of the same stuff that publisher is doing:

    “We despise all reverences and all the objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our own list of sacred things. And yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy to us.”

    The quote is from “Following The Equator.”

    I was already pushing it with the smaller font size in the past two days’ strips; if I’d shrunk everything enough to fit the whole quote it would be completely unreadable.
13. 

    jadoo823 said, over 2 years ago

    …I hate to pick nits, gweedo, but the great war was World War I - the Holocaust occurred in WWII…
14. 

    kfaatz925 said, over 2 years ago

    Well said, Sam and Pab!
15. 

    Smythe Symble said, over 2 years ago

    Content, and commentary-wise….this is My favorite NAoQV Week….ever.
16. Load the rest of the comments (18).