Rebuttal 1.1

EDITORIAL: Huck Finn: Censorship? Sure, it is, but changes to 'Huckleberry Finn' are warranted.

       This is a very weak argument, it lacks evidence, as well as a broad focus, and the viewpoint is very narrow-minded. For example the editor makes several claims that are very controversial and widely contested, and presents their point of view as the right point of view that everyone shares. One of the major assumptions that the author makes is that people who read Huck Finn will go around and use the N-word all the time.

I agree with the author that Huck Finn should be read in schools. It is an important literary work, and part of American literature. It is also quite important because it uses language such as the N-word and other words that are now politically incorrect to expose how intolerant people were in that particular era. For example if Huck Finn was just another adventure story about a boy running away from his father and going north, with no attention to race, the book would have none of its power, or transcend through history as it did.

The editor makes the point that Twain uses the N-word to highlight the culture, and how racist and un-accepting southern culture was back when the books took place. This is a key point because if the word were not in the book the message that Twain was trying to get across would be lost, and the book would lose much of its power.

       2nd paragraph "the N-word the one we tell our kids, and ourselves, is never appropriate to use" This statement by the author is completely subjective, and varies person-to-person. It is a very controversial subject whether this word should be used so the meaning changes, or whether it should be taboo, and never spoken. The article is based on the assumption that this word should never be spoken.

The editor goes on to assume that people don't want their children reading the word, or knowing that it even exists. However education about the word, and teaching kids about the history and full impact of the word is certainly more effective and is also much better than ignoring the word all together.

Ever since Mark Twain wrote the book Huckleberry Finn there has been mush controversy about it. He had to make his own publishing company in order to publish the book. When it was released it was immediately banned, and censored. However Twain himself said that the fact that the book was banned and censored would make more people buy it, and read it in a way that they would otherwise never read the book. Foerstel, Herbert N. Greenwood Press, 2002, Print.

Over and over there have been calls to ban this book, whether it’s parents who are uncomfortable with how gritty it is, or people who are offended by the language, or religious groups, or groups committed to social change. For example in Indiana in 1997 a reverend named Charles Sims and about 20 other people went to a school meeting to try and remove Huckleberry Finn from the high school reading list. They felt that the book was “degrading, insensitive, and oppressive” to black students. However all of the English teachers stood up for the book and collectively kept the book on the shelves and on the reading list.

People have stood up for the book throughout the ages, including English teachers, principles, and authors. Ernest Hemingway, H.L. Menken and T.S. Elliot are but a few famous authors who proclaim Twain’s books as important and necessary books. Hemingway says that: “All modern American Literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn…the best book we’ve ever had.” T.S. Elliot said: Mark Twain is “The true father of our national literature.” Foerstel, Herbert N. Greenwood Press, 2002, Print. If these important literary masters hail Huckleberry Finn as possibly the most important recent literary work as well as it’s profound impact on them, then we as readers should grasp the full impact, and meaning that this book holds without making the book bland.

In the end of the book Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury talks about his personal experience with censorship in terms of his book. He makes very bold statements about dropping even a single word from a story, which flies directly in the face of what the editor of, Huck Finn: Censorship? Sure, it is, but changes to 'Huckleberry Finn' are warranted, is advocating. Bradbury says: “Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.” This is quite a pointed attack on the viewpoint of the Editor who is for censoring the book.  Ravitch, Diane. Language Police: How Pressure Groups restrict What Students Learn Knopf Publishing Group. 2004 Print.

Diane Ravitch, a Research Professor of Education at New York University, talks about how censoring a word, or book so that it is  “safe” and not out of the ordinary, is abhorrent.  She says: “Censorship distorts the literature curriculum, substituting political judgments for aesthetic ones.” She states that the school system is becoming “ an island of censorship in a sea of freedom.”

The fundamental problem with the argument to censor Huckleberry Finn is that it is based on people disliking the N-word. However there is some word or phrase that would offend anybody, different words for different people of course. But Mark Twain was not using this word to intentionally offend anyone; he was using it to teach readers that this word is very discriminatory. His intentions were to teach people about history so that we would not make the same mistakes, and repeat the same actions as those before us. He did not want us to be ignorant of how things were, he wanted to provide the context in which to situate our modern life. For without knowing the context of where we are in the world how can we presume to move forward as caring and intelligent human beings?