Huck Finn banned...again

[Jam Stunna]

http://sirenschronicles.com/2007/12/10/huckleberry-finn-banned-in-ct-high-school/

Connecticut High School Bans “Huckleberry Finn

“Huckleberry Finn” is regarded as one of the first great American novels.It’s often taught in high schools, and often criticized for what some say is it’s frequent use of racist language.

Now a Connecticut school has temporarily banned the book while the school board reviews a parent’s complaint over use of the “n-word” in the literary classic.

Manchester High School’s principal wouldn’t comment on the ban, other than to say that a review is underway, but most parents said the book should be taught.

Political correctness strikes again. The ironic thing is that Huck Finn is probably one of the greatest examples of tolerance and justice in American literature. I guess that's lost on overprotective parents.

 

[Gamer4Fire]

Who needs historically accurate books when you have revisionist history?

 

[Vinnie275]

reparations now

 

[Thrillhouse-vh.]

This is why American Schooling is insufficient, all the great books and masterminds of our culture (and others) aren't being taught or readily available to the students. Less "math" and "science" and other "real world skills", more John Steinbeck and Jack Kerouac.




....Of course the claims that this is what's wrong with out public schools isn't serious....completely....but it shows my outrage.

 

[antimatter]

idiocy, thy name is the school system.

 

[the melon!!!!!]

How much you wanna bet that that parent is one of those frequent protestors you see on the TV all the time? That would be hilarious! Oh well, that's what you get when you let the parents see what you are going over in school. I say just don't ban it, say you did, and dont let the students take their books home (i know, i know, it's not that easy, but I'm trying to be productive here).

 

[Mike87]

Reminds me of that Family Guy episode
"I'm sorry n-word Jim"

 

[Tryptomine]

Time was you could have ignorant and racist characters in your works and it was fine, because people understood they were there to demonstrate how wrong their way of thinking was and everyone knew the joke was on them.

Now you're just accused of being ignorant and racist yourself, even though the whole point of the character is showing that they're wrong.

This is really sad to see, honestly I usually find "classic" literature boring (even though the basic plot is often very good), so I remember bemoaning being forced to read the book back in High School. Though as soon as I picked it up, I immeadiatly fell in love with it and it became one of my favorite books, thanks in part to its surprisingly modern writing style. Even if you're not studying it in school, its something I highly recommend reading to everyone.

 

[Lixivium]

Goddammit, why does this have to happen every single year it seems? What's really stupid is I bet that this parent hasn't even read the book. And if he/she has, then...that just makes it sadder.

 

[Greatman]

-sigh-

The book is a learning experience, not something threatening. Now, if the ENTIRE friggen' book was about being racist or something, then yes, I'd agree. But that's not the case, not in the least! One mention of the word isn't bad at all, in my opinion. Even then, it's merely a word. Some ink on a page in a certain patter that our eyes are able to read. People get WAY too offended, WAY too easily nowadays.

This is what we are becoming.

 

[Goopygoo]

It's 1984 all over again.

 

[HiIH]

Do you remember when some folks weren't allowed in public libraries? Pepperidge farm remembers! They should leave our classic works of literature alone!

See, I was going somewhere completely different with that.

 

[jaej]

People's ignorance never ceases to amaze me. People really believe censoring is for the better? Next thing you know we'll have banned the Constitution....oh wait....

 

[antimatter]

People's ignorance never ceases to amaze me. People really believe censoring is for the better? Next thing you know we'll have banned the Constitution....oh wait....

*sighs* good one. i think a bush joke thread should be started.

 

[Jammer]

Because of the n-word?

Weak. We all know that back then, the word "n*gger" wasn't offensive. It was a synonym for "black man". I mean, the politically correct thing to say changes every 3 months, right? I don't think it makes any sense at all to ban a book because it used a word whose meaning (at the time) has become largely obsolete.

I mean, in African American Vernacular English, the n-word is just a synonym for "man".

And anyway, the book is anti-racism, if the parent who wants it banned didn't notice. Wow.

 

[notftomearth7]

Huck Finn=stupid book

That's just what I think after reading it.


As far as the book itself is concerned, its hidden meanings were GREAT, and to ban a book because of one bad word is stupid. I remember a book that I read in fourth grade that had ONE bad word and it just had *s in place of the word. Yet, it made its way into the text book.


Stupid stuff ain't it.

 

[Venom Dream]

Well he was being an ******* and spaming everywhere so he deserved it

(it says right in the article that most parents were against banning it so settle down. Atleast thats an improvement over the past)

 

[Speedy Gonzales]

That is ********.

 

[Jamal]

The truth is that even though it has some racist terms such as nagger and so forth. What people do not put into account is that we learn from these books they have moral values not only that if I hear someone say nagger in a book it doesn't mean im going to say it in real-life and it teachs you not too beacuse it is not a civil word.

 

[Skywalker]

Hey guys, I have a great ideaL Let's find a random literary classic, look for a single obscenity, and ban it.

 

[Thrillhouse-vh.]

Hey guys, I have a great ideaL Let's find a random literary classic, look for a single obscenity, and ban it.

I nominate "Howl", "Catcher and the Rye", and "To Kill A Mockingbird". Literary classic? More like ignorance in disguise! [/sarcasm]

 

[Bailey]

Wow all amazing books. No matter how hard you try someone, somewhere will always finds something "wrong" with what your writing it is rEEtarded

 

[bballstar23]

Goddammit, why does this have to happen every single year it seems? What's really stupid is I bet that this parent hasn't even read the book. And if he/she has, then...that just makes it sadder.

This basically sums up what I was going to say. QFT. This is the case with almost all banned literature. The parents don't bother to read the book themselves and explore the context of it. Parents can be so annoying at times. I won't even go into this, because I'll end up with a page long rant.

 

[Blackadder]

...
Blackadder does not like this.

I hate it when people do this, it's amazingly ignorant.
"The man said ******! This book is evil! I must ban it from every child in America, for if they see it, lord knows what will happen to their little minds!"

Oh yeah. Nothing.

 

[adumbrodeus]

Because of the n-word?

Weak. We all know that back then, the word "n*gger" wasn't offensive. It was a synonym for "black man". I mean, the politically correct thing to say changes every 3 months, right? I don't think it makes any sense at all to ban a book because it used a word whose meaning (at the time) has become largely obsolete.

I mean, in African American Vernacular English, the n-word is just a synonym for "man".

And anyway, the book is anti-racism, if the parent who wants it banned didn't notice. Wow.

Actually, the entire point of the book was how wrong and by extension, offensive, the entire preconception of African-Americans was at the time, something which the n-word eventually got attatched to, as such this book is partially responsible, and furthermore it's use is a very visceral way of showing what people actually thought of African-Americans at the time, whereas back then it was common knowledge. Thus the use of the n-word actually protects the book's impact for this generation of readers.


Of course, who cares? It all needs to be censored, parents need to make sure their kids are protected from everything, but can they be bothered to take the time to do it properly? Not on your life! Instead they have to remove it from the public sphere completely. Knee-jerk reactions, that's all parents seem to do these days.

 

[Skywalker]

Thus the use of the n-word actually protects the book's impact for this generation of readers.

I highly doubt ****** will ever die out. Ya' know, some insults today have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years and don't show any signs of fading away. It's not necessarily a "mean" word either ("What's up my ******?")

Blocking out the word only makes it more powerful when someone eventually says it, if you know what I mean.

 

[Sworddancer9034]

The reason the black characters in the book are referred to as the "n word" is because thats simply what you called them back then. If the "n word" was being used in a raciest way in the book then I guess Jim, who in the book is a slave, must be raciest against his own kind because he himself referres to other slaves as *******. It's pretty much agreed that this book teaches anti-Racism, which that parent needs to learn.

Fortionaly most of the parents are for teaching the book.

Sorry for pretty much saying whats already been said. Its just after seeing this I needed to rant.

Huckleberry Finn is one of my favorite books and imo everyone should read it at one point in there life or another.

 

[Jammer]

Actually, the entire point of the book was how wrong and by extension, offensive, the entire preconception of African-Americans was at the time, something which the n-word eventually got attatched to, as such this book is partially responsible, and furthermore it's use is a very visceral way of showing what people actually thought of African-Americans at the time, whereas back then it was common knowledge. Thus the use of the n-word actually protects the book's impact for this generation of readers.


Of course, who cares? It all needs to be censored, parents need to make sure their kids are protected from everything, but can they be bothered to take the time to do it properly? Not on your life! Instead they have to remove it from the public sphere completely. Knee-jerk reactions, that's all parents seem to do these days.

Hmm... I must admit I'm a bit confused about this. Back then, black people were called n***ers. If you wanted to be really nice, you could say "Negro", but that would be like saying "person of African descent" today. Of course, the usage switched from n***er, to negro, to colored person, to black, to African American, to black again, and now it's in between those last two. We might be saying the same exact things, adumbrodeus, but I can't really tell.

But are you serious about censoring, and protecting the children from everything? My parents did that (and still do that) to me: When I was younger, they would cross out the word "bad" in Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, and replace it with "not good", because the word "bad" was negative or something. I wasn't allowed to watch PG-13 movies until I turned like 15, and only recently have they let me watch them without watching them themselves beforehand (of course, I got around this very often). But my point is that this didn't help me at all. I've learned (most of) the bad stuff in the world, and I think it would have been better if I was aware of it being there from the start. I can't talk about any of the bad stuff with my parents because they just try to cover it up.

That's why I think censorship, in pretty much all its forms, is damaging.

 

[adumbrodeus]

But are you serious about censoring, and protecting the children from everything? My parents did that (and still do that) to me: When I was younger, they would cross out the word "bad" in Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, and replace it with "not good", because the word "bad" was negative or something. I wasn't allowed to watch PG-13 movies until I turned like 15, and only recently have they let me watch them without watching them themselves beforehand (of course, I got around this very often). But my point is that this didn't help me at all. I've learned (most of) the bad stuff in the world, and I think it would have been better if I was aware of it being there from the start. I can't talk about any of the bad stuff with my parents because they just try to cover it up.

That's why I think censorship, in pretty much all its forms, is damaging.

Erm, wtf?

I was disagreeing with the censorship, point out that the usage of the term was useful from a literary prospective to contextualize something difficult to contextualize for individuals of this generation due to the time gap.

Again, wtf? How the hell did you manage to get the impression that I supported censorship from my posts?

I highly doubt ****** will ever die out. Ya' know, some insults today have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years and don't show any signs of fading away. It's not necessarily a "mean" word either ("What's up my ******?")

Blocking out the word only makes it more powerful when someone eventually says it, if you know what I mean.

Doesn't matter. For right now, it's usage does exactly what is needed to protect the impact for the reasons that I stated, thus I see no reason to censor or change.

 

[omfgomfg]

i need to pick up that book
i have not read it yet
read TATS though

 

[NJzFinest]

A book is being banned because the author was trying to be realistic...

heh

 

[Tryptomine]

My parents did that (and still do that) to me: When I was younger, they would cross out the word "bad" in Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, and replace it with "not good", because the word "bad" was negative or something. I wasn't allowed to watch PG-13 movies until I turned like 15, and only recently have they let me watch them without watching them themselves beforehand (of course, I got around this very often). But my point is that this didn't help me at all. I've learned (most of) the bad stuff in the world, and I think it would have been better if I was aware of it being there from the start. I can't talk about any of the bad stuff with my parents because they just try to cover it up.

That's why I think censorship, in pretty much all its forms, is damaging.

That has got to be one of the saddest things I've ever heard.

 

[Blackadder]

That has got to be one of the saddest things I've ever heard.

Crossing out the word "Bad" actually made me smile and giggle, I found it so downer I laughed. That's just taking things to an insane level.

(Nay offense Jammer, of course )

 

[Tobi-]

When they read Huck finn, they should be in High School. In High school, I think you should have the mentality and maturity to read a classic book. For christ sake, The author wanted to capture the southern dialect as much as possible. Banning the book will only lead to more chaos and confusion. The parent must of not of clearly read the what the author stated. He said it is in no shape or form racist. That's just how they spoke in the past. They are only hurting themselves by banning this classic novel.

 

[Jammer]

Again, wtf? How the hell did you manage to get the impression that I supported censorship from my posts?

Um, from this:

Of course, who cares? It all needs to be censored, parents need to make sure their kids are protected from everything, but can they be bothered to take the time to do it properly?

I guess that could be sarcasm, but it doesn't sound like it. You could say there's a difference between dumb censorship and "proper" censorship, but to me it seemed like you were saying "it all needs to be censored", as in lots of stuff should be censored from children.

Crossing out the word "Bad" actually made me smile and giggle, I found it so downer I laughed. That's just taking things to an insane level.

(Nay offense Jammer, of course )

Yeah, we laugh about it now. But I'm still not allowed to watch PG-13 movies if they're rated that way for sexuality or frontal nudity or something (I forget the exact rules). Sensuality is okay though. And I'm 17, by the way.

I've learned to live with (and get around) it.

An interesting thing, though, is that I never, ever swear. I think the last time I said a swear word was in sixth grade, when I was trying to be cool. When I think about it, I don't think there's anything that bad about swearing--I mean, everybody does it, and it's just part of the language. But it's just so uncomfortable for me, no matter what company I'm in, to swear, that I never do it. I blame/thank my parents for this, although they swear sometimes, when they're really mad, which I even don't do.

 

[GoldShadow]

adumbrodeus's posts seemed like clear sarcasm to me. But uh, I don't have much to say in this thread that hasn't already been said.

Why do school boards give in to idiot parents like this?

 

[Blackadder]

Yeah, we laugh about it now. But I'm still not allowed to watch PG-13 movies if they're rated that way for sexuality or frontal nudity or something (I forget the exact rules). Sensuality is okay though. And I'm 17, by the way.

I've learned to live with (and get around) it.

Out of wonderment, what happens when you turn 18 and become an adult by law? Will your folks still "ban" you from things, or will you be aloud to watch whatever?

An interesting thing, though, is that I never, ever swear. I think the last time I said a swear word was in sixth grade, when I was trying to be cool. When I think about it, I don't think there's anything that bad about swearing--I mean, everybody does it, and it's just part of the language. But it's just so uncomfortable for me, no matter what company I'm in, to swear, that I never do it. I blame/thank my parents for this, although they swear sometimes, when they're really mad, which I even don't do.

I find it incredibly sad that I'm such a nut about Conker's Bad Fur Day, This character was the first thing that came to mind when I read that.

I should shoot myself.

 

[Jammer]

Why do school boards give in to idiot parents like this?

I assume this is rhetorical, but the answer to your question, for anyone who doesn't know, is that the more vocal you are, the more your representatives (the school board, in this case) listen to you, and it doesn't matter how stupid you are.

Of course, things usually get straightened out in the end, but there's always the period of "Oh crap! There's an angry parent! We have to do something!"

Democracy in action, folks. Seriously, democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other alternatives (Winston Churchill, I think).

Out of wonderment, what happens when you turn 18 and become an adult by law? Will your folks still "ban" you from things, or will you be aloud to watch whatever?

"While you live under my roof and eat my food, you will do what I say!"

The ironic part is that my dad, who is an idiot by the way, has all the power in the house on account of his extreme mood swings and tendency to yell and be violent, while my mom, who makes all the money because my dad's a bum, and who is much more reasonable, has to deal with him just like the children.

 

[adumbrodeus]

Um, from this:



I guess that could be sarcasm, but it doesn't sound like it. You could say there's a difference between dumb censorship and "proper" censorship, but to me it seemed like you were saying "it all needs to be censored", as in lots of stuff should be censored from children.

Parent properly. Not censor properly, that section was about how censorship is essentially parents placing parenting on the shoulders of schools, the media and other such outlets instead of assuming responsibility for their children's upbringing.

That generalized the issue to other media like movies, video games, etc.


I thought the whole "can they be bothered to do it properly" would make the sarcasm clear, it seems like it did to most people.

 

[Jammer]

Ah, okay. To me, it sounded like you were saying that parents should shield their children (i.e., censor the bad stuff), but they can't do it properly anyway.

As in they should be doing it. But they don't do it right.

Now I understand.