The Adve_tures of Huckleberry Fi__

Just a quick op-ed post about a news piece I read today on AOL, involving a classic novel (and seminal work of American Gothic) by Mark Twain.   In the article, Steven Hoffer calls our attention to a revised edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn soon to be published by NewSouth Books.  What makes this version (edited by Auburn University professor Alan Gribben) noteworthy is the fact that each instance of the infamous N-word in the original has been replaced with the ostensibly less offensive "slave."

Hoffer's article also gathers reactions--positive and negative, erudite and sardonic--to the planned bowdlerization.  My own two cents: Prof. Gribben might have the best of intentions (to get Huck Finn off banned-book lists and into the classroom), but he is setting a dangerous precedent.  Does this mean, then, that any public-domain book containing questionable subject matter can be summarily retrofitted to satisfy modern standards of political correctness?  Furthermore, the search-and-replace mode of revision perhaps does a disservice to Twain's prose, creating a sense of dissonance analogous to the dubbing of an R-rated movie to make it suitable for airing on network television (all those cries of "motherfreaker" and "ahh, forget you" always sound off).  My biggest problem, though, with the NewSouth edition of the novel is that it reeks of avoidance.  A golden opportunity is lost--to educate students about cultural history, about the impact and, yes, inappropriateness, of certain words.  Besides, if teenage readers aren't mature enough to handle encountering the N-word in a narrative, then they probably aren't ready to study a work of art such as Twain's novel in the first place.