Thoughts on Huck Finn

I just read an article about a new edition of Mark Twain's Adventure's of Huck Finn. Rather than bore you with the details of the article (not that it's a bad article), here's the distilled version: they are making the text politically correct.

To those that have been living under a rather large rock for the past century or so, there's a certain word that is used about 219 times through the course of the novel, which will be replaced with something less caustic to modern sensibilities. The article also states, "The new edition will also change "Injun Joe" to "Indian Joe" and "half-breed" to "half-blood.""

I'm not quite sure how to respond. Not out of pure love for the book (Twain's use of dialect takes a little getting used to, and I've only read it once, and that was within the last five years), but out of concern as a writer. Allow me a moment.

The story is written in the 1880s, but set in the 1840s when the language that is being changed would have been in keeping with the characters (location, social class, etc). The language wasn't the problem when it was published, it was the idea that Huck would rather risk his soul by helping to free a recaptured runaway slave, Jim. It was the theological statement, that ran counter to the "divine right" idea that was prevalant prior to the Civil War (and still lingered after), that summoned the initial controversy.

My extremely watered down, marginally academic read of the novel: slavery is stupid, and the fundamentalist idea that aiding and abetting a runaway slave would draw damnation on your soul equally makes no sense. But my read is 120-ish years after publication, not fresh in the era, with all of the other historical context that can be brought to the table.

As a writer, though, here's the point: the words were specifically chosen by Twain to help reflect Huck Finn as a product of his setting. Changing that much, over a century after publication just smacks of pissing on a dead man's grave, and not caring about the author's intent or character's voice: "Thanks, Sam. Good book, and all, but our modern sensibilities just don't like that you have Huck say this? And so often? We're just going to tweak a couple of things, make it more accessible, you know? You don't mind, do you?"

Now, the other side of the writer's coin: The fact that the book has lasted long enough to even have this conversation is something that most writer's would love to have.