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Mark Twain remains censored, and uncensored

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Feel free to share your thoughts with the publishers at New South Books dot com. (I'd post a link, but this system won't let me)

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I wonder if the works of James Baldwin, Dick Gregory, Jean Toomer, and many more, are also in line for this "softening" of literary expression...

Political correctness is a scourge.

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Mark Twain did not always say what he meant. But you can figure out what he meant if you have a working brain and I generally found myself agreeing with him.

including harsh words for American business and military actions,

Too bad. For one because those criticisms were locked up for so long. For two, because the guilty parties would not have listened anyhow.

Man's been dead for like one hundred years, and the more things change, the more things remain the same. People foolishly believe American military adventures and other barbarity are something new.

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Those who censor Mark Twain...should probably be censored! (joke with a kernel of truth.)

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The language Tawin used put on display the ever present figure of active and passive bigotry that was rampant in the south when the book was written. Censoring the language of the book is an insult to the writer, to the civil rights movement that fought that bigotry, and to the students that the publishers and teachers believe to be incapable of putting the book's language into context.

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Just to add a modern twist to this, a cartoon about the Marvel Comic book superhero team The Avengers has been out. They have been sticking to the story line from the comic books of the 60's somewhat, and you can tell where they have had to "reimagine" for the later generations. But one thing that I think stinks is how they go about the origin of Captain America.

If you remember, he fist came out during WW2, and as the "Super Soldier" he was busy fighting the Nazi's in Europe until his demise and going in suspended animation to be revived in the 60's. But for this series, he still is a WW2 figure, but instead of fighting against Germany, he is fighting against a world wide organization called Hydra (who by the way had conqured Germany), headed by the Red Skull. This may seem like a trivial point, but by remaking Capt. America you are basically saying that the whole of WW2 never occured.

True he is a fictional character and was not a real person, but if you can skew a story line that has been around since the 40's, in this case to make Germany and Europe not look bad, then this slow shift of censoring Mark Twain will probably be followed by eventually depicting a not realistic image of what the times were actually like when he wrote it.

I read the books back in school in the 70's & 80's, and to tell the truth, I was using those words all the time (hey I'm black so I called many of my friends that word). So to now say that it needs to be changed for PC matters is leading us in the wrong path.

Next we will see Dr. Zhivago made to show that it wasn't the Reds who were causing all the problems in the book.

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I despair for Twain's legacy and his stature among American writers. The PC crowd will win this one . Twain was quite scathing in his assessment of Mohammedism, and his record of his travels in the then Ottoman-administered area that we now know as Palestine do not fit with the modern fabrications about the place. this are just more reasons why the cultural marxists will see to it that in our schools and universities the great Mark Twain will be consigned to obscurity.

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Sam Clemens would have beaten these publishers with a cane.

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@SolidariTea

Twain was quite scathing in his assessment of Mohammedism,

Yes, he was a very, very smart guy who would have immediately questioned your use of the word "Mohammedism", recognising it for the divisive bit of nastiness that it is. Do you really have such a problem with the word "Islam"?

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Oh yeah, Solidaritea and his fondness for innocents abroad.

The shortage of land is due less to purchase by Jews than to the increase in the Arab population. The Arab claims that the Jews have obtained too large a proportion of good land cannot be maintained. Much of the land now carrying orange groves was sand dunes or swamps and uncultivated when it was bought.

Interesting how someone just traveling through for the first time could make such an observation, isn't it? He may be Mark Twain, but he did not have a time machine as far as I am aware.

I believe this is where the "Israelis make the desert bloom" myth comes from. Interesting since, despite Israelis carving out settlements on Palestinian land, they have yet to make the Negev desert bloom even though they control it totally.

Well, anyone persusing a satirist's travel journey trying to get solid history has the joke on him.

The first line of that book:

This book is a record of a pleasure trip. If it were a record of a solemn scientific expedition, it would have about it that gravity, that profundity, and that impressive incomprehensibility which are so proper to works of that kind, and withal so attractive.

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In order to teach a classic, it must be censored. I suppose next they will censor books on Marxism or the like with ideas that do not conform to the norm.

I agree with Powers quote:

“Huckleberry Finn’ and the use ofni99er’ is the ultimate teachable moment in American literature,” Powers says. “It cries out for conversation between teachers and students. It cries out for context.”

** Note that I couldn't post the quote properly because it contained the "N" word

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Censoring such a great writer is nonsense. Don't like what he wrote? Don't read it. The man was a genius of a writer.

they have yet to make the Negev desert bloom even though they control it totally.

It is blooming just fine. Research it. There are farms, towns and cities which are all growing, not shrinking.

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Having seen my cousins called the N word as a kid visiting Texas, I truly hate that word and all it stands for. That applies to anyone who uses it.

But at the same time, a book written at that time should not be tampered with. I think there is a lot for young people to learn from the raw realities of Twain's time. How else are they to understand if we shelter them?

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Next we will see Dr. Zhivago made to show that it wasn't the Reds who were causing all the problems in the book.

lol!

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Sanitize history and you're doomed to repeat it.

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kyushoejoe protests that "he (Twain)was a very, very smart guy who would have immediately questioned your use of the word "Mohammedism", recognising it for the divisive bit of nastiness that it is. Do you really have such a problem with the word "Islam"?

I will just let Twain speak for himself:

"When I, a thoughtful and unblessed Presbyterian, examine the Koran, I know that beyond any question every Mohammedan is (offensive to CAIR), not in all things, but in religious matters. I cannot prove to him that he is (offensive to Islam4UK), because you never can prove anything to a (offensive to "kyushujoe") — for that is a part of his (offensive to OBL) and the evidence of it.

Mark Twain"
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I read a few reports, where people now want to censor History books to make the founding fathers "cleaner".

Censorship never is good. Mark Twain gives us a picture of the world he lived in and thus is an important historical document.

Next is what "Uncle Toms Cabin", Cicero, Plato, etc.

Granted "Little Black Sambo" could use a revision, as the image of the "Black boy" was created by the Illustrator. Author depicted an Indian Boy in the story. Hint: No Tigers in Africa.

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kyushujoe:

" Yes, he was a very, very smart guy who would have immediately questioned your use of the word "Mohammedism", recognising it for the divisive bit of nastiness that it is. Do you really have such a problem with the word "Islam"? "

In fact, in Twains times, "mohammedanism" was the usual word, just as nXggers, Xnjuns, and the other words that got Twain on the censorship list. Modern political correctness brought us "islam", hyphenated Americans, and all the rest.

You scored an own-goal there.

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