I've been told repeatedly, by a number of different folks, that the emotional impact of the "N-word" is so much greater now than it was even, say forty years ago, that the book becomes almost unreadable to many folks today.
I cannot fathom why any of those people would say that.
I have lived long enough that I can recall a time when the word had no meaning whatsoever to me. I remember, as a kid, buying a candy called N-Babies and at Christmas we always had Brazil nuts, but they were called N-toes. Nobody thought anything of it.
Then as a young man in the sixties , the real emotion-filled meaning of the word, as it was used elsewhere, became very clear. However, I also heard Lenny Bruce preach about words being given power by suppressing them. He had a routine called: "Are there any N's here tonight?" He would follow that word with a whole series of other epithets based on religions, racial backgrounds, nationalities et cetera. He believed that, if you used a word often enough, it would lose its meaning.
I think he was right. I also wonder if that isn't part of the rationale behind the N-word's widespread use in a lot of music and other art forms today. Are the artists trying to kick the crap out of the word by using it so much that nobody continues to notice? Is Lenny Bruce rolling over in his grave because people undermine the efforts of those artists by using the euphemism "N-word"?
Making a link from the sixties until today.........a few nights ago I watched a rerun of the 1967 movie "In the Heat of the Night" (Poitier/Steiger), a movie that uses the N-word several times. I have not heard or seen a single complaint in any medium. Maybe the aforementioned artists are succeeding.
If I were such a teacher, I would begin my introduction to the book with "Today we are going to start reading Huckleberry Finn. The version you're about to read is different from the one Mark Twain wrote in this way, and here's why..."
I could not agree more that teachers should have their students discuss and debate the novel and the use of the N-word. However, if a teacher is going to open the discussion, what's the advantage of beginning with an expurgated version of the story? It seems to me that students mature enough to have the discussion must be also mature enough to read the original words.
ryck
