Okay, Ladies....let's BLOG!!! LOL

I was waiting for Kelly to come up with a good topic for the day but she's cleaning house in defense of squatters that live with her, and no, I'm not talking about the children. LOL  People who squat suck.   I’ve been one, I know.  People who squat...and don't pay their way...and don’t contribute even sweat equity….and don't help clean the house much less after themselves....and are GROWN!!!...well, recipients of great gifts of partial ownership of housing or not, they need to MOVE ON!   As Kelly’s loving friend and fan, I maybe should schedule an intervention over that way.  That, or just be here to listen to her when she rants, and ply her with hot tea when she makes it over this way.  Yeah, maybe that's the ticket.

ANYhoo...onto the blogging and my decision to find my own topic for today.  "I ride the ride!!!"  LOL  Yeah, I'm gonna own this one, all  by myself.  

‎"In this edition I have translated each usage of the n-word to read "slave" instead, since the term "slave" is closest in meaning and implication. Although the text loses some of the caustic sting that the n-word carries, that price seems small compared to the revolting effect that the more offensive word has on contemporary readers."    

Thus sayeth the author,  Auburn University professor Alan Gribben, a Twain scholar, who has offered us an  "improved" version of two classic piece of literature, Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain;  

Now, admittedly, Samuel Clemens was not a nice guy sometimes.  He could be quite a piece of work but his literary works are without parallel, to my way of thinking.  Once again, that's just me talkin'.   J  But there has to be some argument, arguably, that some things just should NOT be changed.  Period.  For example:….the Bible.  It’s pretty clear in more than one verse that HeWhoMustBeObeyed has a finite rule about being misquoted.  Himself is clear on this.  To wit: 

Deuteronomy 12:32….What thing soever I command you, that shall ye observe to do: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. (ASV)

Proverbs 30:5-6… Add thou not unto his words, Lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. (ASV)

Revelation 22:19… if any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book. (ASV)

You get the picture, right?!  Don’t ask The Almighty for His ID, and don’t misquote him.  

Now…understand me.  I’m not saying Samuel Clemmons was near the writer that G-d is but as a writer of what has heretofore been considered classic literature, does he not deserve the SAME respect for his work!?  The respect of NOT having his writing changed?!!  Particularly when he’s dead and can’t even say anything about it or defend his work?!  Folks, in the South, that’s just WRONG!  And it should be wrong all over the place.   It’s censorship, pure and simple.  

I  don’t expect nor would I honor the changing of those classic works of fiction that may be insensitive or unkind to ethnic groups to which I belong.   I learned in Narcotics Anonymous meetings, take what you can use, and leave the rest where you found it.  I think that applies to works of literature as well.

While some of the words used in fiction and literature more than a hundred years ago are now considered offensive to some ethnic backgrounds, some of those very same words, and some more harsh, are still used in today’s everyday language and media.

ToWit, (Yeah, I’m gonna do a lot of “wit-ing”) :

poor white trash, white trash - (slang) an offensive term for White people who are impoverished.  In 1854, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the chapter "Poor White Trash" in her book A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_trash)

Papist - an offensive term for Roman Catholics; originally, a Roman Catholic who was a strong advocate of the papacy.  Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) author of Gulliver's Travels, frequently uses the term in his satirical work A Modest Proposal in which he proposes selling Irish children to be eaten by wealthy English landlords.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papist)

honkey, honkie, honky, whitey - (slang) offensive names for a White man.  On the TV show The Jeffersons, George Jefferson regularly referred to white people as honkies - or whitey …

hymie, kike, sheeny, yid - (ethnic slur) offensive term for a Jew

Mick, Mickey, Paddy - (ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Irish descent

Boche, Jerry, Kraut, Krauthead, Hun - offensive term for a person of German descent

fag, faggot, fagot, poof, poove, pouf, nance, queer, fairy, pansy, queen - offensive term for an openly homosexual man

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/disparagement ( Note the word “free”?!?!)

Get the picture?  “Those” words are everywhere, not just in our literature, classic or new, but in our lives, on a daily basis.  Don’t get me started on the alleged lyrics of some rap music.  LOL  So… we, as enlightened and upright people, are required to either learn from the lessons of ignorance of  the  past, or to try and change the past.  Let’s say that part again.  “Try to change the past”.   I don’t think so.  

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, Scribner's, 1905, p. 284

I don’t expect anyone is going to go out of their way to make an improved edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, just because it makes me anxious about myself when  I read the words “poor white trash”.  Nor do I expect anyone to get twitchy when I resent my Beloved Nanny/Grandmother referred to as a papist, whether in the classic literature of Jonathin Swift or in a small town way down South.  And I nearly DEFY some of you to watch an episode of “The Jeffersons” and not laugh you’re a$$ off every time George calls his neighbor, Tom, a honkie!!! 

People are more resilient than a lot of folks give them credit for, I think.  And they’re a heck of a lot smarter, too!   It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that some of the stuff that went on before us was just plain wrong.  Slavery was wrong.  Bigotry is wrong.  HATE!! is wrong.  But if we turn our backs on the wrongheaded lessons of the past, and acknowledge the sins and mistakes there, aren’t we making progress, as a species!??!  

And THAT, DearOnes, is called enlightenment…and learning.  Part of enlightenment and learning is the knowing that the past can’t really hurt us, not if we don’t allow it.    

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.^[2]

 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bene_Gesserit#Litany_against_fear; (yeah, fiction too!!!)

Trying to rewrite the mistakes of the past thru editing or making alleged improvements is a lot closer than most folks want to come to George Orwell, pandering in disinformation, and 1984.    The past becomes a complete fiction and it muddies up all the arguments for the progresses of today.   

If Mark Twain had not used the word nigger in his works, how far would we be today in viewing the use of that word offensive to our ears and sensibilities?!   We don’t even USE the word Indian anymore to describe the aboriginal tribes of North America!  They were here first…they’re Native Americans!  Indians are people from India!!   So, we’ve learned from the past.  And we’ve grown, and we’ve become enlightened to the fact that some of our past isn’t up to par with our thinking of today.  What was acceptable then may be far from it now.  

Changing Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn disallows the learning of past mistakes, whether they are mistakes in societal thinking, or in literature.  And whenever a body disallows learning, it allows anarchy.  Thus sayeth the old blonde…and Isaac Asimov.  Asimov...robot law....anybody with me on this?!?! LOL

Enough!  This has become less a blog and more straight into a rant.  Suffice it to say that I don't think there needs to be any "improvement" on classic works of fiction.  It really does come down to misquoting the author, for me,  and if God gets twitchy about it, you KNOW we mere mortals are gonna have a hissy-fit.  LOL 

Blame Leah for this being, once again, long-winded.  I got on the phone with her, told her what I was writing about today and it was game ON!!! LOL  Y’all look forward to reading her replies to this.  I’m publishing it online just for her.  Kiss/kiss!!!