Of all the....

[fireun]

 otterdance  has an excellent discussion on the editing of Huck Finn.

When we get to the point where we are editing works of literature that reflect a period we are really missing the point of writing. And reading. Have dialog with your students instead of washing over anything that could inspire discussion. We aren't teaching at this point if we take away anything there is to teach. Editing works to fit modern asinine feelings of what is and is not appropriate is a failure of gross proportions to take something of value from these works, even if that value is nothing more than a discussion of why a certain word/topic/idea is offensive/hurtful/inappropriate. We cannot learn and grow if we merely decide to wash things away.

Comments

[sorion.livejournal.com]

Why don't we stop reading altogether...? Works of art always have to be read in the context of their time. Simple as that.
And here my grandmother always complains about the language of the youth... ;)

[fireun.livejournal.com]

Works of art always have to be read in the context of their time.

Exactly. We are doing the works, and ourselves, a distinct disservice by editing/censoring away the things we don't approve of in our modern context.