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

[fireun.livejournal.com]

It funny- 'editing' is acceptable (in most cases, at least more acceptable) while 'censorship' is such a negative flash word. Depending on who is talking about this topic, one or the other words is used. I find it almost fascinating.

And you are right, there really is a conceptual difference between censoring and editing, but I think it is a distinction that is missed much of the time.