Epic Word Choice

Epic.

That is the 2010 People’s Choice word as reported in The Hot Word blog on the dictionary website,  www.dictionary.com  I did not vote for this word – well, truth be told, I did not vote at all. I was a little disappointed with the victorious choice. Hearing or reading about someone having an epic adventure or seeing an epic concert rings with a teenage or twenty-something feel in its current use - sort of a Wayne’s World word. I find I rarely use ‘epic’ which may speak more to the lack of “epic-ness” in my life. 

I am good with it.

I favor synonyms such as colossal, monumental, huge.  Scanning Dictionary.com’s thesaurus I found ginormous to be a synonym for epic.  Who knew that was a real word! It sounds so contrived. And, once again, it seems like a generational adjective – something someone under twenty would say.

Ironically, epic poems are those written in ancient times.  Homer's poems, The Iliad and The Odyssey were written somewhere in the 8th or 9th century BC; Dante's The Divine Comedy, was written in the 1300s.  Epic indeed.

There seems to be little middle ground with epic. 

This got me thinking about words that are used in the extreme, which led me to the announcement that an altered version of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is soon to be released.  The author, Alan Gribben, a professor of English at Auburn University, at Montgomery, Ala., has replaced the word nigger with slave in Twain's novel.

I first find it ironic that just around the time the first volume of Twain’s autobiography is released, (100 years after the author’s death – talk about a farsighted marketing strategy!) another author opts to significantly change Twain’s word choice.  Professor Gribben is not the first, but he is the latest author to tamper with Twain.  There is no middle ground with the word nigger. In a way, it is epic.

In her Salon.com article, “Huckleberry Finn loses the N-Word,” author Mary Elizabeth Williams cites that Twain uses nigger 219 times in his novel.  She writes, “Mark Twain's novel has for years endured an uneasy relationship with the reading lists and libraries of children. Is it a classic work of young adult literature, or a racist tract? Should it be removed from school curricula, pulled from the shelves of libraries? It's one of the most banned books in print.  It's also one of the most beautiful.” http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2011/01/04/huckleberry_finn_cleaned_up

In a recent interview with Publisher's Weekly, Professor Gribben’s apparent intention is “not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colorblind."  From his office at Auburn University, where he's spent most of the past 20 years heading the English department, Professor Gribben notes that, "Race matters in these books. It's a matter of how you express that in the 21st century."
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/45645-upcoming-newsouth-huck-finn-eliminates-the-n-word.html

Co-founder Suzanne LaRosa of New South Publishing Company, the publishing house printing this newest version of the text, interestingly notes in the same article that, “he's (Gribben) so compassionate, and so believes in the value of teaching Twain, that he's committed to this major departure. I almost don't want to acknowledge this, but it feels like he's saving the books. His willingness to take this chance—I was very touched."

I am not African American.  Hearing the word nigger is offensive to me nonetheless.  I grew up in a home where it was not part of the vocabulary.  However, I did have relatives who bandied the word about easily.  It was odd to feel the all-encompassing warmth of a dear uncle who also could thoughtlessly and regularly use the word nigger.  It was such a mixed message.  We are complicated beings.

I disagree with Professor Gribben’s choice to update and remove the raw language in Twain’s work.  I don’t appreciate someone playing the self-appointed role of protective parent when it comes to literature.  Why do we run from the complicated, uncomfortable conversation?  Reading the work as intended, and providing age appropriate conversation about racism, slavery, and other issues that arise creates an environment where thoughts are valued and protected – not only words.  I applaud the teacher who takes on this challenge because there is nothing easy about it.  And that is okay.  Discomfort in learning is good.  How else can we possibly nurture critical thinking?

Students learn to discern and come to their own conclusions by hearing discourse all around a subject.  Socrates based his method of discourse and questioning in airing out opinions on a subject and using the conversation as a tool. 

Making pabulum out of literature because it does not seem “current” is dangerous. Altering authorship is wrong.   

In 1907, three years before his death, Mark Twain was no stranger to the uproar his books caused.  Book banning was nothing new in his time.  He chuckled at the uneven ethics taking place when a library would ban his work and keep others.  I think his sharp wit and refusal to take life seriously make the following quote sing.

"But the truth is, that when a library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn't anger me."

Letter to Mrs. F.G. Whitmore, February 7, 1907