Huck Finn Gets Some Changes - Page 2

knight_shadow · #16 01-05-2011, 12:09 PM

Very true. I guess we're destined to walk around with scarlet Bs on our chests since we can actually discuss these works.

(See what I did there? I'm awesome. And my coffee hasn't set in yet)

DaemonSeid · #17 01-05-2011, 12:11 PM

Lord of the Flies anyone?

Drolefille · #18 01-05-2011, 12:13 PM

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Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Lord of the Flies anyone?

Actually enjoyed LotF although I got into a pissing match with my teacher over how you pronounce "conch."

knight_shadow · #19 01-05-2011, 12:13 PM

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Originally Posted by nittanygirl

I'm surprised this is just now getting to GC, but I think this is stupid. And replacing it with "slave" instead. One, it's not always going to make sense, two, it thoroughly implies that all usage or it was in that context.

Exactly. The two words aren't interchangable in all contexts.

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And I agree with the rap song points. If you can't use it in literature you shouldn't be able to use it in a song. But that isn't ever going to stop.

Meh. The "n-word in rap music" debate will not stop. I don't care either way. As long as people keep buying it, though, it'll continue.

knight_shadow · #20 01-05-2011, 12:14 PM

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Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Lord of the Flies anyone?

I think that book is the reason my ego problem began.

We did some role-playing while reading this book (also in MS) and I had an affinity for being in charge.

nittanygirl · #21 01-05-2011, 12:15 PM

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Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Meh. The "n-word in rap music" debate will not stop. I don't care either way. As long as people keep buying it, though, it'll continue.

I don't have a problem with it being there at all. I don't have a problem with any words in songs or books, I just don't like usage or certain words to insult people directly. Words are just words.
But there shouldn't be a double standard.

Drolefille · #22 01-05-2011, 12:15 PM

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Originally Posted by AzTheta

"I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks." ~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 23, spoken by the character Scout.

Harper Lee, when she used racial perjoratives, did a masterful job of carrying emotion in the words. It was much more shocking, which was, I believe, the intended effect.

It is, IMO, all in the context. I slogged through Huckleberry Finn in HS and frankly, I think Twain wrote some better works. The man WAS funny, but this isn't about Twain, I don't think...

I agree, and I think that HF uses it so much it's kind of.. numbing maybe? Which I really think defeats the purpose.

This is also random, but did everyone read A Modest Proposal in school? It's an example of a skilled humorist writing something that lays out exactly what the English thought of the Irish in a way that modern readers can actually understand I think.

Drolefille · #23 01-05-2011, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nittanygirl

I don't have a problem with it being there at all. I don't have a problem with any words in songs or books, I just don't like usage or certain words to insult people directly. Words are just words.
But there shouldn't be a double standard.

But we're not teaching rap music in school. It's not really the same people holding a double standard. And it's possible to hold different opinions on two different media.

knight_shadow · #24 01-05-2011, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nittanygirl

I don't have a problem with it being there at all. I don't have a problem with any words in songs or books, I just don't like usage or certain words to insult people directly. Words are just words.
But there shouldn't be a double standard.

If we got rid of all art that insulted people directly, we'd have no art left lol

Listen to Alanis Morissette - Are You Still Mad (first song that popped in my head). The entire song is insulting its subject, but she does it without using any obscene words.

If we stop the use of the word, it won't stop insults at all.

ETA:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drolefille

But we're not teaching rap music in school. It's not really the same people holding a double standard. And it's possible to hold different opinions on two different media.

Ditto

DaemonSeid · #25 01-05-2011, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

I think that book is the reason my ego problem began.

We did some role-playing while reading this book (also in MS) and I had an affinity for being in charge.

Role playing huh?

I think I will walk away from that one...

too many S&M and D&S jokes I can make.

@drole...slight correction, there are hip hop courses that are being taught in schools.

Tupac's poetry was being taught in LA at one time and I believe that NC also had a course in their high school.

MysticCat · #26 01-05-2011, 12:21 PM

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Originally Posted by Drolefille

Also, reading in dialect is and always will be a pain in the ass.

This is the main reason I've never made it past a few chapters. It drove me crazy.

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Originally Posted by Drolefille

But insistence on the 'classics' is what made me read the Great Gatsby and I can't think of a more inane book.

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Except maybe Catcher in the Rye... no I take that back, Holden annoyed the crap out of me but there was some sort of point.

I loved Catcher in the Rye. Loved, loved, loved it. Fairly early in our marriage, I learned that my wife had never read it, and I was bugging her that she had to. I remember watching while she finished it. As I looked at her expectantly, she put it down and rather slowly said, "So . . . you liked this?"

(At least I laughed when she said that.)

Seriously, sometimes I've wondered if it's a high school-or college-aged guy's book.

As for a more inane book, that's easy: The Old Man and the Sea.

Munchkin03 · #27 01-05-2011, 12:21 PM

THIS IS LAME.

knight_shadow · #28 01-05-2011, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Role playing huh?

I think I will walk away from that one...

too many S&M and D&S jokes I can make.

Yes. My middle school English teacher brought whips and chains to class so we could act our our sadistic and masochistic fantasies.

Oh, DS1 lol

KSig RC · #29 01-05-2011, 12:26 PM

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Originally Posted by MysticCat

This is the main reason I've never made it past a few chapters. It drove me crazy.

It's not a great book, which makes sense, because it wasn't intended to be (in many ways). As far as teaching it, that's part of the point and the problem: it exists to make a point (and is taught to make that point), but doesn't deliver the point in a particularly easy way, and kids who "get it" easily likely don't need the lesson anyway.

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Second this eek

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... but not necessarily this one.

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I loved Catcher in the Rye. Loved, loved, loved it. Fairly early in our marriage, I learned that my wife had never read it, and I was bugging her that she had to. I remember watching while she finished it. As I looked at her expectantly, she put it down and rather slowly said, "So . . . you liked this?"

(At least I laughed when she said that.)

Seriously, sometimes I've wondered if it's a high school-or college-aged guy's book.

I think it might be - anti-heroes still require the reader to relate, and it's really hard for a lot of people to relate to a precocious, whiny, angry, unsure-yet-cocksure, rage-against-the-machine dude feeling his way around the world. Except for other guys in that same spot.

Munchkin03 · #30 01-05-2011, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSig RC

I think it might be - anti-heroes still require the reader to relate, and it's really hard for a lot of people to relate to a precocious, whiny, angry, unsure-yet-cocksure, rage-against-the-machine dude feeling his way around the world. Except for other guys in that same spot.

Yeah, I loved it when I was a ragey 14 year old stuck in a small town with crumby friends. Then, when I read it again a few years ago, it made me really sad in some spaces.