Huck Finn Changes: Debacle or Update?

Yesterday, my friend Andrew Entzminger posted a link to an NPR story on Facebook about the recent efforts of two scholars to edit Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Their main goal is to make the book less offensive by replacing the infamous “N-word,” which is used upward of 200 times, with “slave.”

That alone is enough to make me want to join in with all the other critics and cry out, as my friend did, that “This is a perfect example of someone completely missing the point. The book is quite possibly one of the greatest anti-racism works of all time, and it’s use of the n-word is not only appropriate for the time period, but used to illustrate how deragatory it actually is.” Well said,

At the same time, though, I think it’s important to highlight the superb job that AP writer Philip Rawls did in The Washington Post in covering this story. Mark Twain scholar Alan Gribben of the University of Auburn is the man at the center of the controversy who wants to make the switch. Scholar or not, though, somehow I suspect that just about everyone who is not offended at the books is going to disagree with Gribben’s move.

It’s impossible to tell where Rawls stands on this though, and as a journalist, that’s how it should be. He cites some of the most powerful arguments on both sides. Twain himself, for instance, said that the difference between the right word and the almost right one is “the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

An Irreverent, Yet Fun, Look Back at 2010

Dave Barry in the Washington Post summarizes the year in hilarious fashion.

Those who have grown jaded and cynical about politics, the state of our nation and the state of the world, this is for you.

Welcome to the Blog

Welcome to ACwords! This is my second attempt at blogging. My first try had its highs and lows, but mostly lows. I never achieved much of a readership besides a handful of friends and family members. I posted inconsistently and, last summer, decided to completely abandoned the whole thing.

So here’s the goal this time around. I want to post my own original content at least once by the Sunday of every week. I think that’s reasonable: one post a week that I write myself. I will also occasionally post links that catch my eye, maybe offer a bit of commentary on things, etc. Substantial posts of my own work will center on personal philosophical/theological musings, art analysis and criticism like film and music reviews, political commentary, criticism of news coverage, perhaps the occasional poem or short story, and whatever else inspires me.

This blog will not be another one of those public diaries where I post things like insignificant personal ramblings or pictures of me and friends. Hopefully, it will be a place for intelligent commentary and conversation. After a few months, I want this to have developed into something that I can use for my portfolio.

I also plan to repost some of my work on the (hopefully) rare week that I can’t get something of my own up. I wrote a few decent pieces at my old blog as well a some things for school that may end up resurfacing here.

It will probably help you to get an idea of where I’m coming from personally. I’m a Christian, sometimes a bitter, confused and cynical one, but a Christian nonetheless. I struggle with my faith, I have doubts, and I make lots and lots of mistakes. My core beliefs are rooted in the Bible. I’ve been influence quite a bit by people like C.S. Lewis, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, Timothy Keller, and Albert Mohler (among others). But I also want to be a writer and a thinker in the public square. I’d like to be a journalist, teacher, and perhaps even screenwriter eventually. My concern in this regard is with the truth and understanding how the world works. I believe I can bring all subjects under the Lordship of Christ without necessarily bringing in the Bible or any explicit mention of God.

Understand, though, that all that “religious” stuff will come up eventually because I care more what God thinks of my writing than anyone else. I just don’t want to be that one-sided, fundamentalist Christian metaphorically beating people over the head with a “Jesus brick.”