The Inoffensive Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Cartoon by John Sherffius, 01/06/2011

The news came out the first week in January of a revised edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. The work is apparently spearheaded by a professor from Auburn University, which is just down the road from my Alabama hometown. As one who loves literature, especially the works of Samuel Clemens, I found this to be most disheartening news. There have been stories in the past of schools banning Twain’s masterpiece from libraries and curriculum due to the offensive use of the “N” word. There is frequent use of the word as the author writes in the colloquial speech of his day, and of course, prominent to the story is Nigger Jim, the runaway slave who travels down the Mississippi River with young Huck. The reality is that Mark Twain does more than anyone of his generation to illustrate the humanity of Americans of African descent, and to show the inhumanity of a culture that enslaved black people while using Bible verses to justify such enslavement.

Sometimes we educated folk can get so caught up in political correctness that we end up missing the point entirely, living in a dull, flat landscape, so to speak. It reminds me of something Will Campbell relates in his acclaimed memoir, Brother to a Dragonfly. Campbell tells of a salty Baptist preacher, Brother Thad Garner, he knew in the Deep South. One of his stories is about how Brother Garner used his influence in the local Lion’s Club to make them aware that it was wrong to support a bond issue for a swimming pool in their town when earlier a bond had been defeated that would have provided running water for those living in the Black community (who were having to draw water from a single well). This was a decade prior to the civil rights movement. Brother Thad had first warmed up the crowd with some jokes, including one about an “ole colored preacher.” After the meeting, Will chided his friend for telling “ole colored preacher" jokes. To which his friend Thad replied:

“That’s the trouble with you shithook liberals, Willie. You had rather see a hundred children die of dehydration than to have the sound of ‘nigger’ heard from your lips. Whether I say ‘nigger’ don’t matter a damn. If one of those young’uns die of thirst he ain’t nothing. Just one more dead nigger, whether I say the word or not, or whether I go to Hell for saying it or not. But if he lives to get grown, maybe he can lead his people out of this godawful Egypt and there won’t be no more niggers."

If this new version will get Huckleberry Finn back on the reading list in schools, maybe it has some merit. Better yet – perhaps it will call attention to the work to spur readers to go and find the original version. Mark Twain does have another book, his autobiography, which is currently making the best seller list. A Mark Twain renaissance might not be so bad.

What? Try to make Mark Twain inoffensive? What good is that? Mark Twain had a uncanny ability to make people lighten up and get serious at the same time. He was a writer of great humor and wit and he had a way of exposing human behavior for what it is. He didn't mind offending, especially the social elite, the religiously proper, the haughty and the proud.

I could go on, but I don’t think anyone could do better than columnist Leonard Pitts, of the Miami Herald. In his column on January 9 he writes, "Huck Finn is a funny, subversive story about a runaway white boy who comes to locate the humanity in a runaway black man and, in the process, vindicates his own. It has always, until now, been regarded as a timeless tale." You can read the entire column here (which I highly recommend).

Update and correction: A friend has corrected me that Twain scholar Alan Gribben, who has published the new Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (NewSouth Books), is professor at Auburn University at Montgomery. My friend is librarian at AUM and tells me that the book is a huge buzz over there and is having tremendous sales.

References:

Brother to a Dragonfly, by Will D. Campbell, 1977. Continuum: New York, pp. 175-176.

John Sherrifus Editorial Cartoons, http://www.sherffius.com/

March 25 addendum:

The following was aired on CBS's 60 Minutes program on March 18. You can hear some interesting comments about the new version of Hickleberry Finn. The editor at NewSouth Books is among those interviewed :





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Outer Travels, Inner Changes

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it solely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."
~ Samuel Clemens

I grew up under an apartheid system in the Deep South and came of age in the wake of the civil rights movement. I was 15 years old when our schools finally integrated. It was also at that time when as an adolescent I made an adult commitment to the Christian faith that was nurtured in me as a child. I came to see that a tearing down of my own prejudices was a part of my spiritual growth. Such a tearing down required many outer conversations and much interior work – and it certainly did not occur overnight. To this day, I have to deal with an automatic inner prejudicial response that is not programmed in my own daughter’s psyche because she did not grow up under a system of widespread apartheid consciousness. All of this is to say that prejudice is not easily overcome and it is not a once-and-for-all occurrence.

Fast forward ten years or so: I was in my late twenties when I took a job teaching English at Hong Kong Baptist College as a Baptist missionary. I had just spent three years in California studying in seminary. The traveling from Alabama to California to live in a culture different from my own was perhaps more educational than my academic studies. Living in Hong Kong, I was in yet another cultural environment in the Far East. It was a culture that I could easily love, with its blend of Chinese culture, urban living, and remnants of British Empire. While I was in Hong Kong reflecting on my own inner prejudices and noting my changes in attitude, I became aware that I was carrying a deep-seated prejudice toward Arab people. I had never known anyone of Arab descent. I suppose the stories I had heard of the Muslim world (from people who had never been there) had fed my attitudes.

Because of my own history of dealing with ingrained prejudices against African Americans, I knew that the attitudes I carried toward the Arab world were another hurdle to overcome. During my first summer overseas, in between school terms, I decided to do more traveling. I flew to Bangkok, Thailand, did some sight-seeing and then took the train from Bangkok through Malaysia to Singapore. While in Kuala Lumpur, Maylasia, I heard my first call to prayer from the Islamic minarets in that city. I knew that when I arrived in Singapore, I would be able to see Arab culture first-hand.

Singapore is a remarkable island/city/state, clean and well-ordered, where a large population of Malay, Chinese, Hindus, and Arabs manage to dwell peaceably together. I had been living among Chinese people in Hong Kong, so I made it a point while in Singapore to visit the Hindu and Arab sections of the island. I wanted to witness each of those worlds while given the remarkable opportunity to go from one world to the other by taking a simple bus ride from one part of the city to the next. In each place, I was able to sit in the marketplace, eat their respective native cuisines, and visit both Hindu and Muslim houses of worship. I was able to experience some of what Mark Twain referred to when he said prejudice and bigotry cannot survive the effects of travel. In my own case, however, I think that inner preparation beforehand helped me to achieve a greater openness once I arrived.

That trip to Singapore was really my first step in actively seeking some understanding of Islamic culture. In my next post I will talk about my visit this week at a local mosque for a Ramadan iftar (breaking of the fast) and evening prayer.









[All photos for this post were taken by me during my trip to Singapore in 1982. Pictured here, clockwise from the left: a Hindu temple, a marketplace in downtown Singapore, a mosque in the Arab section, and a view of chinatown. Up at the top: the panoramic view is one that I shot while hanging over a balcony and living to tell about it; the other shot is the famous Singapore merlion.]



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Support Your Local Arts

Today I spent some quality time down at the local library. This was the day for the annual “Alabama Bound” event hosted by the downtown branch of the Birmingham Public Library. Every year the event brings in Alabama authors (or authors with Alabama roots) who have published recent works. We get to hear from these writers about their experiences and about the art and craft of writing. It is always an inspirational day for me.

This year was especially inspiring. To tie in the state-wide Big Read promoting The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Alabama Bound event today focused on Mark Twain. I cannot remember a time when I was not delighted by Mark Twain. I wrote a little piece about him in my blog on 1-17 10, "A Place for Saints, Sinners, Doubters and Jilted Lovers.” Today’s event began with Mark Twain impersonator, Will Stutts. Mr. Stutts brought Samuel Clemens to life. He gave us the man in his own words, white suit, white hair and white mustache, bringing us much laughter as well as insight into the human condition.

We also heard some local High School students present their own poetry. The three winners from the “Word Up Poetry Slam” competition presented their winning pieces. I was truly inspire to hear what these young people were thinking and writing in their poetry. One cannot despair of the future when one hears the voices of young poets.

After lunch we heard from four authors who told of their fist encounters with Tom Sawyer and the influence of Mark Twain. Alan Gribben, Twain scholar from AUM and authors Ted Dunagan, Faye Gibbons, and Chandra Sparks-Taylor each gave the audience insight into the life and works of Mark Twain. We heard how a boy growing up in south Alabama in the 1940s would later put his write about that boyhood, just as Samuel Clemmons did 100 years earlier. We heard how a young girl whose family could conceive of nothing greater in her future that getting a job in the local mill was inspired to greater things by reading about a world opened up by Mark Twain's writings. A young African-American writer told of her hopes that her fictional characters would exhibit the kind of relationships and friendships found in Tom Sawyer.

The close of the day brought a superb presentation from storyteller Dolores Hydock. If you ever get a chance to hear Ms. Hydock, mark it on your calendar and be there. She gave dramatic recitations from some of Mark Twain’s works. With no stage props, only her storytelling skills, we were able to visualize Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer debating on the best cure for warts (Huck with a dead cat in hand). We heard Mark Twain's stories come alive and learned of events from his life. We heard about Clemens' knack for bad investments and we learned of the tender loving relationship between him and his wife, Olivia. Laughter abounded and then I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room as we heard “The Californian’s Tale.”

If you live near Birmingham, watch for Alabama Bound when it comes back around next March. In addition, there are many other profitable offerings throughout the year from all of our libraries and other local arts venues. Find out what is happening and support your local arts events.



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A Place for Saints, Sinners, Doubters, And Jilted Lovers

I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people.
– Mark Twain

A new Pew Forum Survey report that came out last month reveals that many Americans are mixing their religious practices. Our country is truly becoming a marketplace for faith and practice. This survey highlights my view that there has to be a place where everyone can come, even those who have been shut out by customs and creeds; a place for people who harbor doubts and disillusion; a place to find some sense of community. A few years back I saw an interview on Book TV with Ron Powers, who has written a biography called, Mark Twain: a Life. Samuel Clemens was the man who wrote under the pen name of Mark Twain. In discussing some of Samuel Clemens’ philosophy, Powers made the observation that “his bitterness [toward Christianity] was like the bitterness of jilted lover.” Later in the interview, he went on to add, “What he believed in and worked for often betrayed him… He suffered deeply when his beliefs proved hollow.”

Samuel Clemens was in many ways the quintessential American, much more so than Walt Whitman before him, even though Whitman intensely wished that role for himself. Clemens looked at life, religion, and politics in a distinctly American way. He readily saw the hypocrisy and shortcomings of American society, and used humor to bring them to light. Probably, he used humor to deal with his own disappointments as well. He once said that, “The secret source of humor itself is not joy, but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.” In that vein, Clemens might serve as a role model for some of us as we attempt to reconcile faith, hope, and reality. Keeping a sense of humor as we examine the life we live helps to put things into perspective. There has to be a place where everyone can come to find some sense of community.

There are many of us who thrive on intellectual discussion and dialogue. It occurs to me, however, that there are also those among us who may have felt betrayed by their faith. One of my times of greatest disillusionment came when I realized that there was no place for me among the Southern Baptists who had nurtured and guided me for so long. During that time I remembered the words of one of my seminary professors regarding disillusionment: “If it was an illusion to begin with, is it such a bad thing to be disillusioned?” I knew then that there had to be a place where everyone can come; a place to find support; a place for community. It doesn't have to be the same place for everybody, but everybody needs a place

I wonder what Mark Twain might say about the religious scene if he were here today. I’m sure he could find something humorous to say that would be both insightful and incisive. I wonder if he would find a place where it is permissible to explore faith, reason, doubt, and hypocrisy, all on the same page – like on the internet. There is a good site on the web: http://www.explorefaith.org/index.html which seeks “to provide an open, non-judgmental, private place for ANYONE interested in exploring spiritual issues.” I have no connection or association with that website, it's just one that I am impressed with. Nothing beats being actually present with like-minded people, but there are some helpful sources avaiable electronically.

Everyone needs a place to go, a place to find community. No one should be denied the opportunity for some sort of spiritual life that is congruent with his or her world view. The American spiritual landscape is such that today there are many places that people can go to affirm life and spirit as they understand it: a place for dialogue and discussion; a place for hope and community; a place for saints, sinners, doubters, and jilted lovers.



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