Great articles Sommer and Cookie, Thanks
jkmcdonnell wrote:Sommer Leigh wrote:I wrote a blog post about it that is full of frustration and shock. I hate the whole mess. It's the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies of the next big trend- let's clean up the classics! If it's good enough for Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird and Catcher in the Rye are going to love their new look!
That was my first thought about all this - the slippery slope of censorship. These texts chart our social progression through issues or race, gender, etc. by reflecting dominant cultural values of their time, but any contemporary reader should analyse and/or instinctively read them within the context of today - a measure of how far we've come and how far we have to go.
Here's a sad exchange that took place when I was teaching high school History. On the first day of class I liked to establish a base line so I started like this:
W55: Ok, let's see what you know. 1 extra credit point for a sensible response and 3 points for a correct response.
Class: Ok, Mr. 55
W55: Tell me about FDR
Crickets: chirp chirp
W55: Winston Churchill?
Crickets: chirp chirp
They didn't know about Jim Crow laws, Medgar Evers, or Fredrick Douglass (sp?) and could just identify MLK.
jkmcdonnell wrote:(Is it totally paranoid to wonder if this is the first step to the Though Police and Ministry of Truth "controlling the past to control the future"? Just kidding. I hope.)
It is not totally paranoid; I'll just say I'm glad I'm almost old.