The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is included on The Top 100 Books of All Time list https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/08/books.booksnews but the question is...for how long - 10 out of 10

 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is included on The Top 100 Books of All Time list https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/08/books.booksnews but the question is...for how long

10 out of 10

 

 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has long been considered a Magnum opus, a classic that children read with gusto and as mentioned above, it is (still) included on the magical list of Best 100 books of all time, but the question may be when, and not if it will be removed from the curriculum (perhaps it has already happened…in one of the dialogues I have listened to recently, between the two Magi of our elite, Andrei Plesu and Gabriel Liiceanu, the former mentions something that had happened in one of the American universities – they are in the middle of the Cancel phenomenon and the Culture Wars may eventually move on to real gun battles, for there are republicans who ask when they can use their (myriad of weapons) against their enemies, aka those who refute the stupid Big Steal conspiracy theory

 

One place of learning (maybe more, in the Woke regions evidently, though cities tend to have the universities and in bigger towns, the democrats are in the ascendant, while rural places would be reserved for the Chosen One, the Very Stable Genius that has been deprived of his glory by Italian satellites, bamboo papers, Hugo Chavez…you name it and it could have a connection with the cabal of baby eaters that have stolen the trophy from the poor Orange Big Brain) has decided to remove the portrait (or was it the bust, maybe the statue) of William Shakespeare (the greatest writer in the world, unless we buy into yet another conspiracy theory, which would have someone else write the Magnum opera, including Queen Elizabeth I herself, in the moments of turpitude, between looking into fighting the Spanish Armada, launching Britain on a sky-high trajectory, becoming the greatest power in the world for some centuries).

That representation has been replaced with the figure of an African American poet or writer (the source of this information was not sure, or anyway he was vague about it) who is a lesbian, and though the reference was quite ironic, maybe even more, looking with contempt at a (rather silly) move that was design to replace the greatest author mankind has ever had (presumably, if it was not a masonic plot, if it is not a concoction prepared by the lizard people, the list is long for those determined to falsify history, make up ghoulish cakes of manure) because he is not ‘diverse’ enough and not ‘representative’.

 

The issues with The Adventures of Huckleberry are not related with the fact that Mark Twain was a white male and hence he needs to leave the stage for others, more diverse classics (which could happen on this cause alone, sometime in the future, near present or maybe it has already taken place somewhere) the problems would be connected with race relations, the use of the ‘N’ word in abundance, perhaps we read it more than one hundred times, when Jim is mentioned, the incriminated, insulting word is added…

 

This reader (and clearly so many others) was thinking that children read the book – and they are the main audience, since this is a children’s book, which adults can enjoy, albeit it is grating to hear -you can listen to the audiobook, and there are free of charge versions now, that the copyright has ‘expired’, since there are much more than seventy years since the book was published, and you can even choose between having one single reader, or a dramatic version, where different volunteers speak the different parts https://librivox.org/the-adventures-of-huckleberry-finn-version-5-dramatic-reading-by-mark-twain/

If children read (or listen to) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, they would find the character of Jim more than likeable (though there is the stereotype of the man being described somehow as perhaps surprising in some ways, the allusions being maybe racist, if we use a present day lens and the standards of the age…yes, it is anathema on so many levels, but I am just debating here, I am not clearly in the possession of the truth, and even if I had it, who would listen to it…there is a Chosen One, and they have stolen his rightful place at the top of America and hence the World) they will clearly feel empathy for him -however, there is a distinction here, explained by Milan Kundera in the book that Le monde has placed on its 100 Best Novels list, The Unbearable Lightness of Being http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-9-put.html  and we feel compassion for those we place on the same level with us, while pity implies a separation, we look down on those we pity.

 

Therefore, if they feel pity, that may already send them on the wrong path and since they keep reading (or hearing) the N word, they may see it as harmless…yes, parents and educators will have warned their offspring or pupils, but this is just the point, it could become if not a habit, for adults would be quick to curtail, forbid the use of the racist word (unless of course, they are from red territory and fanatics that adore their White- Orange Super Male, so smart, he has discovered the cure for the pandemic, consume disinfectant) still a notion that they will have used their brain with and subconsciously may even accept it.

This is not a plea to ban Mark Twain, for first of all, who would listen, second, the humor, the Adventures, the joy ride, joie de vivre that we get from this (formerly known as) chef d’oeuvre justify its presence on the most respectable lists of the greatest masterpieces and then (perhaps third reason) we would have to eliminate much of what ancients have produced (some of them were slaves and Epictetus will have to be mentioned http://realini.blogspot.com/2021/04/epicurus-versus-epictetus.html for Stoicism seems to be solution for the future (nay, if we are to have a future) of the planet, given that it has some sensible rules, such as ‘wish for what you already have’ on a globe that is prey to consumerism and wasting the resources of the earth) for there have been many great names, if not most, who have owned slaves or servants…

 

Indeed, if we read Intellectuals by Paul Johnson http://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/intellectuals-by-paul-johnson.html we find that many of the classics have been quite awful in their private life, or anyway, not admirable…Leo Tolstoy, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Ernest Hemingway, Henrik Ibsen…Ivan Turgenev seems to come out more or less as almost perfect, when compared with Tolstoy, at least in what concerns illegitimate children…