Category: Books

Public Domain Allows the Removal of the N-Word from Huck Finn

It was recently announced that the publisher of Mark Twain’s Huck Finn is reissuing the book with some minor tweaks – it will remove the 200 hundred or so mentions of the n-word and replace it with the word slave. The reasoning behind changing the work lies in the fact that the n-word is so controversial that the book cannot be included in high school reading lists. Removing the word will reinstate the book – and the publisher makes some money on the very notorious tome with its now fixed non-PC language.

The n-word elicits too many questions. Too much conversation. Too much…thinking. Children of age 15, or so, simply can’t comprehend the context in which the hideous word is used. What a crock! Let’s dumb down America’s youth even more. Let them continue to teach themselves how to communicate on multiple social media platforms but fail to teach them how to participate in a conversation that requires critical thinking.  No wonder the U.S. is ranked 30 something in the world in education.

It’s too bad Mark Twain doesn’t have a say in all this. His book is now in the public domain therefore, eligible to be “tweaked”. So does this mean anything in public domain is subject to change? A hateful, but often used, word  can be erased from history? A time in history told by one of America’s most prized citizens can be altered in order to avoid uncomfortable questions? Sheesh. Thank god there are still documents that can be read in its entirety – like The Constitution.

Oops. Bad example.

 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett – Just Isn’t Brave Enough

Kathryn Stockett’s The Help is an entertaining read centering around three characters living in Jackson Mississippi in the early 1960’s. Skeeter is an awkward, lanky, college graduate bordering on spinsterhood at the age of 23, and is white. Abileen and Minny are both black maids, having spent the majority of their lives raising white children while working in white households and trying to stay invisible.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The maids are really the secret keepers to the goings on in their employers’ households. And Stockett does a really good job of painting a poor picture of the white population of Jackson. This is mainly in the character of Miss Hilly – a bigoted young mother, uber supporter of segregation,  and sorority sister of Skeeter. The woman is such a witch that you hear the famous music from the Wizard of Oz in your head whenever she appears in a scene.

It is a very interesting premise – the idea of telling a tale from the point of view of those who see all and hear all and say nothing.  The story reveals itself in first person using the point of view of the three women. The maids speak in thick dated dialect (Law have mercy) and are really the most interesting. But the story depends upon Skeeter saving the day and I can’t help but wonder if it truly serves the story well – a white woman as the shining beacon of righteousness to the two black maids. It’s a sticky situation. Stockett lightly touches on it with one line from another maid, but any conflict the question might cause is trampled by Abileen. The story starts off being brave, but I think just isn’t brave enough.

Stockett builds her world with lovely narration and beautiful alliteration. It’s a bit jarring however, when more than halfway through the book to have the point of view change to third person in order to propel the story forward. This is an issue a lot of writers face creating works with the first person point of view (Stephanie Meyer and the Twilight books changing all of a sudden to somebody else’s point of view comes to mind). It lasts for one brief section, but it is enough to remove me from the story all together – and I’m not sure if I ever truly get back.

Since the novel has been optioned to film, it will be interested to see how the story is adapted. When dealing with characters that express such internal conflict and from such a personal place – coming from their own voice –  it is extremely difficult to translate that intimate knowledge to a visual medium.

Time will tell.

Lisa Bloom – Fanning the Tabloid Fire

Women who want to learn to think for themselves should not read a book on the subject by Lisa Bloom Attorney at Law.

According to Publishers Weekly:

Agent Laura Dail sold North American rights to a book by Lisa Bloom called Think! A Modern Girl’s Manifesto for Staying Smart in a Dumbed Down World. Bloom is an attorney and legal analyst for both CBS News and CNN, and frequents the TV circuit—she’s appeared on everything from The Early Show to Anderson Cooper 360 and is also a recurring fixture on The Dr. Phil Show. In the book, which Roger Cooper and Georgina Levitt at Vanguard acquired, Bloom, a Yale Law graduate, cautions women against paying too much attention to tabloid media. As Dail explains, she tells them to “toss out dusty old myths and dangerous distractions, and start thinking for themselves again.” Vanguard is planning a spring 2011 publication.

The whole announcement seems really hypocritical to me. Lisa Bloom writing a book on how women should avoid tabloid media? Really? I guess I wouldn’t have a hard time with this if every time I turned on the TV I didn’t see Lisa Bloom’s expertly made-up mug pontificating her opinion on almost absolutely everything and everyone. WTF? She’s part of the tabloid feeding frenzy. Every appearance she makes on The Insider, Dr. Phil, CNN Showbiz Tonight adds fuel to tabloid fire. Even the people she chooses to represent (Michael Lohan) are guilty of whoring themselves out for as much fame as they can achieve. And there she is – in the center of it all.

Instead of reading a book by Lisa Bloom, give your time to great literature and truly wonderful female characters that although flawed (who isn’t?) think for themselves. Gone with the Wind. Little Women, O Pioneers! Out of Africa. Eugene Onegin. The list goes on…and on…and on.

Eat Pray Love – I’d Rather Shampoo Rinse Repeat

I won’t be seeing Eat Pray Love. Nope, you can’t make me. Even with all the relentless television and radio ads.  Even though it’s co-written and directed by the highly successful GLEE co-creator Ryan Murphy. Unfortunately, his attempts at feature film are well…meh. His last turn in movies was the adaptation of Augusten Burrough’s Running with Scissors – apparently Mr. Murphy has an affinity for memoirs.  But other than some golden moments between Annette Bening and Alec Baldwin – the two should really make another movie together – Running with Scissors failed in weaving a believable story about a young man trying to find his way without a map out of the most bizarre world he inhabits. In fact, since the adaptation was released, Mr. Burrough’s has admitted to “embellishing” his memoir – a problem with the genre since the exposure of all the lies included in the work of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces.

Now, I’m not saying that Elizabeth Gilbert lied in her highly successful memoir. As a writer she’s enormously talented. Her ability to form an effective narrative is extraordinary. And they don’t award the Pushcart to slackers. I believe her when she tells of lying in her bathroom and crying about her marriage, her life, blah, blah, blah.  But there are basically two camps when it comes to Gilbert’s work – those who believe it is a masterpiece in self-reflection, and those who think it is an indulgent, whiny tirade with little self discovery and too much observation.  I fall in the latter camp.

Here’s the thing – everybody whines. It should be a title of a REM song. And I’ll admit I’m pretty biased. You see, even though I didn’t go on my own global journey, I had a good trip to the hospital emergency room where I lay dying of a pulmonary embolism.  That was enough to put my whining in check. Now instead of spending time on my couch, pondering all the things wrong in my life, I think, “Why didn’t I die? Why am I here? Why am I alive?” I know…that’s deep…and those questions, believe me, are much easier to deal with while hooked up to a Morphine pump. But once the pump is gone…well, let’s just say one is left dazed and confused. It’s still not enough to make me pack up and go on some trip around the world to miraculously discover the answers to all my questions…to help in writing my story. Or see a movie about someone who tells her tale of how every question was answered with a magical adventure.

No, there will be no Eat Pray Love for me. Instead, I’ll Shampoo Rinse Repeat. That’s right. I’m taking a shower. I’m going to wash clean and start again.  That may sound really simple – bordering on Scarlett O’Hara’s, “Tomorrow is another day!” And so far I’m no closer to any answers in my story. In fact, I still have moments on the couch questioning – everything.  But the shower is always there and maybe someday I’ll get an answer. Or…maybe not…hopefully though, I will. Fingers crossed!

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – On Board the Millenium Train

Funny things happen when the electricity goes out. A quiet takes over. Things that make a natural noise are louder. There’s no TV. No lights. The air seems so still that at first it’s a shock to figure out something to do. But after digging in a drawer to find my flashlight, I settled in the corner of my couch and cracked open Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I heard a lot about this book – from the untimely death of its author to the buzz now in Hollywood about the American film version (Daniel Craig has just been announced to play the male protagonist Mikael Blomkvist). But all the news didn’t do much to put this book on the top of my list. In fact, I waited a long time to finally dive into it. Honestly, I can blame the power outage for my motivation.

The book is interesting for sure. For the two people who read this blog that might not know already, it takes place in Sweden and there is a definite rhythm to the language. Larsson doesn’t spend a lot of time in descriptive narrative. The exposition is not obvious, which is difficult to achieve, but there is a large amount of info to keep straight, making it a bit cerebral. Also, there is very little characterization. It’s extremely hard to determine who to care for or if you should even bother.

This is not a happy book. It’s dark. Gloomy. There are some ugly twists and turns in the plot and the pacing. Reading it in the dark probably didn’t help.  But I’ve added the Swedish film version to my Netflix queue and am anxious to see the adaptation.