There is actually a debate going on, among writers of all people, as to whether it’s useful to re-write history’s greatest works in order to protect the ‘sensibilities’ of readers.
Those who come down on the side of ‘sensibility editors’ seem to feel it’s damaging to the tenderness of the reader psyche for Twain to call a character in Huckleberry Finn “nigger Jim’ or Charles Dickens to identify Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol as ‘crippled.’
Apparently lost in the argument is the fact that Twain and Dickens were fighting prejudice a hundred years ahead of every other writer and these characters were meant to arouse the sensibilities of the insensitive.
To adjust great writing to defeat the very purpose of its text is blasphemy
The entire thrust of the argument comes from publishers eager to extend their sales in a time when the sensibility of every white American is running for cover from their racist history. It cannot stand. It will not stand in the banning of books in the schools, supposed ‘sensitivity training’ in the publishing business or the opinion of Americans who understand that acknowledging the defects of their national history is a primary element in the strength of republican democracy. We are strong, not timid, and up to the challenges others would take from us.
Other than that, I have no personal opinion…
