Dodgeball posted:

We had a guy come in to the bookstore about 2 weeks ago, bitching about how "they were changing Huck Finn" and how he "better get a copy now before it all gets changed." (Note: Only one printing company is changing it. There's still like 9 other sources for that book. It was blown out of the proportion.)

Now, I'm against censorship, but cannot in good faith defend the N-word, at least when it's not being used to establish a racist character (I'm fine with a character using it because it establishes to the audience that the character is racist [unless the character using it is black, of course]). I get that. But in Huck Finn, the narrator uses it as a general adjective; he isn't using it to be hurtful, or establish a character flaw. I understand that's how folks talked back then, but if it's not adding anything to the characters I can understand why folks would want to change it.

Back to the bookstore, this guy goes on and on about how "that's how we used to talk back then and it's history and blah blah blah." We also used to spell words, that today have two consecutive letter S's in it, with an F instead of the first S. I don't see anyone bitching about that. One of my co-workers mentions that we have a copy of Brer Rabbit and the Tar-baby and the guy's eyes light up as they head to the collectibles room. All I could think was "Wow, this guy really loves racist literature. Do we have any signed versions of Mien Kampf?"