The eNotes Blog History Belongs to theRevisionists A Cleaned-Up Huck Finn IsComing

History Belongs to theRevisionists A Cleaned-Up Huck Finn IsComing The pitifulest  thing out is a mob; thats what an army isa mob; they dont fight with courage thats born in them, but with courage thats borrowed from their mass, and from their officers. But a mob without any MAN at the head of it is BENEATH pitifulness.   ~ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,  Chapter 22 by Mark Twain There are all sorts of mobs, but some are harder to identify. One of the toughest to combat, perhaps, is the  politically correct. Today, Publishers Weekly announced that there will be a new N-Word free edition of Mark Twains classic available so that no one will have to be offended. But is that at all desirable? If we erase the lessons of history, how can we avoid repeating them? Its difficult enough to avoid missteps when we know what they are. Erasing our racist, shameful, past will not alter the fact that it happened. Perhaps some will argue that it is better to have the cleaned-up version rather than no Huck Finn at all. After all, the inclusion of the novel on high school, and even college, reading requirements has been in steady decline for many years and has been on the top of the list of banned books for quite some time as well, along with other uncomfortable works of literature like Ray Bradburys Fahrenheit 451, J. D. Salingers Catcher in the Rye, and Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird. Should all of these classics be sanitized as well?   Whats next?   Frederick Douglass: My Life as a Servant (It Wasnt That Bad) ?