Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for January 14, 2011
January 07, 2011
January 21, 2011
Transcript:
Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling Classix Comix Presents: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Corrected to reflect modern sensibilities! Missouri, 1840 Huckleberry: Hello, Pap. How was the A.A. meeting? Father: Great. But my disease of alcoholism, caused by genetic and environmental factors, will be a daily struggle. Huckleberry: Pap, you know I prefer the term "alcohol dependency"! I'm offended, and I'm leaving! Huckleberry: Why, it's African-American Jim! Jim: Oh, hello, Huck. I was just doing some praying. Huckleberry: What are you doing, Jim? Jim: Well, as you know, I'm a Federalist, and many Southern states favor a states' rights approach. So I'm fleeing to the North. Huckleberry: Sounds reasonable. In fact, I'll help you. It's a good thing we found these life preservers and helmets. Rafting is a dangerous activity. Huckleberry: Well, if it isn't Joe "Who Happens To Be Native American, But Has Many Other Attributes"! I thought you died in the previous book, Tom Sawyer! Joe: No, didn't you read the Classix Comix TM "Corrected to Reflect Modern Sensibilities" version? I simply decided to go to college for a degree in Hotel Management! Huckleberry: Hey, let's just team up and fight injustice and offensive word-use across this great land! Jim: Boosh! Joe: Sweet! The End. STUDY QUESTIONS 1. What did the Mississippi River represent to Mark Twain? What about the life preserver and helmet? 2. If Huck were a millionaire gangsta rap star, how would he refer to Jim? 3. Do you think this version should have left the image of Muhammad in? 4. Why do you think there were no kikes, wops or beaners in the novel?
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Bolling joins many, including the hero Leslie Fiedler, following Albert Bigelow Paine (1912 ) into the delusion that “Jim” has an EPITHET, that he’s like “Pious Aeneas” or “Ingenious Odysseus” or “My Cid” (“African American Jim”). The character Jim has no epithet; important to note, survives a century of delusion because, as you will see if you look at Chapter 2, he’s set apart as the big-souled artist, who, like “Sam” [eponym for the blackman, like “George,” I hear, for Pullman Car Porter] Clemens in real life, commands a paying audience with the product of his imagination. Regarding “ridden by witches,” see Richard Dorson, Negro Folk Tales, nineteen fifty something. I met a guy like Huck this morning, young, needing to say whatever the situation demands; I may misunderestimate him. Stuart