Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for January 14, 2011

Love this! And the book club questions.

Hear Hear Mr. Bolling. Great job pointing out that if such ideas gain traction where will it end.

Yes, question 4 was a stroke of genius.

Considering that SC was notoriously anti-slavery, he used the N-word references to Jim to illuminate the man’s decency and longing for his family, and to strengthen Huck’s emotional choice when he helps Jim escape.

It’s funny, I just read the unabridged version of Huckleberry Finn a few weeks before this subject came up (really.)

Looks like I’m going to have to re-read it. I missed the part with Muhammad!

This TTDB is pure genius. Chikuku, no, it’s not hypocritical (I refer to your 1st comment). As the comic points out, sensibilities change over time. We would not use the Iliad as the basis for a modern code of conduct, and we do not use the same language as Clemens did in the 19th century.

Interesting that a word still carries such power! What would it be in Esperanto?

Reality check Chikudoo!

It’s the libs who wanna censor books! Dude! Get a grip!

Uh-oh! There’s gonna be a fatwa on Dante! Oh, wait… too late!

Who had the latest book burning? Try the ‘religious’ Right!

I’m a bit too melanin-deficient to use the ‘N-bomb’ even with a close black friend. If he were a rapper instead of a bassist, he might feel comfortable using it. He’s sure received plenty!

Nice try, hugh. I’m a lib, and completely against this censorship. Now, think about who it is that constantly wants to burn books…

It’s interesting that the silly censors have the slave state whites use the word ‘slave’ when referring to one of them. Actually, in the old South, that word was rarely used when talking about a person. It might be used when talking about the institution, or perhaps in a law court. But when talking about a slave, rude folk would use the N-word; polite people would use ‘servant’.

@Chikuku there is a difference, but the audacity of the publishers to think that they should be allowed to change the author’s words to spare someone’s feelings is ludicrous.

What’s next? Changing the River Boats to hovercrafts?

It’s a “gateway edit” and gives publishers to think they have the right to make changes to an author’s work without his permission.

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