Hot off the Press!

Outrage and The Era of Mark Twain

Briefly this morning I tweeted about a certain Alan Gribben.
Alan Gribben is a Mark Twain scholar. He is determined to change Mark Twain's most famous works "the Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" to what he believes is correct for today's society. He will erase all racial slurs from both of those classics. He will replace all debatable words with "slave" I see a problem with that.
Not because I approve of said slurs. Quite the opposite. But what Mr. Gribben is doing, is rewriting history. Let me show you an example of what I mean:

A man buys a lot of property in- let's say Sacramento. On a piece of his property he has a mineshaft hole that drops straight down. It's quite an ugly looking feature to the otherwise beautiful property. He looks at the cost of filling it in and agrees that it would be easier to cover it with a tarp. So he buys the tarp, puts it over the mineshaft and covers the bright blue tarp with the leaves and dirt so it blends in with the scenery. But one day someone approaches the mineshaft without knowing it's there. He walks to it and falls to his gruesom death. The property owner is heavily fined and imprisoned for human endangerment and involuntary manslaughter.

Wouldn't it have been easier for the man to put a fence around it? That way, people would know it's there and be forewarned that where there are mines there is danger.

In a way Mr. Gribben is covering his mineshaft with the tarp. He aims to cover the eyesore, look out into the horizon and forget it was ever there. He could easily just set up a warning fence.

To pretend the words were never there would be wrong. Mark Twain did not intend for his works to be played with like a toy. He intended for his works to stand as an example of the era in which he grew up.

Now, there is another problem with replacing every racial term with slave. There were 'free men of color' in Mississippi before Mississippi was even a state. Their slave masters could free them or they could buy their freedom. It would be awful to know that your great-something-or-other grandfather was free but addressed as 'slave.' Not only is Mr. Gribben replacing words, he is changing context. Not every black person was a slave. Why is he trying to make it that way?

Did you know? That one year after its publication, in the year 1876, society wanted it banned because it was too racially tolerant? It was not banned. So why should we be banned now for being too racially discriminative? Society changes daily, it is carried by the wind and sometimes by the most superficial people. What is acceptable today would not have been accepted in the 1800s. And what was acceptable in the 1800s is not acceptable today. How would you feel if in the year 2200 people never said 9/11 happened? Today we tell ourselves there is no way that could happen, it was such a big event and it affected too many lives. We say that there is no way they could cover up something that big, but guess what? There wasn't a person alive then that was unaffected by the black people of the 1800s. Look what society is trying to do: cover it up. Is it an attempt to make more sales? Is it an attempt to paint a picture of  a perfect society? Why do that when nothing is perfect?


What's next mr. Gribben? Are you going to make Edgar Allen Poe's poetry positive?

ReviewerRachel  OUT.

A Helping Hand

Well,

        Christmas proved to be a fantastic time. And now I don't have to worry about carpal tunnel troubles! For Christmas, I got a wonderful gift: the Dragon. It is a recognition software that allows me to speak to my computer and it types for me! In fact I'm using it to type this right now! As much as I hate salesmen, I have to admit it lives up to all those infomercials. Hopefully, the website work will run much smoother and faster.


I hope to have told you more than just this little thing. But I simply run out of things to say. Nevertheless work will continue on the website on Wednesday.

See you then,
ReviewerRachel

CHRISTMAS FUN!!

Hi!
I know it's been awhile. but, on the bright side, I have just finished my Christmas Recommendation List. It recommends books for the reluctant readers, the history buffs, the sci-fi fans, the fantasy fanatics, the romantic hearts, and the happily ever after people. On the bad side, I really should not have used my hand to type 1,000 words. one word description- OUCH! haha, but, at least people will have great gift ideas, am I right?
So, go check it out! I would have loved to include things like the spy fans and the super power people or the animal lovers. However, I didn't think I had read enough of those categories to really make recommendations of 'the best'

Celebrate

Wow, I just got the ‘Catching Fire’ review up. I can’t believe it waited for 8 days. In my book, that was WAY too long to wait. Unfortunately my wrist isn’t totally better. I’m still not allowed to use it that much. On the bright side, I got tons of reading done! Here is what I read over my ‘break’

Unwind

The Warrior Heir

Beastly

Quantum Prophecy

The Wizard Heir

The Dragon Heir

The Body Finder

I am working on reading “Maze Runner” and “Eric the First”

I have a neat surprise for Friday. The author of ‘Eric the First’ asked if I would review his book, I said yes. Of course, the book was written with the target audience of young teenage boys, so I after I read ‘The Body Finder’ I thought of maybe doing a special for the American Thanksgiving Holiday. I will do two reviews on Friday; one review just for the guys and one review just for the girls. I think it will work out ok, but when the living room got painted, everything got rearranged and I can’t find ‘Eric the First’ for the life of me. Nevertheless it is my goal to do that special for the holiday. Ironically, ‘The Body Finder’ is the chick flick in writing. Another example of don’t judge a book by its cover....or rather..its title.

Happy Reading,

ReviewerRachel

RebelReader

Wow! Have I got a blog post for you!

What better for a teen reviewer than a publisher that allows teens all over the world to read books before they are published? I thought ‘nothing!’ They put two books every month on the website, and allow everyone to read them. As I searched the site more and more, I found out that there hadn’t been any books that weren’t romance novels. By ‘romance’ I don’t mean things like ‘beauty and the beast.’ I’m talking about full out uncomfortable inappropriateness. I decided to post a message on the message board and see what teens said. Well, I got what I wanted – feedback. Not in the way I was thinking though. The answers I got were……..

Colorful.

Yes, I, the teen reviewer got an earful (or rather….eyeful) of four-lettered vocabulary. But, I wasn’t mad; I was sad. The basis of teen morals seemed to deteriorate before my very eyes. I got almost 20 responses, all but 1 was negative. The analyzer inside of me waved its red flags. Why? Because I had conflicting data. Sure, I had 20 people get ticked off at me in cyberspace. But guess what? My website has had almost 4,000 views.

So, on one hand I had twenty teens who believed that that kind of romance is the pure existence of ‘teen.’ They think I’m a load of……garbage. In one word they thought me

Ignorant,Wrong.

On the other hand, I have a college, several internationally famous authors, and 4,000 views that scream at me –

Right On.

They think they drilled the ‘shut up’ into the teen.

Instead, they drove it out, cranked up the sound and turned this teen into a rebel.

(Encarta Dictionary)

Rebel- noun,

  1.Someone who rejects the common codes and conventions of society.

  2. To protest by defying a form of authority.

The Authority – Those select teens who serve and bow to earthly things.

The Crime - Standing, Speaking, Fighting.

The Defendant’s Plea –    Guilty.

Dare to Read

Dare to Rebel,

ReviewerRachel