Can you edit Mark Twain?

In recent news there is a heated debate about a new version of Twain (Mark Twain that is) coming out next month. Professor Alan Gribben has edited two of Twain's most beloved works to make them less controversial. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" you will now be able to read without the words "nigger" (which has been translated to "slave") or "Injun" (which has been translated to "Indian"). This is so that the books can be more accessible for younger readers and those who would be offended by the language. It seems that this may take these books off of some public school ban lists.

Now, I understand that these words have a TON of history, emotion and controversy behind them. These books were written in a way that is true to the time they were set in. Because society has changed it is supposed to invoke history, emotion and controversy. You can't keep this book pure and the authors true meaning by getting rid of these words. I think that the people who want to censor these books from public schools because they are "offensive", should look at their own child's music library, video games, TV shows and movie collection. I am sure that many of the things you would find in any of these categories of a typical teen are far worse than a few offensive words in a classic literary work.

The argument goes beyond the works being deemed "offensive" by some. If kids can't learn from history, and past mistakes as are clearly shown in these types of books then how are they going to learn. These stories should lead towards academic discussions about how wrong society used to be, and how far we have come socially as a nation. Changing the "N word" for "slave" will not evoke the same emotion and disgust in today's reader and will overall diminish their reading experience of these great works as well as their impression of what America was like during this time period.

All literary works should be left alone, they are pictures of another world that the author has left for us. While these words are not appropriate to use in today's society. If you black out one color in a beautiful picture, the picture is ruined, and will not be the same. Just look at the first picture below.

Then compare it to this second "censored" photo.

The second photo, is clearly less than the beauty captured with the camera. And so it is with books, changing just a few words will destroy its original beauty.