You took the word "nigger" outta my book, "Huckl Finn"?!?

It's the first (and probably the only time) I'll use that word in a blog post headline. But it's at the heart of a controversial move by NewSouth Books, a publisher in Alabama, to offer younger people and general readers a sanitized version of Mark Twain's classic ("classic" doesn't seem to have enough oompf!), "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".

A professor of English at Auburn approached NewSouth with the idea after years of hesitating before reading aloud the racial slur. The NewSouth edition also substitutes the word "indian" for "injun".

As you might imagine, the shit has hit the fan - and that includes opinions from black writers.

Never fear - the original version will always be available. Regardless, it's censorship, plain and simple and a reaction to political correctness gone wacko. Twain's writing and use of language reflect society's racial viewpoints at that time - and that fact can not and should not be altered by a publisher's red pencil. Should we buy up every copy of Edward Sheldon's play, "The Nigger" , because we don't like the title of his play? Where does it end? Modify historical literature? Poetry? When will someone suggest Dickens or Tolkien or the Bible be sanitized because someone is uncomfortable reciting a particular word or phrase or talking about certainn subject matter? Why don't we edit out all the book burning references in "Fahrenheit 451" because we all know book burning isn't cool.

If I get my hands on a copy of NewSouth's edition of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", come to Casa Ircink in the B Section of Greendale if you wanna see a book burning. Bring your own marshmellows.