The Nose: The Pitfalls Of Earnestness & Censorship

rap/hip hop show

Is the January 10th show on rap and hip hop available for download? I hope so! My kids would love to hear it!
Tom

E-mail from Kevin

Unfortunately, I only caught the second half of your 1 PM show, but I was able to catch up at 8. I just wanted to point out that Mark Twain himself has something to say on this subject; he said that "The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." Twain would probably disapprove of his own work being manipulated in this way when he went through all the trouble of picking the words to say what he wanted to say, and convey his message how he wanted it conveyed.

E-mail from John

Dear Colin and Chion:

I called in today during the segment regarding censorship of Mark Twain’s work.

I wanted to share a link to the transcript of the NPR story I referred to, which was about a revival recording of the music/lyric from the original Kern/Hammerstein production of “Show Boat”:

http://m.npr.org/news/front/100862186?singlePage=true

The story begins immediately in the original interview, under “(Soundbite of interview)”.

I regret that I was not able to convey my point on the air regarding historical context as effectively as I wished to, but I believe it is an important point:

If we sugar-coat and censor our historical literature or other works of art by changing the language and colloquialisms so as not to offend someone’s ear in the present, then we not only dilute the work of art itself, but also lose sense of the connection between our history, our present, and our future.

We must admit that no matter how unpalatable we believe a word to be to a person today – in this case, the word “nigger” – the word was by far more unpalatable in that day in which the historical work of art cited the word for effect. This is by virtue of the fact that the historical work of art used the word at the time of its commonplace derogatory use. Despite this all, the artist found cause to use that word for a particular effect. We must honor its use as an integral part of the work of art.

Honoring the use of a racial epithet in a historical work of art is especially important if there still are injustices in the present world that take place in connection with the word or the sentiment behind it. The artist’s intention to convey a message by the use of that word may still, in this day, serve to send a message to those who require it to soften their hearts -- to reconsider their beliefs, feelings, and conditionings. Make no mistake: the use of the word in this context is still relevant. The artist’s aim in using the word is still important TODAY.

Furthermore, avoiding use of the word entirely may lead to future generations forgetting their past –forgetting how ignorance caused one people to treat another wrongly, and caused good people to suffer horribly. If it is striking to read or hear “nigger” in this context, then let it be! Let it serve to reinforce our resolve to never treat another human being in such a way!

Censorship is a vehicle for ignorance. If we censor the past, then we forget where we have come from, and who we are. Future generations will not remember the lessons of the past properly. In the words of philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

Thank you both for the work that you do, and for the thought that you provoke in your efforts.

E-mail from Stephen

Dear Colin: Having a pre-emptive snow day from my job in a middle school, I had a chance to hear your show. I think a point was missed. A couple of months ago, I was in a history class and we were watching an episode of Burns' Civil War, in which the narrator read a message from a Union commander back to Washington in reference to "our N******** problem," caused by the need to care for slaves who were crossing over the line after the Emancipation Proclamation. There were three adults in the room, and we all tensed. I anticipated a riot of outrage. In fact, middle-schoolers will use any excuse to emote loudly on perceived wrongs, and we had just handed them one on a platter.
Dead silence. No reaction. In fact, many of them use n****** in conversation dozens of times a day, frequently as a pleasant greeting or as a narrative pronoun substituting for "he" or "that guy." Sometimes, it is used in anger or perjoratively, but I'm not sure the historical reality plays at that point. Do you think of gypsies when you say you got gypped? I often think of Richard Pryor and his pointed use of it. Were black people using it that much among themselves in his day? Be interesting to know. His effort to annihilate and silence it, which is a point I think he made, has made it ubiquitous and pointless. I would hate to blame him for this; it's hard for older people to be around, I can tell you. If you got kids to read HF these days, you might have to coach them to feel the pain conveyed in n******. Perhaps they could eventually grasp the reality of the word they use so lightly and reflexively.
As for the rest of your show, I thought the panel got a little confused about cyncism and innocence. Indeed, this too is, to my mind, a bit behind the curve. Our problem now is our penchant to be entertained by the woes of others, to feel superior to "losers." This, of course, is nothing you need to teach to kids of a certain age, though if you do teach it on TV or in music, they get really good at it, with distressing results. School seems more raw and nasty than when we were kids, when Beaver and Wally seemed to be ourselves on TV(by the way, Eddie Haskell was a hypocrite, not a cynic). Have you done a show on schadenfreude, because that's what we've got too much of now? Plus, it's fun to say and will sound good on the radio.
Keep up the good work. I still miss Bruce, Sports a Trois, crazy callers who hate you, and, weirdly, commercials.

E-mail from Chris

The fact that she pushes and believes in "The Secret" eliminates her credibility for me. Cynicism and realism is better than that ridiculous type of magical thinking and I would say even healthy compared to telling people that their wishes will come true is they just really really want it. And telling people that bad things happen because of bad thoughts is just awful. No thanks

E-mail from John / "Actually ..."

... They read the Constitution as it has been amended; they did not read, as your caller said, just what they were "comfortable" with. Since the 3/5 clause has been overridden, it was not read. Neither was the 18th Amendment, for that matter, which established prohibition of alcohol.

E-mail from Zachary

Thought you might be interested in this take on Huck Finn from the Daily What: http://thedailywh.at/post/2638093619/literary-revisionism-of-the-day-in-light-of-the

E-mail from Paul

Why not replace each instance with “the N word” or “N*****” . At least then the intent isn’t lost and the reader can choose to think it or speak it or not.